Case Study: IXN Agency App
Redefining life insurance tools for the mobile arena
Background
IXN stands for Insurance Experts Network, a startup company that focuses on designing and developing software for life insurance agents and agencies. In 2017, the company did a complete redesign of their products to improve the quoting experience by “reducing the time it takes to accurately quote, service and start the e-ticket process for any life insurance customer.” As part of a push to bring the life insurance industry to the mobile arena, I was asked to redesign the company’s mobile app which is sold and branded to life insurance BGA’s (Brokerage General Agencies) and IMO’s (Independent Marketing Organizations), while maintaining the functionality and engineering requirements of the old platform. To view an interactive prototype as you read this article, click here.
My Role
As the Director of Product, I was trusted as the primary designer for Version 2.0 of the IXN mobile app. In this role, I worked with our mobile app developer to design and develop a new mobile interface, with the oversight of our CTO.
Pain Points & Objectives
The project began as a “face-lift” to the functionality that was currently in place, but as I began identifying “eye sores” I found small but significant changes that could be made to further achieve the company’s objective to “reduce the time it takes to accurately quote, service and start the e-ticket process for any life insurance customer.” After evaluating each tool, and discussing the possible engineering changes with our CTO and mobile developer, we agreed that many of the pain points I identified could be summarized and reasonably developed with two objectives in mind.
- Reduce the number of steps and “taps” an insurance agent has to perform, when completing various tasks.
- Establish visual and behavior patterns that improve the current mobile experience, but are also consistent with patterns and features of our web-based products.
**Note: While the app is made up of 6 different tools, this article will focus specifically on the Life Quotes and Underwriting Prescreener tools, seeing they are the most inclusive of the various design elements redesigned throughout the app.
Keeping Insurance Agents in Mind
While our company objective had been researched, and backed by customers with other products that had already been redesigned, and the objectives and pain points I had set for this project were in-line with what we learned, I continued to consider our target audience as I brainstormed how the objectives would be met.
At the time of the redesign, I had been working on IXN’s support team for 8 months. While I didn’t develop “official” personas, I was able to use the relationships I had developed with customers to empathize with the people I was designing for, and their anticipated reactions when they saw the new design for the first time. Working with agency admins to set up their IXN products, I found that they, as well as up-and-coming agents, recognized and were more open to embracing the life insurance technology we offered. However, I also worked with and found that many of the agents being expected to use the app on a daily basis were more weary of changes in technology, and the patterns I established would need to be familiar enough that “Robert” or “Steve” wouldn’t feel defeated upon opening the update to the app.
**Note: Names have been changed to protect the identity of our customers.
I determined changes to the interface could be done as long as:
- App functions weren’t “hidden” using newer, or more “advanced,” interactions such as 3D Touch.
- The overall layout was similar to that of Version 1.0, to avoid “panic” when looking at the tool for the first time.
- Behaviors or patterns had some resemblance to other apps the agents such as Robert and Steve were familiar with, such as web-based IXN products or popular frameworks such as Material Design.
Minimizing Steps and “Taps”
One of the first pain points I noticed when I did my initial review, was the number of steps or “taps” it took people to complete a task, specifically the app’s “back & forth behavior,” and agents being presented with more questions than necessary.
Eliminating “back & forth” behavior
Within the Life Quotes tool, each question had its own dedicated screen with possible answers. For questions that had a list of 3–10 responses, this seemed to make sense, but for questions such as age selection, the screen went on for too long, and for questions that had only 2 possible answers, it seemed to be less efficient. For this reason, I chose to eliminate the “back and forth” behavior and consolidate the questions and answers to a single screen.
Asking only what is necessary
The Underwriting Prescreener (UWP) is a form that agents can fill out, and submit to their BGA or IMO, to receive an accurate health rating for their client, but most people do not enjoy filling out forms (or at least most of the people I know). To make the task less painful, I strongly believe a form should be as short as possible, and display/collect only the information that is necessary. Within the old UWP, many of the questions required an “additional information” field, but if the question is answered “No,” the question was optional and could be ignored by the agent. With that being said, one of the first pain points in the UWP that I wanted to address was the number of questions agents were presented with, and only show “Please provide more information,” when there was a need. In this case if a specific question was answered “Yes,” and required a detailed explanation.
