Shaping new insurance buying experience from 28 user interviews

Designed a new AIA customer journey, providing actionable insights to the AIA team through extensive interviews, aligning services with real user expectations and needs.

Client

AIA - an insurance and finance corporation

timeline

Jan - Feb 2022

team

Project Manager

2 Business Analysis

Senior UX Designer

2 UX/UI Designer

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Introduction Problem & Goal Problem Discovery Client Collaboration Design Solution Result Takeaway

Introduction

Overview

The AIA agent portal was set up in 2019 to make it easier for agents to create proposals and handle group applications. But it's not being used much. Most agents still prefer paper for policy work, slowing AIA's business growth in a fast-moving digital world. There's a clear need to make the portal more suitable to agents' needs in order to increase AIA's efficiency.

My role

As one of the UX/UI designers in the team, I evaluated the usability of the existing product, assisted with user interviews, analysed research findings, created wireframes, mockups, prototypes, conducted usability testing, prepared functional specification document.

problem

The poor design of the AIA agent portal leads to low usage and inefficiency in managing insurance tasks.

Discover the problem

Goal

Increase user adoption and agent efficiency by redesigning the AIA portal for ease of use.

Jump to solution

problem discovery

Identify usability issues in the agent portal

At the start of the project, our team studied the current user interface of the agent portal, using a heuristic evaluation method to systematically uncover usability issues and align our redesign strategies with UX best practices.

Example of heuristic evaluation: The proposal generator screen, highlighting problems with layout confusion, unclear action button, and content visibility that could hinder user efficiency

Uncover agent hesitation through in-depth interviews

After experiencing the agent portal first-hand and identifying various design inconsistencies, we embarked on a series of in-depth interviews with a group of agents. These interviews were designed to uncover their day-to-day challenges and revealed key pain points with the portal, such as:

Outdated and limited field selection options
A lack of accessible help resources
Time-consuming file upload process
Cumbersome and complex system logic
Inefficient document management

“The portal is helpful for quoting to my client, but it is not easy to manage when I have created a lot of quotes, so I still need more paperwork to do my job.”

- one agent's feedback summed up the general mood

This image shows the interview questions our team used to gain detailed insight into the challenges agents face when using the portal

takeaway

The challenges I faced

Tight deadline

Redesign of the AIA agent portal within a strict 8-week timeframe.

Limited experience with the existing product

I only had one opportunity to interact with the current portal.

Technical limitations

Challenges with simple feature implementations due to complex system architecture.

What I learned

Value of early engagement with customers

Early collaboration with clients is critical to efficiently identify issues, which helps deliver designs on time.

The importance of detailed documentation

Recording every screen interaction and conversation is essential to ensure that no critical issues are overlooked.

Design with multiple perspectives

The final design should be a balance of user feedback, business objectives and technical constraints, representing the most optimal solution at the time.

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Introduction Problem & Goal Goal Alignment
Problem Discovery Solution Takeaway

Introduction

Overview

AIA's Customer Relationship Survey revealed that customer engagement was lagging behind competitors, affecting customer loyalty and impacting AIA's revenue and brand reputation. This project aims to identify the specific shortcomings in AIA's customer journey and develop strategies to improve user experience and customer satisfaction.

My role

As one of the designers on the team, I helped prepare interview questions, analysed results, identified insights to inform our design solutions, created wireframes, helped develop the To-Be Journey and contributed to the final report.

problem

Certain parts of the CRS were lagging behind competitors, potentially affecting AIA's growth and brand reputation.

Discover the problem

Goal

Provide an as-is journey, a to-be journey and product backlog for AIA to deliver a better buying experience for their customers.

Jump to solution

Goal Alignment

Translate AIA's survey insights into UX research directions

Our project began with an analysis of the AIA Customer Relationship Survey report, which highlighted specific service weaknesses in the customer journey. This guided our research direction to address these issues.

This slide shows that AIA lags behind the competition in 'Learn'

Define goals & uncover key issues through stakeholder workshops

In this project, we conducted several stakeholder workshops to align business objectives with expected outcomes, identify critical customer pain points, and collaboratively brainstorm solution strategies. These sessions were essential in shaping the direction of the project.

Cluster of key points from a role-playing workshop aimed at identifying and understanding the gaps between customers and agents

Problem discovery

Understand how customers think when they buy insurance

We conducted anonymous interviews with 20 customers from diverse backgrounds and gathered key insights to improve the customer journey:

80% bought insurance during major life changes.
80% chose to discuss budgets directly with agents.
60% prioritised product features over agent service when making a decision.

