CASE STUDY - NOVEMBER 2020
Kaus Insurance
Making Insurance Accessible to Young Buyers
Project Background
Kaus is an established insurance company with 30+ successful years on the market. The company has primarily achieved its success by offering its products in a business-to-business model. Their products come in predetermined bundles, and companies register with them to offer those bundles to their employees. This setup has given its past and present customers great savings and a high level of service satisfaction, because the company knows how to handle common inquiries, claims, and questions about its boilerplate bundled services.
But for anyone without access to their system, this whole process seems to go on behind a magic curtain that clouds its details, especially for younger buyers who don’t have any prior knowledge of how insurance really works. Kaus now wants to sell its insurance directly to consumers, entering a new realm of direct-to-customer dealings. My challenge was to design a more straightforward and guided product to represent their services, wrapped up in a bold and simplified new brand identity that both attracts and makes sense to younger audiences.
Project Overview
Goal: Create a responsive web product for younger users that streamlines and simplifies the online insurance-buying process
Timeline: 4 weeks, 100 hours
Role: UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher, Visual Designer
I wanted to give Kaus' new users an easy and empowering product experience without minimizing the company's established reputation and expertise.
Learning about Online Insurance Users
Evaluating the playing field
First things first: I needed to understand who Kaus’ new users would be. I did a bit of research about the demographics of online insurance purchasers, and my research showed the primary user base to be young adults, ages 21-35, with limited knowledge of and experience buying insurance. Next, I considered where those users might go right now to buy insurance online. To better understand this direct B2C insurance sales space, I identified key competitors and organized their strengths and weaknesses in the below chart. Current offerings range in ease of use and coverage offered, but all have busy and confusing websites and limited availability.
Talking to Kaus’ target demographic
With that background in mind, I wanted to get on the ground with people in the demo I had identified and get their real thoughts and feelings about insurance. I chose 4 interviewees between the ages of 21 and 35, all of whom self-reported as insurance novices, and conducted my interviews with the below script and pictured setup. As I interviewed, I collected user responses on post-it notes and put together the affinity map that follows. Finally, I summarized the patterns across my findings in my User Interview Takeaways.
User Interview Takeaways
4/4 users felt overwhelmed by the amount of information insurance sites present, citing little explanation or guidance
4/4 users said the thought of switching their insurance conjured dread because the sign-up process was long and had many heavy user asks (personal information input, lengthy terms & agreements)
The 2 youngest users expressed preference for buying insurance directly online, citing it as “easier” and “faster” than doing so in person
2/4 users said they expected every problem to require a phone call to customer service before being solved, which they both called “annoying”
This research confirmed what I had suspected; most younger buyers found insurance as a whole to be confusing, overwhelming, and dated. Time for some streamlining and a refresh!
Crafting the ideal persona
My interviews gave me some really valuable insight into the mindset of most young insurance buyers. There were so many consistencies in their feelings of dread when handling their insurance, and how it often created a sort of imposter syndrome when they felt lost sifting through online forms and info sheets. I put all of this together to form my persona, Clara. I tried to consider all aspects of her lifestyle beyond just her needs from an insurance company (though I did keep those needs a priority in consideration).
Clara’s thoughts, feelings, and needs
Because I was still pretty unfamiliar with insurance myself, I decided to delve deeper into my persona’s needs and fears, and created the Empathy Map below. This is where I was really able to dig into the lifestyle of my user and what her thoughts would be about daily processes, social pressures, and other factors that might impact her decision-making. I referenced a lot of social media and past conversations for examples, and brought them together below to make sure I understood exactly what the pain points of her life were, and how I could incorporate solutions into my design at every step.
Defining the Product
Establishing the project’s goals
With my preliminary research finished, I began the definition phase of my design. This began with a simple venn diagram to understand the needs of each stakeholder in the Kaus Insurance B2C Product’s development and their wants and needs. Organizing these needs in the below chart gave me a great reference point throughout my design process that ensured the Business, Customer, and Technical stakeholders had their needs accounted for.
