October - December 2021
Roles: UX research, UX Design, UI Design
Kare lags in the insurance market due to a lack of direct online services for customers, limiting growth among the younger online generation. Transitioning to an online platform poses a challenge, as there's no agent to assist with the quote process, which contains industry jargon that potentially confuses new buyers.
A responsive website that provides transparency and explanation at each step of the quote process, so shoppers feel confident in purchasing the right insurance.
Barely knowing anything about insurance, I began researching the topic extensively to understand the product being offered.
This digital culture empowers insurers to innovate when it comes to age-old insurance problems such as risk assessments, claims processing and policy sales.
Source: Forbes
Insurance applies to people of all ages so I talked to a range of people to compare their experiences.
The cognitive load is high especially for new buyers due to the terminology and complexity of comparing insurance. They are forced to learn the terminology before they understand what they are buying.
Annual renewal, accident & claims
New job, car, health condition, moving, or having a baby
Insurance doesn't cover items that people expected
A young, busy, price-sensitive persona based on interview and survey insights.
Educate and empower its users throughout the insurance purchasing process.
Provide transparent quotes so price-sensitive users understand the costs.
Meet users in their preferred shopping method.
Provide a smooth experience browsing and comparing insurance.
My primary focus was to create an approachable, intuitive quote flow. I'd also educate users by utilizing text input fields descriptions.
To determine the risk of the user’s lifestyle and value of car to reflect in the cost of quote.
To buy car insurance and get pricing based on needed coverages.
After understanding the user, it was time to start planning out the quote system. Building out the task and user flows, helped me plan for actions and pages that needed to be built.
I’m an avid sketcher so I explored many page iterations in sketch form before moving on with digital wireframes. As I added content to the wireframes, I changed sections around to strengthen the hierarchy of the page.
With Amanda in mind, I developed a look that encompassed key words like safe, approachable, and lively. Visually this type of style should be calming and encouraging to new insurance buyers.
To create a realistic quote experience for usability test participants, I added auto-filled past vehicles and drivers within the prototype. This added complexity helped me understand how people felt about auto-filled sections and what interactions they used to complete tasks through the quote.
After observing the participants, I identified the top pain points and iterated the designs.
3/5 participants tried to add a vehicle by editing the previously owned “Honda Civic” listing because they feared it would be added to the final quote.
Add remove feature to give users the flexibility and peace of mind that certain vehicles aren’t included on their quote.
Add clarity to page description by changing “check” to “select.” Getting rid of the double meaning word.
4/5 participants completed the comparing quotes task.
Users took a long time to find the compare quotes button. Some tried opening a new tab.
Users noted that the tab design caused a lot of scrolling to compare the numbers between quotes.
No more hidden content behind a button. Showing all three plans side-by-side allows users to easily compare the differences between all quotes fast and efficiently.
Since insurance is complicated, users want to know that they have completed all the steps and are protected by their insurance. Now that they have insurance, how can they use it?
5/5 participants wanted to see more information displayed on the payment submitted page.
Adding multiple ways to view insurance policy: email and immediate PDF download.
Adding next steps and call to action buttons so users can properly access their insurance.
Participants also loved the color palette and illustrations. The visual design gave off the approachable insurance look I was aiming for.
Overall within the quote process, participants wanted to understand why Kare needed information and what it did with the gathered information. These questions validated my initial research that the copy should be transparent and educational. UX copywriting helped provide guidance where a live agent might.
To track the impact of Kare’s new website, I would measure metrics: the number of incomplete vs. completed quotes, the amount of time spent on each page, the number of purchases, and customer inquiry topics.
To keep the whole user journey in mind while designing part of a process.
The power of asking the right questions to push the design further.
Another round of usability testing to test version 2.
Building out more educational examples for coverages.