# Online Retirement

Canonical page: https://www.gabrielvaldivia.com/work/ora

> Modernizing federal retirement

- Date: 2026
- Client: National Design Studio
- Services: Product Design, Design Systems, Strategy, Web Design, Mobile

## Overview

This project is part of a presidential initiative to modernize the federal government’s digital infrastructure. Before the initiative, federal employees had to navigate complex paper forms to receive their benefits, which could take up to 7 months. The system now helps 2.3 million federal employees get their first paycheck approved in under 7 days, with no paperwork.

*The large majority of this work was led by* [*Marimar Cabrero*](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marimar-cabrero-serna-36825484/) *under the Designer in Residence program at Valdivia Works.*

## Team

- Marimar Cabrero — Design
- Yat Choi — Engineering
- Jordan Samson — Design

## Case study

## Retire Ready

A pre-retirement tool that gives employees agency to prepare documents early, understand their options, and test decisions before anything is official, while giving HR a clear, low-noise way to stay in the loop.

[Visual: A self-service estimate built from real service history and salary data.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-retirement-simulator-ffeb00180c4b.png)

[Visual: Reviewing service history in Retire Ready.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-retire-ready-service-history-38783a110ab2.png)

[Visual: Suggesting a correction without leaving the review flow.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-suggest-correction-12d363948db8.png)

[Visual: A dedicated resource library explains retirement concepts through guides, FAQs, videos, and calculators.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-resources-6d7480da3080.png)

[Visual: Employees can create and compare retirement-age scenarios.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-retirement-scenarios-37fbc9cf1ad6.png)

[Visual: A detailed comparison shows the effect of each scenario.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-retirement-comparison-67d1636b70b1.png)

## ORA

The platform federal employees use to officially retire. It replaces a complex obstacle course of paper forms with a guided application that walks employees through retirement in plain steps.

[Visual: A secure PIN lets employees certify their retirement documents.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-pin-setup-9f71bfc189e8.png)

[Visual: Employees start with the retirement path that fits their situation.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-retirement-type-f92a9d772a18.png)

[Visual: Survivor benefit choices show their effect on the monthly estimate.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-survivor-benefits-6f4990ada731.png)

[Visual: Health insurance elections explain coverage and monthly impact.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-health-insurance-35dbe8bed51e.png)

[Visual: The employee review and HR decision surface share the same underlying case data.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-employee-hr-review-d1460179b06a.png)

[Visual: Suggestion states](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-suggestion-states-ebe285cb92ab.png)

[Visual: ORA guides employees through retirement step by step while keeping a live estimate in view.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-family-details-3d2c0028c035.png)

[Visual: Insurance elections pair plain-language choices with their estimated monthly impact.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-insurance-elections-44ddb689cee5.png)

[Visual: ORA walks employees through retirement in plain steps, on desktop or mobile.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-status-79e0fec1fe9a.png)

ORA has an employee-facing side and an HR-facing side. The same information needed to feel interactive, guided, and never overwhelming for employees, then translate into a fast, scannable workspace for HR without becoming two separate products.

[Visual: HR sees what changed, why it matters, and the action required.](https://pub-0c00865d02c1476494008dbb74525b2a.r2.dev/ora-hr-review-f44ae38eb141.png)

## Attribution

Credits and collaborators are listed as provided on the canonical case study. This page does not claim that Gabriel was the sole creator of the project.