Listing out the features
With the project goals of all stakeholders in mind, I created a comprehensive list of product features (sorted by priority) beginning with those for a Minimum Viable Product. I then expanded upon the list to include both the near and far goals of the product based on the needs and goals of the stakeholders. The result was the product roadmap available to view here.
A few features I initially prioritized had to be bumped, including a price comparison tool, dedicated mobile app, and a policy walkthrough guide.
While I knew these features would be highly impactful and would resonate strongly with Kaus’ younger and more tech-savvy target audience, I had to concede that they were not necessities for the launch of the product. I did, however, note their significance within the P2 category of the feature roadmap.
Finding the most intuitive layout
I wasn’t totally sure of how people would group insurance functions, but I needed to organize all the information that would go into my design. After creating the comprehensive feature roadmap, I decided to conduct a card sorting exercise with 10 participants to help me better understand how they might form associations between features and pages as I began the process of designing the site architecture. The process, cards used, and takeaways from the exercise are shown below. The full Open Card Sort Exercise deck is available to view here.
Key Takeaways
50% of participants aligned with a 5-category system similar to Account, Onboarding, Products, Support, and Action Items.
FAQs was placed most commonly with other Support functions, rather than with other Onboarding functions.
Grouping action items together was common, even if they were not directly related; an effective product might incorporate these as a prominent cluster of shortcuts so that they can be quickly accessed.
FAQs were previously considered a first-stop resource for young insurance buyers, but as they were not commonly placed within Onboarding groupings, the First-Timer’s Guide and Insurance Encyclopedia seem to be better options for targeting their questions.
Deciding on a layout (thanks, card sort!)
The results of that card sort were pretty consistent, which gave me the insight I had lacked. That allowed me to develop an initial site map. This became my initial visual point of reference for forging the page and feature architecture of the site in later stages of my design.
Building out the core user paths
With my site map completed, I was able to develop a user flow that mapped the potential path of a user through the site given a specific point of origin and intent. I tried to think of how Clara might come to the site organically, and figured it’d likely be from an ad touting the site’s Rate Comparison Tool on Instagram or another social media app. Because I had a good idea of what would inform her decision-making, I concluded that she’d engage with the site as shown below.
Time for Visual Design
Leading with layout
After completing the Define phase and using the results of my card sorting exercise to create a logical site map and user flow, it was finally time: initial visual designs! My first go was quite rudimentary, but it helped me understand how all the elements I needed to include would logically fit together.
Refreshing the Kaus brand
Though I had no past branding to use as a jumping-off point, my thinking for the new product’s branding began with identifying which features Kaus’ new, younger audience would appreciate and be attracted to most. From user research I had gathered that typical association with insurance (that I really wanted to undo) were complication and confusion. To get rid of that negative association, I decided to lead with bold and simple branding. I began the new design for the site by brainstorming ideas for the company’s logo and colors, and iterated until I settled on a final version, shown below.
Logo ideation
Ultimately, I settled on this bold, all-lowercase, and purple wordmark as the final logo. I also reduced the kerning of the letters to make the brand name feel simpler, more snug, and more familiar. I wanted to use a purple tone, because it felt regal and trustworthy (a great association for an insurance service), but I didn’t want to alienate users by seeming too high-brow. I played around with a hex color selector until I settled on this blue-tone purple (#40068c) to create a blend of trustworthiness and friendliness.
Final logo render
New UI Elements
Based on my branding ideation, I was able to complete the UI kit with all of the site’s other elements. I wanted to continue the theme of simplicity and familiarity, and so I kept visual elements minimal and straightforward. I chose to keep all of the site’s text in one sans serif font to make sure all elements were not only readable but consistent. I really wanted to create a sense of ease and visual clarity for Kaus’ new target user base. This UI kit includes the site colors, typography, input fields, imagery, iconography, and all standards for the site’s visual elements.
