OVERVIEW

Insurance Broker Tool

My role: Product Designer

My team: Design Director

Client: Large insurance company

Duration: Eight weeks

Objective: Design an online platform that enables brokers and underwriters to process Exporter Solutions business digitally.

Methods: Wireframing, prototyping, usability testing

Tools: Figma, MS Azure, MS Teams, Slack

What is Exporter Solutions?

For this project, I worked with a large insurance company. Exporter Solutions was the client’s market solution for customers with incidental international exposures – examples include employees traveling for work outside of their country of domicile, importing and exporting goods, and using vehicles outside of the US.

The client sought to grow their market share of this line of business through the Exporter Solutions Digitalization project, which aimed to:

  • Create a market-leading option with a modernized user experience

  • Facilitate simple, straight-through processing and digital placement of Exporter Solutions business by brokers and underwriters through an online platform

  • Improve brokers’ and underwriters’ quote to issuance experience, improve operational efficiency, and enable greater underwriter focus on more complex accounts

The Ask

A Smashing Ideas design team consisting of myself (full-time) and a design director (part-time) was hired for the Design and Build Phase of the project. We were embedded on the Exporter team to deliver wireframes and visual designs for the Exporter Application. Other key deliverables included:

  • UX audit of existing experience

  • Usability testing insights

  • High-fidelity UI component library for use by developers

We designed usable and beautiful user experiences and flows while modernizing and upgrading the overall experience across the Exporter Application. By applying human-centered design principles, we created an experience that helps brokers and underwriters to be more productive.

Visual Design & Rebranding

Shortly after beginning to design global components, we learned that the client’s brand guidelines had just been updated.

Referencing a Sketch file, I recreated components in Figma and redesigned global components to align with the new standards.

Heuristic Evaluation

I translated an existing prototype into our first version of high-fidelity designs.

We walked through the happy path of an existing low-fidelity Exporter prototype with the client. We then performed a heuristic evaluation to identify opportunities for improvement.

Sketching

After reviewing the proposed changes with the client, I sketched layout and interaction concepts.

Initial Wireframes

Finally, I created high-fidelity wireframes, referencing the current flow and MS Azure tickets for design requirements.

Design QA

I delivered designs a sprint ahead of developers. After my wireframes were built, I reviewed screens within the production environment, performed design QA, and left feedback for developers. In design review sessions, I collaborated with the Exporter team to review and prioritize these updates.

Usability Testing

User Feedback on Prototype

  • “I feel like this is smooth, self-explanatory, and quick. I know we gave a time limit of 15 minutes but I think most people could do it in 5.”

  • “I really like it. It’s very intuitive and simple…[and it would be easy for a new user].”

  • “I’ve used many portals and they can be very confusing…I thought this was very simple…This is probably the easiest thing I’ve ever seen as far as quoting.”

Final Delivery

Our final delivery included a second version of all screens which incorporated our testing insights and change requests from the client, as well as post-MVP features and extra screens including a 404 and Product Information page.

Results

  • At the beginning of this project, I expected to create a 5-screen app, but I delivered a 20+ screen interactive prototype with a component library, extra screens, and post-MVP features.

  • As the sole designer on the embedded Smashing team, I produced the majority of visual design deliverables and leveled up my Figma skills through the rapid pace and quality of work required.

  • Our client was pleased with our work and expressed desire to continue collaborating with us.