kaus car insurance

Reinventing the car insurance experience

View Prototype

My role

UX Designer
UX Researcher

Tools

Figma

Team

Individual

Timeline

4 weeks in march 2022

The Challenge

Design a responsive website for a car insurance company that is looking to transition from being strictly B2B to B2C and start selling their policies directly to consumers online. The goals of this project were to:

  • convert Kaus to a one-stop online car insurance provider platform
  • change the intimidating and daunting experience of purchasing car insurance
  • allow people to easily learn about car insurance, search for personalized options, and finally select a desirable package to checkout

Company Background

Kaus is a large traditional car insurance company grounded in efficiency and trust that has been in business for over 30 years. They have a variety of separate offerings for sale as prepared packages instead of fully customized options.  This allows them to be more efficient and keep their rates lower than their competitors.

Problem

Overcoming inertia

Previously, the immense complexities of insurance required Kaus as well as other insurance companies to employ an agent-centric model to sell policies.

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In the past, the strict set of principles of the car insurance industry created a business model that just doesn’t align with the current trend in consumer taste towards research and self-service.

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Due to both customers’ expectations of a customer-centric experience and emerging insurtech startups, Kaus has to tap into the online market to keep up with the market trends.

the discovery

industry and customer insights

I made a research plan to learn more about the insurance industry, determine how people choose insurance companies, and uncover the issues users face when purchasing insurance. I began with the following research methodologies:

Market research and competitive analysis

I explored the insurance industry to learn more about recent trends and see how existing products are meeting users' needs. Also, I analyzed six traditional and insurtech companies to explore how different companies are adopting digital-first approaches to customer service in response to evolving consumer preferences, especially among millennials and Gen Zers.

User interview

Interviewing five users of various experience levels in purchasing insurance offline and online allowed me to further empathize with their experiences, needs, and frustrations. I asked probing open-ended questions to uncover the user’s goals, motivations, and pain points.

Through a research synthesis, I was able to extract users' three main insights that defined the final product:

personalized user experience

It’s essential that companies anticipate the vastly different needs of users and personalize their offerings to present options in a transparent and understandable way.

balance of Digital and Human Interaction

While consumers clearly prefer online transactions, they must know that a live person can respond when needed and will understand their goals, needs, and frustrations.

Simplicity

Simplifying the experience gives users a sense of being cared for and protected. Consumers will prefer to do business with companies that are easy to navigate, use simple language, and eliminate friction.

user persona

who is the target user?

To personify my research, I created a user persona, Andy Muller, to make decisions by empathizing with the end-user throughout the rest of the project. Keeping in mind Kaus’ business goal of targeting younger consumers with the online solution, this persona represents the needs and behaviors of one of the users from that particular demographic.

once upon a time

Andy packed up his car and drove to his new school, the University of Maryland located in  College Park, Maryland from his hometown Westlake, Ohio to pursue his college degree. Andy was using his parents’ car insurance policy, but ...

reframing the problem

simply switching from offline to online platform is not the solution

While digital platforms have become increasingly popular, both market research and user interview show that users still want the option to contact a real human when it comes to making complex decisions about important topics such as car insurance.

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How might we give customers the freedom and ease to do things themselves while providing guidance and support?

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This begged the question, how might we humanize the experience of purchasing car insurance on the online platform to offer the same level of interaction (and beyond) that was previously provided by Kaus with in-person agents.

user flow

Before starting the design phase, I focused on the most important user tasks, receiving a quote and purchasing a policy. To reduce cognitive load, I simplified the user flow by eliminating unnecessary tasks and ensuring that there aren't too many paths to take that could overwhelm the user.

design ideation

Based on my research findings and the user flow, I sketched out and mocked up several layouts for the homepage.

After selecting the design that best met the needs of my user persona, I digitized the wireframes. Once the desktop layout was complete in Figma, I created a responsive version for tablet and mobile.

user interface design

Applying the concept of simplicity to my visual design, I employed a simple and clean user interface. I also wanted to give Kaus a fresh and modern look to stand out from competitors.

high-fidelity wireframes

With my mid-fidelity and visual design complete, I created my high-fidelity designs and brought my solutions to life.

Key design principles

The following are important features that I applied in my design based on my research findings:

simplification of the process

E.g. breaking up the forms as a practical way of decreasing the perception of complexity. Also, the progress bar gives users a point of reference in their progression.

building trust through transparancy

E.g. provide necessary information regarding users’ car insurance requirements so that users can decide on their own the best option based on their circumstances.

personalize the experience

E.g. provide personalized car insurance coverage based on each customer’s own needs and risk profile with the option to edit information at any time during the process.

create a Frictionless experience

E.g. using email addresses as usernames by default to create an account to save the progress eliminating the need for setting up an account until it is required.

Prototyping

I created a prototype using Figma to test the flow of getting a car insurance quote, editing, and purchasing a policy.

view prototype

usability testing

I tested the first version of the prototype with 5 users to identify any areas of confusion, frustration, and pain points in the process; and recognize areas of success in navigation, flow, and design.

The following summarizes my findings:

All users were able to complete the task successfully, however, a few pain points were discovered during the test and addressed in the iteration:

  • Problem: 4 out of 5 users had difficulty finding where they can edit their personal or vehicle information on the quote page.
  • Solution: A fixed element added to the page that allows users to edit information easily.
  • Problem: 3 out of 5 users were overwhelmed with the policy review and payment sections being on the same page.
  • Solution: A review page was added to minimize confusion and clarify all the necessary information before checking out.

next steps

The next steps in the project involve updating the prototype and conducting additional usability tests to verify these revisions. I would also continue to develop the site based on the prioritized feature roadmap, testing and iterating along the way. Below are the two prioritized steps:

  • Explore different user journeys within my product, such as contacting an expert, creating an account, or filling a claim.
  • Create more customized illustrations specific to each page and section to clarify the message better. Adding informative, original, and custom-made illustrations to the website will distinguish the brand from other competitors while building a brand’s strong identity.

Takeaways

My greatest challenge doing this project was taking my synthesized research and turning it into what users need in an insurance company and website. The key was to use a high-level overview of my research findings and user persona to help lead and inform my design decisions.
This project truly helped me see the importance of usability testing & multiple iterations. The design I started with went through many changes based on the feedback I received and observed during usability testing.

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