UX Research to Advance Insurance App Develop
Project Description
A Fortune 500 auto & property insurance company engaged Doblin (Deloitte Digital) to redesign and reengineer the digital applications that enable its customer experience and deliver its core business offerings. Teams of design researchers and UX designers worked with developers to 1) design new experiences for the customer and employee dashboards used to manage claims initiation, communication, and tracking and 2) enhance the property insurance customer experience.
Project Role
Lead Researcher
Client Industry
Auto and Property Insurance
Project Type
Product Development Research
Project Duration
8 weeks
Research Methods
In-depth Interviews
My Role
During the project's design phase, I joined the “claims initiation, communication, and tracking” workstream to lead two rounds of UX research to test and further develop the team’s initial prototypes.
My Work
Our research objectives for this project included:
-
Gaining a deeper understanding of the post-FNOL (first notice of loss) experience
-
Testing features for two major components of the user dashboard related to the post-FNOL communication experience
The prototypes my team and I used as research stimuli were static medium-fidelity wireframes. Because we wanted to learn more about user expectations for the post-FNOL experience using static stimuli, we determined the best approach would be to conduct in-depth interviews that were scenario-based, and that would allow us to understand situational experiences and pain points as well as user expectations for communication throughout the experience.
We used dscout, a digital user research platform, to conduct virtual interviews with approximately 10 participants with a previous insurance claim experience with either our client or another major US insurance company. Through research, we developed insights that helped us to better understand participants' general expectations for the claims process as well as identify the preferred functionality of the dashboard widgets that were the focus of each round of research. In addition to the insights we developed through synthesis, we also developed a heat map to visualize the positive, negative, and indifferent reactions to the existing prototype that we received from research participants.
The Result
Utilizing the insights and heat map, we scheduled collaborative sessions with our design team, the client's leadership team, and both client and internal product development teams to align on new features that were desirable and feasible. Our work enabled the development team to begin feature development for working prototypes.
My Reflection
This project involved actively engaging with many different stakeholders. In addition to working with the larger Doblin team, we also engaged with the client's design team (researchers and leadership), tech development team, and other leadership from the business. With so many different voices and agendas, I was able to see and learn what it takes to manage a collection of expectations and feedback to move the project forward and achieve buy-in for product development.
Although the project manager had a research background, the individuals that supported me throughout this research project were staffed from Deloitte’s program management practice, and while talented and enthusiastic, neither had design backgrounds. This allowed me the opportunity to not only provide guidance but in some cases teach the hows and whys of design research practices and methods. It was an enriching experience.