Published: Apr 21, 2025

multi award-winning hostplus mobile app redevelopment

Hostplus, managing 1.8 million members’ retirement savings, sought to enhance its mobile app for a seamless, secure, and user-friendly experience. NCS Australia modernised the app, transitioning from Xamarin to native platforms, improving performance, security, and accessibility. The redesign enabled secure access to account information, balances, and investments, with automated testing ensuring minimal crash rates. Faster load times and enhanced security drove a 94% year-on-year increase in app usage, a three-fold increase in positive sentiment across reviews and social media, and a 4.5-star rating on the Apple App Store.
 

Enhancing the user experience to deliver better outcomes for members was a primary driver of the project. Hostplus’ young demographic made the need to enhance the user experience particularly acute and drove demand for a more fit-for-purpose digital offering. However, the solution also needed to provide for the requirements of retirees. Compounding the challenge was Hostplus’ reliance on legacy technology, stifling the ability to innovate or deliver at speed.

The project and outcomes needed to represent value for members. Hostplus understood a usual application baseline for success would not be enough. Highly responsive, low crash rates, accessible, and fast would be the foundation and not the pinnacle. They needed a seamless migration from the old app to the new – with Hostplus committed to no members being logged out during the upgrade – while linking design and branding so members would intuitively know how to use it. All of this was no small feat, particularly factoring in the ‘security first’ mindset Hostplus bring to every aspect of their development and release lifecycle.
 

The work focused on incorporating intuitive and accessible design, with flexible architecture in transitioning from an outdated Xamarin mobile framework to using native application platforms. Ensuring high performance and first-class security were embedded, with ongoing improvements in speed possible, was also important.

User experience and application security was at the core of every development and design decision, with the team focused on leveraging technical best practices to ensure a secure, extensible, scalable, high-quality app, with experience design applied to create an engaging user experience focused on education and improving member outcomes. Accessibility was a critical aspect in the design of the app, ensuring that all members can navigate and use the app with ease. The result is an enhanced user experience, which will not only have a positive impact for Australians living with a disability, but all users of the app, with improved design, layout and flow. Finally, cross-channel consistency enhances the app, ensuring the strong Hostplus brand is presented across both digital and non-digital channels, which is key to building trust, maintaining brand integrity and ensuring member confidence in every interaction.

Delivery was achieved within six months and on budget, creating a strong foundation for the addition of expanded features in the future.
 

The redesigned app offers secure access to account information, balances and investment options with ease, and meets the diverse needs of its members. An intuitive interface, with a focus on education, allows for easy account management for members at any life stage. The app’s inclusive design has been a key factor in its success, ensuring it resonates with a wide demographic. Automated testing resulted in a 0.02% crash rate on iOS and a 0.07% crash rate on Android. Seamless integration, faster loading times and enhanced security have delivered 94% growth in app access year-on-year, more than three times greater sentiment – based on reviews and mentions on social – and a 4.5 Apple star rating. Hostplus has also seen engagement rise, with the median number of logins per member increasing by 30% when comparing the three months pre-and post-launch.

A strong working relationship between the teams has been vital to its success, with the app recognised as a Gold winner in the 2025 World Design Awards, 2025 Australian Design Awards and 2024 Melbourne Design Awards in the Digital – Finance category.