Here’s how I helped

Increased the percentage of self-served certificates to 93% within the first 4 weeks

Certificates of insurance documents serve as proof that a person or business has valid insurance coverage. Having certificates of insurance is crucial for establishing credibility and protecting against potential legal or financial liabilities. These certificates demonstrate to potential partners, clients, or venues that you have the necessary insurance coverage in place to handle unforeseen events such as property damage, bodily injury, or other risks specific to your industry.

Feedback we got from our SMEs

“One common difficulty customers encounter during the onboarding process is requesting a Certificate of Insurance (COI) with specific details. They often have trouble customizing the COI according to their needs.”

“A lot of folks are mainly after that COI. They just want to tick off those insurance boxes so they can get back to what really matters to them – building their products and keeping their business rolling.”

Understanding the problem

Collaborating with the SME and Customer Success team, it became clear that Embroker users sought an effortless method to obtain their Certificate of Insurance (COI), along with consistent guidance and reassurance. These entrepreneurs were keen to concentrate on their business activities rather than navigate complex insurance processes. My task was to develop an accessible and straightforward system for COI acquisition.

I dedicated my efforts to refining the COI acquisition process, engaging in user research to pinpoint the exact level of assistance they needed. My role entailed continuously refining the design to make it user-friendly and comforting, ensuring users felt confident and supported. The ultimate goal was to make the COI process efficient and unobtrusive, enabling users to swiftly resume their business endeavors.

What made our previous flow ineffective?

Clients struggled to find necessary information in the system.
Uncertainty about completing steps correctly due to lack of guidance.
The process felt overwhelming and confusing for clients.

Designing the journey map: Charting the user experience path

In collaboration with the product owners, we embarked on creating a comprehensive journey map to thoroughly understand and improve our users' experience. This journey map encompassed various stages: researching, requesting, configuring the COI, receiving/downloading, and post-receiving. At each of these stages, we delved into understanding what the user is doing, thinking, and feeling. We identified the key touchpoints and pinpointed opportunities for improvement. A critical insight from this exercise was the recognition of anxiety experienced by users at different steps of the process. We realized that minimizing this anxiety was crucial for enhancing the overall user experience.

Developing a flowchart: visualizing the process steps

Creating the flowchart revealed a crucial fork in the road in our users' journey with the Certificate of Insurance (COI). We identified two primary reasons users issue a COI: to keep it for their records or to deliver it to a third party. This distinction became clear through the flowchart, allowing me to visualize and understand the different paths and decision points in the user's process. By mapping out these two distinct user intents, I gained a better understanding of how to design and tailor the experience to meet the varying needs and expectations of our users at each stage of their journey.

Ideation phase: developing early wireframes and designs rooted in UX laws and psychology

During the ideation phase, I focused on developing early wireframe designs that were deeply anchored in the fundamental laws of UX and principles of psychology. By employing strategies to minimize task perception, my aim was to make complex processes appear simpler and more approachable to the user. Fitts's Law was used as a guide in creating interfaces where users could navigate and accomplish tasks with ease and efficiency. In line with Miller's Law, I structured information and interactions to align with the average user's cognitive capacity, ensuring a less overwhelming experience. I also implemented progressive disclosure, revealing information progressively to keep users engaged without overloading them. Finally, I embraced the Peak-End Rule, ensuring that the most critical and satisfying aspects of the user experience were highlighted, both at key moments and at the conclusion of their journey. These design decisions were pivotal in crafting an interface that was not only aesthetically pleasing but also psychologically attuned to the user's needs.

Minimize Task Perception
The first thing users do when they see a new form is estimating how much time is required to complete it.¹

Separating fields in different steps eases the user’s perception of how hard it is to complete, making the whole process look easy.

