About the Project

KAUS wanted to create a platform that allowed users to browse and purchase insurance all in one place. In addition to a responsive website, KAUS wanted to create a modern and fresh logo that would encompass their responsible and loyal values.

My Role

This was a capstone project completed through Designlab's UX Academy in June of 2018. I acted as the Project Manager, User Researcher, Graphic Designer, UX Designer and UI Designer.

Project Challenge

How can I develop a responsive website that can be considered unique in an already competitive industry?

My Design Process

Key Focus

Research & Ideation

Step 1: Research

Competitive Market Analysis

I started my research by uncovering existing information about the insurance industry.  In parallel, I conducted competitive analysis to study the strengths and weaknesses of KAUS' competitors.

User Interviews

With a better understanding of the insurance industry, I wanted to hear from the customers themselves. I conducted user interviews with people from all walks of life - from the college graduate to the retired grandfather. After listening to each of their stories, I was able to identify overlapping themes that would help me in the next step of my design process.

STEP 2: Define

Persona Breakdown

Using my research and interview notes, I developed user personas. This allowed me to give names and faces to the different types of people that would use KAUS' website. As I developed each persona, I considered what each person would say, do, think or feel.  After taking note of these behaviors, I completed my persona breakdown by making empathy maps for each. 

Both of these exercises helped me better define who KAUS' customers were and the challenges they faced.

Project Goals

With a better understanding of the user, I was able to define goals for the project that were specific to the business, its customers and its technology needs.

Feature Roadmap

With a better overall picture of the project’s goals, I built a list of features that would help address them. High priority features for Phase 1 included:

Login

New Account Signup

Quote Questionnaire

Bundling Option

Shopping Cart

Payment

Find an Agent

My Account Dashboard

Card Sorting

Given KAUS extensive selection of insurance products, I conducted a card sort exercise with a group of participants fitting the personas I had identified. Providing them with a list of 30 insurance terms, I instructed each individual to sort these cards into categories of their choosing (i.e. open card sort). 

From this, I gained insight into the level of knowledge participants had on different types of insurance and how to best sort KAUS products to make them easy to browse and find.

STEP 3: Ideate

With my goals, features and categories defined, I was ready to start thinking about how I wanted users to interact with the site. To do this, I created user flows and wireframes to visualize the different paths users could take throughout the site.

User Flow

Wireframes

Desktop Design

Mobile Design

STEP 4: Visual Design

Brand Logo Creation

KAUS wanted a new, modern and fresh logo that would encompass all of their core company values. Words they used to describe themselves included:

Design Pattern

I experimented with different color schemes and typefaces to reflect the same values and beliefs that were incorporated into KAUS’ logo.  

STEP 5: Prototype

Using my wireframes for guidance, I incorporated color and site content to create high-fidelity prototypes. During this phase, I considered sizing and content hierarchy to create a responsive design that could be viewed on multiple devices.

Desktop Prototype

Mobile Prototype

Phase 5: Test

All testing was conducted in-person using the prototyping tool, InVision. Following a detailed usability testing plan, I asked each participant to purchase the following insurance plan:

• Auto Insurance for a 2018 BMW X3

• Property Insurance for a House

• Health Insurance (Silver Option) 

Users were also instructed to bundle Auto and Property insurance, and quote health insurance separately.

Feel free to test it out for yourself here.

Reflection & Next Steps

This case study was my first project in the Designlab UX Academy curriculum. Over the course of 6 weeks, I was challenged with resource constraints, participation identification and tight deadlines. I learned how to manage my time and work iteratively while still producing high-quality deliverables.

My next steps for this project would be to incorporate the feedback obtained from usability testing. Afterwards, I would conduct another round of usability testing to confirm that all of the feedback was correctly addressed. 

When the prototype is approved, I would roll out the next set of wireframes for the next phase of site features (i.e. Insurance 101, Agent Chat box, etc.).

View Another Project >>