PenSam
PenSam is a Danish pension and insurance provider for people working in Denmark's public and welfare sector. Members use it to manage pension, health insurance and everyday finances in one place.
2025
Role & scope
UI designer at Charlie Tango, with UX involvement in information architecture, page structure and content prioritisation. Accessibility audit, UX/UI design, design system, and page build.
PenSam
PenSam is a Danish pension and insurance provider for people working in Denmark's public and welfare sector. Members use it to manage pension, health insurance and everyday finances in one place.
2025
Role & scope
UI designer at Charlie Tango, with UX involvement in information architecture, page structure and content prioritisation. Accessibility audit, UX/UI design, design system, and page build.
UI designer at Charlie Tango, with UX involvement in information architecture, page structure and content prioritisation. Accessibility audit, UX/UI design, design system, and page build.
PenSam
PenSam is a Danish pension and insurance provider for people working in Denmark's public and welfare sector. Members use it to manage pension, health insurance and everyday finances in one place.
2025
Role & scope
UI designer at Charlie Tango, with UX involvement in information architecture, page structure and content prioritisation. Accessibility audit, UX/UI design, design system, and page build.
The project
PenSam needed their site to meet WCAG accessibility standards, but the audit that followed turned into more than a compliance check. The brand's primary green failed contrast requirements almost everywhere it appeared, in navigation, buttons, cards and links, and the site itself had grown into far too many pages with no clear structure guiding people through it. What started as an accessibility review became a chance to rework the identity and the structure it lived in
The project
PenSam needed their site to meet WCAG accessibility standards, but the audit that followed turned into more than a compliance check. The brand's primary green failed contrast requirements almost everywhere it appeared, in navigation, buttons, cards and links, and the site itself had grown into far too many pages with no clear structure guiding people through it. What started as an accessibility review became a chance to rework the identity and the structure it lived in
When the brand colour couldn't pass a contrast check
I went through every component, navigation, footer, cards, carousels, accordions, dropdowns, and mapped exact contrast ratios against WCAG AA. The same mid-tone green kept failing, around 2.6:1 against white, well under the 4.5:1 minimum, on the homepage, in every list, in every card. I also tested the interface through colour blindness simulations to see how the palette held up beyond contrast numbers alone
When the brand colour couldn't pass a contrast check
I went through every component, navigation, footer, cards, carousels, accordions, dropdowns, and mapped exact contrast ratios against WCAG AA. The same mid-tone green kept failing, around 2.6:1 against white, well under the 4.5:1 minimum, on the homepage, in every list, in every card. I also tested the interface through colour blindness simulations to see how the palette held up beyond contrast numbers alone
2.66:1, fail
2.66:1, fail
Old
Old
Every link, and several key buttons, ran on the green that failed the contrast check
New
9.41:1, pass
New
9.41:1, pass
The UX work
The bigger issue was structural. The existing site had grown into far too many pages, many existing only to link onward to another page, making it hard for users to find what they needed. Fixing that meant an editorial pass as much as a visual one: auditing what existed, cutting what didn't need to, and deciding what a user actually needs first when landing on PenSam, who PenSam is, and a fast way to find what they came for. I set up a number of the resulting pages myself and built the design system that now carries the structure.
The challenge
There was no budget for formal user testing, so decisions were grounded in accessibility expertise and close, ongoing conversation with the client. The site ran on Sitecore, and the client managed content directly, adding whatever he liked, which had left the site slow and inconsistent in quality. That meant part of the work was continuous discussion about how to roll changes out gradually, a full redesign in one go wasn't realistic given the constraints.
The design
The existing site leaned entirely on green, paired with a large, repetitive set of icons that made every section start to look the same. PenSam already had an in-house graphic designer, so the goal wasn't a full rebrand, it was building on what existed rather than replacing it.
Going through PenSam's old brand history, I found the identity had once included magenta. Bringing it back gave the site the energy it was missing, alongside a warmer sand tone. Reintroducing colour meant setting rules for how it could be used: magenta became the colour for health-related content, green stayed with banking and insurance, keeping the system legible rather than decorative.
Before colour or imagery entered the picture, I mapped the page in black and white: intro, key life situations, member benefits, core areas, bank, community, customer service, news. Working this way keeps the client conversation on content and priority rather than colour preference, structure had to hold up before design moved into colour.
Before colour or imagery entered the picture, I mapped the page in black and white: intro, key life situations, member benefits, core areas, bank, community, customer service, news. Working this way keeps the client conversation on content and priority rather than colour preference, structure had to hold up before design moved into colour.
