Strong, independent seniors finding savings anywhere, anytime

The Ministry of Social Development is helping seniors stay strong and independent by stretching their dollars further. The SuperGold digital experience lets seniors find relevant savings regardless where they are.

Everyone who gets NZ Superannuation gets a SuperGold Card. The card gives them discounts, deals and free off-peak public transport. It’s a way the country thanks seniors for their contributions.

With sixty-nine percent of older people now online, and just over half owning a smartphone, MSD saw an opportunity to get more savings in front of more seniors by taking SuperGold digital.

The SuperGold digital experience is an integrated platform of mobile and web applications. Unlike the old website, it is accessible regardless of device or disability, and designed with mobile in mind.

The results have far exceeded expectations. To date, the SuperGold digital experience has seen 120,000 app downloads, 400,000 website visits and 2,000,000 page views, as Minister Martin reported in the SuperSeniors newsletter.

The new website and mobile apps were scheduled to be launched by Minister Martin on the International Day of Older Persons.

That gave MSD just 5 months to deliver apps for both Apple and Android devices, a new web application, and the API to integrate the two. More than that, the whole platform would need to stand up to the intense demand and scrutiny of a high-profile launch.

The deadline demanded an Agile approach. For MSD Product Owner Antonios Karantze, this meant an intense focus on prioritising only those features needed to deliver the Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

Every two weeks, the team developed working solutions for the highest priority user needs. Antonios could then test these solutions and make any required improvements. Great support from groups like SeniorNet and SmartNewtown meant he could user test each iteration with actual seniors. To keep feedback as fast as possible, Antonios came into Boost to work alongside the designers and developers wherever possible.

Five short months later, the surge of usage at launch was everything expected. On that first day, 50,000 users hit the website and 20,000 hit the apps, making them New Zealand’s No. 1 on both the App Store and Google Play.

But even as the web application was peaking at 20,000 requests a minute, the average response time stayed under the 1 second target.

Rapid development requires a strong foundation. Starting with a co-design discovery workshop meant all the stakeholders could agree on a clear vision for the project, its goals and the plan for getting there.

Research showed that some seniors weren’t finding all the savings they could because they thought SuperGold was just a city transport card that offered no deals near them. So the aim was to show seniors the range of relevant deals available to them: the right deals in the right place.

To do this, the platform:

• shows nearby deals on a map

• shows nationwide deals

• shows all the different categories of deals

• lets you filter deals by region and district

• lets you search across all the deals.

By making it easier to find relevant deals, MSD was able to highlight more savings to more seniors.

For MSD, the launch was just the end of the beginning. The SuperGold digital experience continues to be enhanced and improved, now with the help of an army of seniors who can give feedback based on their experiences using the apps and website

Improvements include:

• better search

• app notifications when exciting new offers are available

• better performance

• regional spotlights highlighting the pick of offers in specific areas.

At the same time, the admin backend is being enhanced so that it’s easy to get offers up on the site. More offers means more savings, making it easier for our seniors to stay strong and independent.

To date, analytics show that the offers have been viewed over 1,000,000 times across the apps and website.

The initial aim was to have 50,000 mobile app users and 100,000 unique visits to the website.

By August 2020, this had been achieved and more.

“Since the launch there have been over 120,000 SuperGold app downloads, 400,000 SuperGold website users and over 2 million page views,” said Minister Martin in the SuperSeniors newsletter.

That’s more than twice the target downloads and four times the traffic. In contrast, the old website had just 185,000 visits over the entire previous year. And that means many more seniors are able to stretch their dollars further.

The Boost team got a real buzz out of visiting the Beehive to celebrate with Minister Martin. While a successful project is reward enough, the recognition that we were making a difference for seniors was much appreciated.