New Product Launch
All Star is an education marketing company, but they wanted to start expanding outside of that. Confident Quotes was the first new endeavor focusing on auto, life, and health insurance.
Business Goal
Proof of concept to expand product offerings by creating an MVP that primarily focused on paid search.
Design Strategy
Focus on research to understand the insurance space and the behaviors of the target audience as foundation of the website to build on for organic growth.
Product and User Research
Learning About Insurance
Because this was a new space, I spent time learning about insurance marketing, what the main competitors were doing, and understanding user behavior/patterns for people researching and buying insurance plans. I was not able to do direct user research, but instead looked for studies done by other companies.
These are a few of the pages from the research doc I presented to the team:
Biggest takeaway from the research is that the buyer journey for insurance shoppers is very short: 7 days from awareness to purchase. This is different from All Star’s target of non-traditional students who take months to decide on going back to school and may require some level of nurturing.
Personas and User Journeys
Defining Our Target Audience
After presenting the research, I worked with the stakeholders to define our target audience. We did a personas workshop to determine customer needs and pain points.
Patterns started to emerge and we ended up creating three personas:
Circumstance Changer
They are looking for insurance because something in their life has changed. They’ve moved, started a family, someone passed away, bought a car, etc. They may do initial research on their phones, but opt to fill out quotes on a desktop unless the mobile experience is good.
Need
- Find insurance to fit new circumstance
- Ability to compare and customize plans
- Not too expensive
- May seek out recommendations
Pain Points
- Too many or too little options
- Quotes that ask too many personal questions up front
- Complicated processes
Company Switcher
Their policies are up for renewal, they’re in open enrollment, or at the end of their term. Price is a driving factor and they are looking for a better policy for a better price. They may do the majority of their research and get quotes on their phones. They are also more likely to read reviews or get recommendations from family and friends.
Need
- Tools to compare policies
- Sorting by price
- Customizable quotes
- Recommendations/reviews
Pain Points
- Processes that take too long
- Unable to find a plan that meets financial and coverage needs
Quality Seeker
They may not be happy with their current insurance provider. They’ve either had bad customer experiences, found their coverage lacking, or noticed a drop in their company’s reputation and want something better. They may do all their research on their phones and ask family and friends for advice.
Need
- Reviews/ratings
- Recommendations
- Testimonials
- Detailed coverage information
Pain Points
- Difficult quote process
- Finding coverage for specific situations
- Lack of reviews/social proof
User journeys
Along with the personas, I created user journey maps for each to show the customers’ accelerated buyer journey.
Circumstance Changer
Company Switcher
Quality Seeker
User Flow
Mapping out Confident Quotes
Now that we had a better definition of who are customers are and what they are most interested in, I created the structure for the new website.
UI and Branding
Trust and Security With a Twist
Next, I built the wireframes for each main page template.
Then I created the logo and brand presence.
The logo was created to show trust and confidence and the colors chosen both for the logo and the entirety of the website utilized shades of blue to evoke trust and security.
A More Playful UI
I also wanted give the website a more light-hearted twist on a typically serious task. Iconography and graphic imagery are used throughout Confident Quotes providing more visual interest and with the intent of keeping customers interested and engaged.
Showcasing UX
Looking Beyond MVP
I wanted to help build a strong foundation for this new website and to showcase how UX and design can make a big impact. By focusing on understanding our new customers, exploring what their needs and pain points are from the very beginning we can align where the opportunities are and use this as a jumping off point as we continue to grow the website and build our roadmap.