The challenge
There was no budget for formal user testing, so decisions were grounded in accessibility expertise and close, ongoing conversation with the client. The site ran on Sitecore, and the client managed content directly, adding whatever he liked, which had left the site slow and inconsistent in quality. That meant part of the work was continuous discussion about how to roll changes out gradually, a full redesign in one go wasn't realistic given the constraints.
The design
The existing site leaned entirely on green, paired with a large, repetitive set of icons that made every section start to look the same. PenSam already had an in-house graphic designer, so the goal wasn't a full rebrand, it was building on what existed rather than replacing it.
Going through PenSam's old brand history, I found the identity had once included magenta. Bringing it back gave the site the energy it was missing, alongside a warmer sand tone. Reintroducing colour meant setting rules for how it could be used: magenta became the colour for health-related content, green stayed with banking and insurance, keeping the system legible rather than decorative.
When the brand colour couldn't pass a contrast check
I went through every component, navigation, footer, cards, carousels, accordions, dropdowns, and mapped exact contrast ratios against WCAG AA. The same mid-tone green kept failing, around 2.6:1 against white, well under the 4.5:1 minimum, on the homepage, in every list, in every card. I also tested the interface through colour blindness simulations to see how the palette held up beyond contrast numbers alone
The UX work
The bigger issue was structural. The existing site had grown into far too many pages, many existing only to link onward to another page, making it hard for users to find what they needed. Fixing that meant an editorial pass as much as a visual one: auditing what existed, cutting what didn't need to, and deciding what a user actually needs first when landing on PenSam, who PenSam is, and a fast way to find what they came for. I set up a number of the resulting pages myself and built the design system that now carries the structure.
The challenge
There was no budget for formal user testing, so decisions were grounded in accessibility expertise and close, ongoing conversation with the client. The site ran on Sitecore, and the client managed content directly, adding whatever he liked, which had left the site slow and inconsistent in quality. That meant part of the work was continuous discussion about how to roll changes out gradually, a full redesign in one go wasn't realistic given the constraints.
The design
The existing site leaned entirely on green, paired with a large, repetitive set of icons that made every section start to look the same. PenSam already had an in-house graphic designer, so the goal wasn't a full rebrand, it was building on what existed rather than replacing it.
Going through PenSam's old brand history, I found the identity had once included magenta. Bringing it back gave the site the energy it was missing, alongside a warmer sand tone. Reintroducing colour meant setting rules for how it could be used: magenta became the colour for health-related content, green stayed with banking and insurance, keeping the system legible rather than decorative.
Before colour or imagery entered the picture, I mapped the page in black and white: intro, key life situations, member benefits, core areas, bank, community, customer service, news. Working this way keeps the client conversation on content and priority rather than colour preference, structure had to hold up before design moved into colour.
When the brand colour couldn't pass a contrast check
I went through every component, navigation, footer, cards, carousels, accordions, dropdowns, and mapped exact contrast ratios against WCAG AA. The same mid-tone green kept failing, around 2.6:1 against white, well under the 4.5:1 minimum, on the homepage, in every list, in every card. I also tested the interface through colour blindness simulations to see how the palette held up beyond contrast numbers alone
The UX work
The bigger issue was structural. The existing site had grown into far too many pages, many existing only to link onward to another page, making it hard for users to find what they needed. Fixing that meant an editorial pass as much as a visual one: auditing what existed, cutting what didn't need to, and deciding what a user actually needs first when landing on PenSam, who PenSam is, and a fast way to find what they came for. I set up a number of the resulting pages myself and built the design system that now carries the structure.
Before colour or imagery entered the picture, I mapped the page in black and white: intro, key life situations, member benefits, core areas, bank, community, customer service, news. Working this way keeps the client conversation on content and priority rather than colour preference, structure had to hold up before design moved into colour.
The challenge
There was no budget for formal user testing, so decisions were grounded in accessibility expertise and close, ongoing conversation with the client. The site ran on Sitecore, and the client managed content directly, adding whatever he liked, which had left the site slow and inconsistent in quality. That meant part of the work was continuous discussion about how to roll changes out gradually, a full redesign in one go wasn't realistic given the constraints.
The design
The existing site leaned entirely on green, paired with a large, repetitive set of icons that made every section start to look the same. PenSam already had an in-house graphic designer, so the goal wasn't a full rebrand, it was building on what existed rather than replacing it.
Going through PenSam's old brand history, I found the identity had once included magenta. Bringing it back gave the site the energy it was missing, alongside a warmer sand tone. Reintroducing colour meant setting rules for how it could be used: magenta became the colour for health-related content, green stayed with banking and insurance, keeping the system legible rather than decorative.
© Web design / Deborah Karva
© Web design / Deborah Karva
© Web design / Deborah Karva
