Insuree: Simplifying Insurance Policies 

Date completed: 2017

Role: UX Researcher
Key Contributions: User research, UX strategy, Wireframes, Interactive Prototypes, Usability Tests

At a Glance

Buying an insurance policy can be quite a stressful experience. In our research, we found out that users struggled to comprehend the complex insurance terminologies. Further, there are be a myriad of permutations to a single policy. Users also had trouble with the lack of consistency in language used across insurers.

When my team and I began work on Insuree, the company had recently launched phase 1 of their mobile app for beta-testing. However, apart from the app constantly crashing, it could barely hold weight against its competitors due to several reasons. 1. Insuree’s target market was too wide i.e. 20 – 59 year olds; 2. It employed complicated terminologies without any explanation provided; 3. All first-time users were herded through the policy management tool from the get-go, causing many users to abandon the app.

The main aim of the project was to simplify both the user flow and the language around insurance policies. Further, we implemented an Agent-Matching feature to cater for a larger target audience i.e. users who preferred speaking with agents instead of researching via an app.

The Context

Insuree is an insurance app that enables users to track, manage, and purchase insurance policies. It offers 3 main features: 1. Vault – policy management tool; 2. Robo-advisor – optimal coverage calculator; 3. Shop –a comparison and policy purchase platform.

The Research

We conducted a competitive analysis of Insuree against its competitors, carried out usability tests, and held user interviews. For this project, the user interviews provided us with the most valuable insights into our redesign; being so nascent to the market, we needed to gather data from users on what they expected in an insurance policy purchasing app.

Through the interviews, we developed three key personas that Insuree should focus on. Due to business and time constraints, the client and my team agree to focus on the 2 main personas i.e. David – agent-dependent persona and Emma – research-driven persona. We also developed a Customer Journey Map (CJM) to map out the larger user flow through 4 key phases: i) Search and Compare; ii) Agent Selection; iii) Policy Purchase; iv) Policy Management.

Through several follow-up meetings with our client, we decided to solely work on revamping Shop, 1 of the 3 main features.

The Problem

Users pain points can be summarized as follows:

1. Users were frustrated with the complexity of terminologies

2. Users wanted to a more detailed breakdown of insurance policies and the ability to compare policies side by side

3. Users wanted a better way of assessing whether their agents are a good fit before meeting them in person

The Prototypes and Iterations

We designed 2 hi-fi prototypes for testing with our users. In the first hi-fi prototype, we revamped the entire user flow. On the current app, users are forced to go through Vault – the policy management tool before using either the Robo-advisor or the Shop features. Further, users had to sign-up/in beginning at the onboarding process. In our redesign, users are presented with the Shop feature from the get-go and are only asked to sign-up/in when it is meaningful to their task e.g. adding a policy to “Favorites”.

• Key findings: While users had fewer frustrations with our first hi-fi prototype as compared to Insuree’s beta-test, they wanted a “Read Reviews” function as users were worried about agents upselling their policies. Thus, they valued other users’ opinions of the policies. Further, users wanted a list of agent values/priorities to better understand the business goals of their agents.

The Solution

We developed 4 solutions to address our users’ pain points:

1. Improve the user experience for “Shop”

2. Interpret the complexities of Insurance

3. Build trust and enable transparency

4. Enable flexible options for users

1. Improve the user experience for “Shop”

2. Interpret the complexities of Insurance

3. Build trust and enable transparency

4. Enable flexible options for users

Personal takeaways

• If a user needs a manual for your app, you’re doing it wrong. The first beta-test version of the app required copious amounts of explanation. As I walked my users through the various tasks my team had designed, I found myself needing to explain the simplest icons and features to my users. This was a huge red-flag; thus our redesign aimed to be immediately intuitive and understandable for users.