T. Rowe Price’s Retirement Planning Analyzer

In 1996, I worked on three software packages for mutual fund titan T. Rowe Price of Baltimore. Together with a team of graphic designers, writers, and programmers, we developed three projects—Retirement Planning Analyzer, decisions (401k), and a third for tracking IRAs—all for different audiences. The T. Rowe Price Retirement Planning Analyzer helped users navigate the complexities of retirement savings

This project’s greatest challenge was to make the complex concepts related to long-term savings easily understood without condescending, and make the navigation intuitive to people who have not previously or rarely used a computer. The Retirement Planning Analyzer software was designed to input basic information and see the predicted results. Should the user wishes to capture the details of their life—projected earnings from annual yard-sales, for example—the software would also retain that information and incorporate those figures to form a financial forecast.

Once they selected a final rate-of-return, the user is presented with an appropriate investment mix and can select their investments from the available funds. When finished, users can print a report for reference and call a T. Rowe Price representative to invest in these funds officially.

Again, the projects I worked on for T. Rowe Price helped me understand the profound impact my profession—design, writing, programming—could have on the public.

Firm of Record: Two Twelve Associates Design: David Peters (principal in charge and project manager), Diana Zantopp (interface design), John deWolf (technical specifications and design coordination, art direction), Ellen Conant (print design and product packaging) Consultants Debby Kaufman (content architect and writer), Bob Siegel (visual basic programmer), John Troust and Associates (user testing) Matt Lohry (illustration)
Client: T. Rowe Price. Timeframe: 1996-97