• Talcott Financial

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  • Talcott Financial

  • /

  • Talcott Financial

  • /

How do you redesign a company's digital presence when the company itself is still evolving?

How do you redesign a company's digital presence when the company itself is still evolving?

Consolidating three disparate sites into one experience that's built to launch a new retail offering without disrupting the institutional clients and legacy customers already relying on the old one.

Consolidating three disparate sites into one experience that's built to launch a new retail offering without disrupting the institutional clients and legacy customers already relying on the old one.

Consolidating three disparate sites into one experience that's built to launch a new retail offering without disrupting the institutional clients and legacy customers already relying on the old one.

Domain

Financial Services

My Role

Design Lead

Timeline

2024 - 2025

Context

Talcott Financial, spun off from The Hartford in 2018, is a life insurance and annuity company preparing to launch its first retail offering. I led the design of its unified web presence from strategy through QA, consolidating three fragmented sites into one experience.

Challenge

One company. Three websites. Multiple audiences.

Talcott's digital presence reflected its organizational history rather than the experience customers expected. The redesign needed to unify the brand without disrupting the people who already depended on it.

Three sites. Each business line operated its own website, creating inconsistent branding, navigation, and information architecture.

A brand in transition. The upcoming retail launch required introducing a more approachable consumer experience while preserving credibility with institutional audiences.

Legacy customers couldn't be left behind. Thousands of existing policyholders still relied on a separate portal, making continuity just as important as modernization.

research and strategy

Aligning the business before designing the interface

Before exploring visual concepts, I worked with stakeholders to understand where the brand was currently and where leadership wanted it to go.

The current experience reflected the organizational silos

A content and UX audit revealed three separate sites with little visual or structural consistency.

Multiple audiences shared one future

Representation must feel authentic.

Workshops helped define how retail, institutional, and legacy customers could coexist within a single digital experience rather than competing for attention.

Internal perceptions of the brand varied

A stakeholder questionnaire uncovered differing opinions about Talcott's personality and priorities, highlighting the need for alignment before visual design began.

Brand attributes became design principles

Together with the brand strategist, I distilled workshop outcomes into four brand pillars that guided every visual decision moving forward.

Exploration

Translating brand into a visual language

Translating brand into a visual language

I explored four visual directions, each emphasizing different aspects of Talcott's emerging brand.

Open

Open

Dynamic

Dynamic

Sophisticated

Sophisticated

Inviting

Inviting

Final Direction

Why we chose “Part of the Picture”

Why this was the right choice

Why we chose “Part of the Picture”

Balanced confidence with warmth. Financial services often lean heavily on authority. We intentionally introduced softer forms and colors and approachable photography without sacrificing credibility.

Built from existing brand. Curved motifs drawn from the logo created continuity between the old and new brand.

Flexible enough to grow. The system could support institutional content today while accommodating future consumer experiences.

Ultimately, Part of the Picture created the strongest connection between the mission, the audience, and the brand.

It made inclusion visible. Rather than talking about representation, the design system physically centered people throughout the experience.

It strengthened the existing brand. The visual language evolved directly from the PAN Foundation’s new logo, making the microsite feel like a natural extension of the organization instead of a disconnected campaign.

It scaled beyond a single website. The framing device became a reusable design pattern across components, layouts, and future initiatives. This was one reason why the system was later adopted for PAN Foundation’s broader website redesign.

Designing key experiences

Helping two audiences feel equally welcome

Helping two audiences feel equally welcome

The homepage introduced Talcott's new retail offering without making institutional clients feel secondary. Rather than prioritizing one audience, the layout positioned both as complementary parts of the same company.

The homepage introduced Talcott's new retail offering without making institutional clients feel secondary. Rather than prioritizing one audience, the layout positioned both as complementary parts of the same company.

Supporting legacy customers through change

Customers arriving through old bookmarks were met with a dedicated transition experience that confirmed they were in the right place and directed them to either the new site or the legacy portal.

Increasing visibility for a key business tool

As Talcott prepared to launch its first retail annuity offering, stakeholders were concerned that the new income calculator wouldn't receive enough visibility. I designed persistent entry points that promoted the tool where prospective customers naturally explored retirement products.

  1. Originally it appeared only in the top navigation, under Retirement solutions.

  2. I added a CTA that appears across retail-focused pages to keep the calculator discoverable throughout the journey.

  3. Also added a dedicated link beside Login for quick access by financial professionals and returning users.

Final homepage design

Impact

  1. Enabled independent content management through a comprehensive component and authoring guide.

  2. Delivered a fully responsive Salesforce experience despite major mid-project scope changes.

  1. Enabled independent content management through a comprehensive component and authoring guide.

  1. Delivered a fully responsive Salesforce experience despite major mid-project scope changes.

  1. Established a new digital platform supporting PAN Foundation's clinical trial education initiative.

  1. Established a new digital platform supporting PAN Foundation's clinical trial education initiative.

  1. Created a reusable design system later adopted during the redesign of PAN Foundation's primary website.

Learnings

Good design earns trust before it asks for action.

Healthcare experiences succeed when credibility is communicated visually as well as verbally.

Design systems are most valuable when under pressure.

A modular system allowed the project to absorb changing requirements without sacrificing consistency.

Contraints often clarify priorities.

The compressed timeline forced the team to focus on patterns that delivered the greatest impact.

Accessibility and representation reinforce eachother.

Helping people recognize themselves in an experience can be just as important as helping them navigate it.