Maciej Ziolkowski UX Portfolio

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Revamping insurance quoting

Role

UX Designer

years

2015–2016

Challenge

To replace the legacy desktop software with a faster, modern solution without impacting the company's revenue stream.

Solution

A modern web app allowing insurance agents to rapidly generate quotes and manage their billing.

impact

More than 1.5 hours saved per agent per day
Reduced average quote generation time
86% of agents adopted the new platform within 4 months

Intro

Warta, the second largest insurance company in Poland, decided to upgrade their legacy software for insurance agents. The main reasons were to:

increase the effectiveness of the document flow between headquarters and agencies

boost sales by introducing a more user-friendly app for agents

Replacing an app crucial for a company's revenue stream is a sensitive process. That is why the main goal of the UX team was to ensure a smooth transition to new software without impacting day-to-day work.

Research questions

What are the main daily tasks of an insurance agent?

How does the purchase process of an insurance policy look like in the agent’s office?
What are the current bottlenecks in communication between agents and headquarters as well as agents and clients?

Field research

To create the insurance agent's persona I conducted three on-site visits: Skierniewice, Łódź, and Warszawa. During the visits, we observed the daily work of the agency, conducted interviews with agents, and also observed them during negotiations with clients.

Key research findings

Most agents use multiple apps from various insurance companies.

Agents prefer the web over desktop apps due to insurance quotes generation response.
Agents require a UI that supports insurance variants comparison.

How might we provide the best user experience for thousands of agents and ensure a smooth transition to the new app?

Ideate

In the ideate phase, I considered the following aspects of the design:

Competition benchmark

Other insurers provided web apps that were more responsive and generated quotes faster.
Competitors provided an easy way to compare and present insurance packages to the client.

Web vs dektop app

Moving to a web-based platform allowed for access from any device, making agents more productive.
Web platform eliminated the need for local installations, reducing friction.

Balancing simplicity and flexibility

While designing, I had to ensure the interface was easy for all agents, especially those accustomed to legacy software.

Prototyping

For most crucial processes, such as quote estimations, I created high-fidelity prototypes in Axure, based on Warta's design system. For other processes, I created static documentation.

Validation

Each module was designed iteratively. After gathering business requirements and creating low-fidelity prototypes, we scheduled usability sessions for critical modules or consulted other business experts. Each module could go through such a process many times until we achieved high scores in usability tests.