I created my branding based on the priorities of Kaus' new target audience: simplicity, transparency, and approachability.
Taking things hi-fi
Then came time to apply all of that new branding goodness to my lo-fi wireframes. The results (below) bring an element of friendliness and simplicity to what it is otherwise a very serious and content-heavy product. I was mindful not to make things too simple, though, because Kaus’ reputation and dedication to service are still very serious and essential to their success. These wireframes represent the most updated version of the site prior to the final prototype.
Testing Kaus with Users
Developing the Prototype
Then, it was time for user’s to test the product out! I created two clickable prototypes in Figma (each tailored to a specific task) by mapping click paths onto the most recent iterations of my hi-fi wireframes, creating interactive and fully branded product examples that users could interact with. The full prototype can be accessed here.
Getting real user feedback
Using my prototype (created in Figma) and Maze to gather analytics, I conducted testing on the usability of the first user flow I had designed; finding and adding Auto Insurance to a users’ cart. My test was conducted live with 5 participants, 2 of whom I observed in person and 3 of whom tested the product by screen sharing through Zoom. I found that the navigation was clear to my users, as they followed consistent paths and found the target clickable areas very quickly and consistently. My full test findings can be found here.
Tester profiles from Maze
Usability Test Takeaways
Participants were able to complete the task 1 with very few issues, other than those presented by the limitations of the prototype; task 2 was very easy
Users heavily favored navigation through the primary navbar over using the search function for these tasks
Several users pointed out a desire for smaller fonts in many areas
Several users are recorded as requesting more visual elements like illustrations and photography
Though users could not activate any text input fields in this task, many attempted to click on them to do so, suggesting they effectively indicate their purpose as designed
Notes for Future Iterations
Re-evaluate current font and typography styles to reduce text size in areas such as headers and body copy
Further reduce text-heavy areas of copy
Additional images and illustrations may bring more delight to users, so consider areas where these can be added and design them
Because the current navigation path is working effectively, model other paths of similar nature in the product around the one prototyped here
My user tests affirmed the benefits of prioritizing ease of use and bold, approachable design to resonate with Kaus' target audience.
Finding patterns in the data
Using the results of my Usability Test, I compiled the most frequent feedback from my test subjects into a helpful reference guide for future iterations of the product that put usability concerns at the forefront and also indicate the frequency of certain responses.
Conclusion + Summary
Key Takeaways
Designing for a longtime industry player entering a new market space has many moving parts that must come together harmoniously through design for a successful end product. Transforming this established product to make it palatable to a new demographic of users requires a high level of attention to detail and a strong empathy with those new users, who approach a product that is already successful elsewhere with a completely new and unique perspective. Tuning in to a new audience while still keeping the core goals of Kaus in mind made for a challenging project that ultimately had a great payoff and an exciting design process.
Challenges
Applying the wants, needs, and experiences of a younger audience onto a product mainly developed for longtime B2B partners
Simplifying the insurance-buying process for new buyers without compromising information transparency
Creating a brand and experience that combines that simplicity with an intuitive UI design and modern, bold new branding
Insights
There is immense value in knowing the pain points of a new user base a company is trying to appeal to before beginning design
Complicated products do not always need a complicated UI to complement them; oftentimes a simpler approach that is more straightforward actually makes the product more approachable, increases inclusivity, and brings more success to the experience of every user
Final Thoughts
As this was my first fully designed product, I found that I struggled at many points along the way. Some research was challenging, and some design decisions became a bit paralyzing. However, I was able to push through every challenge, and ultimately created a responsive product for Kaus that I am very proud of.
The central foci that I referred back to throughout the entire design process was the target user base and their need for a streamlined, easy-to-understand experience with their insurance company. Using that thesis to inform every decision allowed me to focus the entire design on producing the best possible experience for them.
Though this project was based on a fictitious company, I feel as though the insights I gained through this design will easily be applied to future projects with real clients and better inform all of my future design decisions.