“I became aware of the importance of insurance when my father fell seriously ill, which prompted me to take out my first insurance policy.”

- one customer shared his story of buying insurance for the first time.

Interview questions designed to explore areas where AIA's CRS report showed room for improvement

Explore AIA agents' perspectives and use of tools

We conducted interviews with 8 AIA agents to understand their sales processes, identify challenges with AIA's digital tools, and gather feedback on a new product prototype. Key findings include:

75% of agents segment clients by age and marital status.
37.5% regularly use AIA's toolkit to evaluate customer protection needs.
All agents believe the new product will make them more efficient and provide better resources for customers.

“I became aware of the importance of insurance when my father fell seriously ill, which prompted me to take out my first insurance policy.”

- one customer shared his story of buying insurance for the first time.

Agent feedback was catalogued in Excel to quantify research findings and identify common challenges

Solution

As-is journey

We mapped the current customer journey, identifying pain points and expectations. This mapping was based on insights from our interviews and data from the Customer Relationship Survey (CRS).

A segment of the As-Is journey map illustrating the initial steps customers take when engaging with insurance

To-be journey

Building on the as-is journey analysis and CRS report findings, we designed a future journey strategy. Our focus was on creating a more personalised experience for customers, with the aim of significantly improving the process of buying insurance from AIA.

Part of the To-Be journey detailing how agents can effectively engage customers using the AIA toolkit

Product backlog

We compiled a comprehensive list of potential new products for AIA, derived from our extensive interviews with customers and agents. This list serves as a strategic backlog of initiatives and actions for AIA to consider in their future planning.

Backlog items for one of AIA's products highlighting potential improvements to interview findings

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Introduction Problem & Goal Alignment Design Solution Takeaway

Introduction

Overview

Prudential Fund Performance website, with its outdated layout and limited features, lags behind industry standards, negatively impacts the customer experience and affects the brand's professional image. This situation calls for an urgent redesign to align with Prudential's modern design and improve user engagement, which is critical to maintaining the competitiveness.

My role

I'm the only designer on this project, I organised the design style for the new website, provided the mockup, demonstrated the prototype and worked closely with the developers on the final product.

problem

Outdated layouts and limited functionality lag behind industry standards, negatively impacting the customer experience and the brand's professional image.

Goal

Redesigned Prudential's online fund site, following new design guidelines and incorporating advanced features to meet market standards.

Jump to solution

design solution

Modernised user interface for better readability

The first key feature of the new design is an updated user interface that matches Prudential's modern style. We've used new fonts, spacing and colours to create a layout that's easier for customers to read and find information quickly.

Before

After

Enhanced features for efficient fund selection

The second major update is the addition of market standard filtering and comparison tools. These features simplify fund selection, allowing customers to search efficiently and make informed decisions by directly comparing different funds.

Improve accessibility in design for all users

The third update improves the accessibility of the design, particularly in the comparison chart. I have tested colours for colourblindness compatibility and added symbols for easier differentiation to ensure the chart is user-friendly for everyone, including those with colour vision differences.

Origin

Deuteranopia

Tritanopia

Protanopia

Conclusion

To address the initial uncertainty of the project due to the differing visions of the various stakeholders, we dedicated 2 weeks to aligning objectives and initiating research. An intensive 4-week research phase with 20 customers and 8 agents provided actionable insights, pointing the way to improving AIA's service. This project sharpened my analytical skills, taught me how to translate user feedback into meaningful improvements, and reinforced the importance of balancing user needs with business strategy in design.

Improving the agent portal usability score by 60%

Redesigned AIA agent portal to streamline the insurance sales journey and accelerate agent sales performance by addressing current inefficiencies.

View case study

Making the fund website more user-friendly and trendy

Enhanced Prudential's online fund experience by aligning with new design style and incorporating advanced, user-friendly features.

View case study

Shaping new insurance buying experience from 28 user interviews

Overview

My role

The poor design of the AIA agent portal leads to low usage and inefficiency in managing insurance tasks.

Increase user adoption and agent efficiency by redesigning the AIA portal for ease of use.

Overview

My role

Certain parts of the CRS were lagging behind competitors, potentially affecting AIA's growth and brand reputation.

Provide an as-is journey, a to-be journey and product backlog for AIA to deliver a better buying experience for their customers.

Overview

My role

Outdated layouts and limited functionality lag behind industry standards, negatively impacting the customer experience and the brand's professional image.

Redesigned Prudential's online fund site, following new design guidelines and incorporating advanced features to meet market standards.

Conclusion

Next

Improving the agent portal usability score by 60%

Making the fund website more user-friendly and trendy