Enhanced productivity
Brokers wanted a way to fast-track their firm orders, and underwriters wanted to manage their tasks more efficiently.
Role
Research & Design
What was the outcome
Improved navigation framework, clear signposting, orientation and overall better usability.
What were the goals
Empower brokers & UWs
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Give them the tools they need to support and accelerate their tasks.
Reduce cognitive load
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Design the interface to be more intuitive, learnable and memorable for all technical abilities.
Encourage self-guidance
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Transition users towards inline contextual help, minimising reliance on external training resources.
What we did
Conducted an expert review to identify usability issues, areas for improvement and quick wins to present back to business.
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Key insights: Orientation seemed to be the most significant issue. Users must rely on a "data ready?" button to understand what they need to action to proceed with their tasks. No indication on how to move forward or back for amendments. Other issues included input fields not marked as mandatory, hidden actions only visible on hover, table column components used as select fields, etc.
Conducted usability reviews with 7 brokers and 7 underwriters to observ how they use the platform and document pain points.
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Key insights: Most brokers are forced to work in a particular way because the platform was not designed to cater to a quick checkout journey. 95% do their business on a single contract basis, while the other 5% do multi-contracts, resulting in a complex system to use because the UX is the same for both. Underwriters find it difficult to do their job which is to respond to incoming items, because of the lack of a dashboard.
UX/UI pain points example:
1. Tabs force users to navigate in several directions. The majority of brokers and UWs preferred a more linear approach.
2. Various UI elements, such as ellipses and iconography, don't cater to all user abilities, increasing reliance on training.
3. Multiple call to actions that don't offer context. There is no primary CTA that helps users move forward, which again forces reliance on training.
UX/UI recommendations example:
1. A step-process to guide users through a linear journey. This also enables a quick checkout.
2. A clear "Next" call to action to continuously drive the user forward. The "Back" button helps users retrace their steps in case they need to make amendments to some of the sections.
3. Escape route enabled via "Save & Close" or "Cancel".
4. "Work Area" on the left-hand side that can be hidden to allow more real estate for the forms. Area is used to display structure (in case of multi-contract submission) and documentation to support the form filling process.
Designed high-fidelity proof of concept prototypes to test and validate with the same brokers and underwriters.
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"Overall you’ve made it easier to use."
- Broker quote -
"Navigation and interface are a vast improvement."
- Underwriter quote -