1. Smashing Magazine, What makes an effective form (2008)

Fitt’s Law

The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target. ²

2. Fitt’s Law: The importance of size and distance in UI Design (2019, June 5), The Interaction Design Foundation

Miller’s Law
The point where confusion creates an incorrect judgement is the capacity of our memory. The span of immediate memory and absolute judgement is limited to around 7 pieces of information.³

3. Miller, G. A. (1956), “The magical number seven, plus or minus 2. Some limits on our capacity for processing information”

Progressive Disclosure

Encouraging users to move from completing simple actions to executing more complex ones lowers the chances that users will feel overwhelmed.⁴

4. Prototypr.io, Designing for Progressive Disclosure (2019)

Peak-End Rule

Your brain heavily weighs the peaks and the end of an experience.⁵

5. Peak-End Rule, Psychology of Design (2021)

User testing: comparing two options with varying levels of guidance

I utilized Maze to conduct monitored user testing of two distinct flows, each designed with different levels of user guidance.

The first flow adopted a minimal design approach, focusing the user on one task at a time to maintain clarity and concentration. This flow featured guidance through tooltips, which became accessible when users hovered over them, offering contextual information and assistance as needed.

The second flow, in contrast, included an information bar on the left-hand side. This bar detailed each step of the process, providing explanations for why certain information was required and helping to demystify insurance terminology. This approach aimed to educate users and enhance their understanding throughout their journey.

Both flows were tested to evaluate their effectiveness in user engagement and comprehension, with the goal of identifying which method better facilitated a smooth and informed user experience.

We conducted interviews with a total of 16 people to evaluate the effectiveness of the two user flows. At the conclusion of the testing, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire, and the responses indicated a clear preference for the second flow, which featured the information bar. This was particularly evident when we analyzed their confidence levels in making decisions throughout the process.

On average, participants rated their confidence at 8.7 for the first flow, which was minimalistic and guided by tooltips. In contrast, for the second flow with the infobar, the average confidence score rose to 9.3. This data suggested that the additional context and explanations provided by the infobar significantly improved users' confidence and understanding, making them more comfortable and assured in navigating the process. Amongst other favorable data, the higher confidence score for the second flow indicated its effectiveness in providing a more supportive and informative user experience.

Final designs: refining and implementing user feedback

In the final stage, my work centered on creating responsive designs that worked flawlessly across various devices, ensuring a smooth and consistent user experience on mobile, tablet, or desktop. Additionally, it was imperative that these designs adhered to our existing design system. While I explored various ways to expand this system during the ideation phase, I ultimately had to conform to the limitations it imposed. This meant relinquishing some potential enhancements, such as larger radio button cards and a progress bar with clearly delineated steps.

I collaborated with Product Owners and our Copywriter to effectively populate the infobar with content that bolstered user confidence during self-issuance of certificates. I also integrated illustrations that complemented the style of our marketing website, ensuring visual coherence. Though some innovative ideas were set aside, the final design was a success, striking the right balance between functionality, aesthetic appeal, and user confidence.

Design for desktop

Design for smaller screens

“Banner blindness is an instance of selective attention: people direct their attention only to a subset of the stimuli in the environment — usually those related to their goals. This behavior is a consequence of our limited attention capacities.”

NN Group article "Banner Blindness Revisited: Users Dodge Ads on Mobile and Desktop"

Design for mobile

New feature announcement

When designing the announcement for the new feature, I applied insights from NN Group about banner blindness to ensure maximum visibility and engagement. To counteract the tendency of users to overlook traditional banner-style announcements, I deliberately designed the announcement to obstruct part of the UI, making it impossible for clients to miss. This approach broke from the conventional placement of banners, drawing immediate attention to the new feature. Additionally, I added a subtle floating animation to the announcement, enhancing its visibility and drawing even more attention. This slight movement differentiated it from the static elements of the UI, making it stand out and capturing users' interest more effectively. This strategic design choice was aimed at ensuring that users not only noticed the announcement but also felt compelled to engage with the new feature

Post-release results: analyzing the impact of the new feature

The first week following the release showed remarkable success: a striking 94% of the 123 certificates requested on the platform were efficiently handled through the self-service flow, totaling 115 certificates issued via this streamlined approach.

This positive trend continued consistently over the next four weeks, as evidenced by the data we collected through analytics. The analytics data clearly showed that the high rate of self-service certificate issuance was not a short-term phenomenon, but a sustained pattern of user behavior. Week after week, the majority of users consistently opted for the self-service flow to issue their certificates, affirming the feature's effectiveness and user acceptance. This ongoing trend, as captured in our analytics, underscored the successful adoption and continued utilization of the self-service option on our platform.