Organizing questions into screens
This initial change saves agents some time, but in addition to the extra fields, the form was 14 pages long…without any indication of the agents’ progress. With cognitive load and wayfinding principles in mind, I wanted to reduce the number of screens for this tool to no more than 5 screens. I also felt that we needed to give agents an idea of where they were at in the process. Using Trello, I made a card for each question, then grouped them into untitled columns based on the kind of information the question was collecting. Once this was complete, I asked other company employees to provide feedback and move the cards, if they felt they should be sorted differently or if there were questions that would be better associated with other questions. Once the cards were organized, I found that only 4 pages were necessary. The groups were named and we used labels to identify what type of inputs each would be, so the different patterns could be designed, and a “steps left” pattern was implemented so agents know where they are in the process.
Establishing Patterns and Styles
The changes to the to the number of steps agents had to take to complete a task, made a big difference in the overall user flow, but I was still tasked with redesigning the interface from Version 1.0 of the app. While there were patterns that had been previously established, I wanted to make the patterns more visually appealing, so agencies felt they were receiving a “sexier” app, maintain them across all tools we provide, and design behavior patterns to be similar to our web-based products. While some may say that this is not directly related to the time objective we had as a company, the patterns were established to:
- Improve the readability of the data so agents can quickly process, compare, and relay the information they collect, with their life insurance customer.
- Reduce the “learning curve” of the interface, by providing familiarity with other IXN products, as well as throughout the various tools.
Quote Results Screen
One of the biggest pattern improvements, was how data was displayed and compared throughout the interface. (1) In the initial design, comparing premiums was easy, because it prioritize the quoted premium above any other information, which is on of the most important factors for life insurance customers. With that in mind, similar information design principles were applied in the new results page. (2) When launching IXN’s web-based products, one of the biggest compliments the new Agency Life Quoter received was the use of carrier logos, instead of names, because agents and their customers were more likely to recognize the branding, instead of the official company name. (3) Additionally, we received positive feedback about the ease at which agents could compare more detailed quote information, using an accordion behavior on the Agency Life Quoter. With that knowledge, I reflected similar patterns in Version 2.0, because many agents using the mobile app had also had exposure to the Agency Life Quoter.
Iconography
The second place I attempted to establish consistency, and reduce the learning curve, is in our use of icons. In our previous fulfillment process, agencies had more freedom to choose what icons represented a tool. After taking into consideration what icons agencies on Version 1.0 of the app had been using, I chose a set of material icons that best represented each tool set. As we made this decision, we determined that it would also be best to use material icons in our web-products, specifically the IXN Dashboard, so agents associated the different tools and functionalities between all products.
Outcomes
Overall the redesign was a success. After attending major industry conferences, and receiving feedback from current and prospective clients, this project continues to get people excited about the prospect of bring life insurance tools to the mobile arena, and help them realize the importance of embracing the technology rather than refusing it.
“They have seen similar patterns in other apps that they rely on, so they won’t need to learn something new.”
Feedback from agency admin, and some of the largest BGA’s in the country further verified that the decisions we made would be effective for agents, “Because they have seen similar patterns in other apps that they rely on, so they won’t need to learn something new.” While future in-app analytics are anticipated to improve the experience more, agents can already see the speed at which it takes them to accurately quote, service and start the e-ticket process for any life insurance customer” reducing, but now they can do it anywhere. To download IXN’s version of the app, visit the Apple and Google Play stores.
Rookie Mistakes and What I Learned From Them
I didn’t design everything — One of the most important lessons I learned is to make sure I go through my designs and consider everything that a user can interact with. As I passed different screens off to our developer, I found there were many elements I overlooked and questions I didn’t ask myself such as:
- What will the “Forgot Password” screen look like? What if they try to create an account, but already have one?
- What kind of feedback will assist agents in know what should happen next, and how will they understand how integrations with other platforms work?
- If I think a design element is implied (Ex. Indication of required fields) will others think about it as well? Probably not.
Elements may need to be repurposed — As we redesigned the app, there were patterns and elements that we found should be repurposed to improve the overall functionality and experience of the app. For example, the “Payment Mode” button on the life quotes screen was originally designed to allow agents to quickly recalculate different quote criteria, but we felt that changing the use of this button would fit well with the feedback we receive on web-based products to view all premiums in the results, without sacrificing the overall design of the app.
Test the entire system, not just the single product— Testing is one of the most basic principles a UX designer knows (or should know). When testing however, I quickly found that I was so focused on testing the app and interface itself, I failed to follow-up and validate how elements that were not in the app UX/UI directly, would affect the product as a whole. Upon testing and launching the app, it was quickly brought to our attention that while the app appeared to be functioning properly, when the “Submit” button was tapped in the UWP, they received verification that the submission had been made, but nothing was actually sent. This was a major lesson, as I learned that product design includes many systems, and it is important to make sure they are all function the way they should. otherwise, a tool or function will be completely useless.
