Desktop App | Insurance Operations Platform Revamp
Canada
The platform in focus serves as the operational heart for a major insurance provider, managing the policies and claims. Over the years, this internal system evolved into a complex web of tools used daily by four departments: A&S Claims, P&C, Finance, and Underwriting.
Originally built to handle basic data entry, the platform cannot fulfil the teams’ need as the company grew. New features and modules were needed to meet shifting business needs. Our goals were to identify the pain points users encounter in their daily workflows and to provide effective solutions for them.
Challenges
1
Existing platform had become a bottleneck for productivity
2
High error rates, extensive training times for new users
Goal
1
Identify the unique requirements of the teams
2
New design that reduces errors, speeds up task completion
Users Interview
To uncover the pain points across the four team and build the foundation for the redesign. We conducted interviews with users from each team, these insights helped us to define user’s needs and expectations.
Key findings from each team:
A&S Claims
Lack of Automated Triggers:
Without a notification system for new claims, users are stuck in a cycle of constantly checking for updates, which is a massive productivity issue.
Reporting Unreliability:
Because dashboard metrics are inaccurate, users have lost trust in the system, forcing them to double-check everything manually in Excel.
Communication Issue:
The inability to exchange documents within the platform forces users into email, creating fragmented audit trails.
P&C
Information Scarcity:
The core system is missing fundamental data points (contacts, vehicle info, driver details), making it an incomplete source of truth.
Low Information Density:
Policy summaries are poorly organized and "hard to digest," suggesting the UI fails to prioritize the most important data for quick decision-making.
Functional Dead Ends:
Basic utility features like searching notes, adding attachments, or tracking tasks are missing, forcing users to rely on external platforms.
Finance
Bad Data Exports:
Reports came with "useless data," requiring extensive manual cleaning and filtering before they can be used for financial reconciliation.
Consistency & Sync Issues:
Inconsistent naming conventions (brokers/insurers) and a lack of real-time updates mean users spend more time verifying data than processing it.
Redundant Data Input:
The system forces manual entry for items like legal invoices and premium batches, which should ideally be automated or imported.
Underwriting
Insufficient Tool & Friction:
Users are forced to manually map data from PDFs and spreadsheets because the system doesn't support direct data ingestion or smart formatting.
Performance & Navigation Issues:
Long loading times for policy lists and confusing page titles create confusion to users, slowing down high-frequency tasks.
Redundant Data Input:
Information (like termination dates) has to be entered in multiple places, increasing the risk of human error and data mismatch.
How Might We? Workshop
After the users interview, we conducted a “How Might We? workshop” with the teams. This workshop aligned the PM and stakeholders on which "big ideas" would actually solve the most painful operational bottlenecks.
Key findings:
General
The priority is Centralization. The team needs a multi-functions dashboard that tracks statuses and KPIs in real-time, reducing the need for manual cross-referencing between teams and providing "quick-correction" tools for data errors.
A&S Claims
The focus is on Communication. Findings highlight the need for automated notifications for new claims and a shared file-exchange system to eliminate the fragmented email chains currently used to send documents.
P&C
Core opportunity is Data Bridging. There is a massive need to sync client information and pull data directly from external systems into the current platform, alongside adding basic utility features like task reminders and internal attachments.
Finance
The goal is Data Cleanliness. The workshop identified opportunities to generate custom, filtered reports that exclude useless data and to automate the verification of broker/insurer names to ensure consistency across the system.
Underwriting
Primary finding is Reducing Manual Friction. Underwriters need automated tools to map data from PDFs and Excel files directly into templates, alongside improved system loading speeds to keep up with quotation demands.
I analysed all the research findings and workshop insights to create this Problem-Solution Mapping. By consolidating recurring pain points, I was able to ideate targeted, actionable solutions for each operational bottleneck.
To optimize limited project resources, I facilitated a Priority Matrix session with the PM and stakeholders to balance business value against technical effort. This alignment ensured our MVP focused on "Quick Wins" that delivered immediate operational impact for the teams.
Key Design Priorities:
Task Management & Tracking:
Enhanced task visibility with the ability to update statuses, assign owners, and manage due dates.
Dynamic Filtering:
List filtering with the capability to save custom configurations for recurring workflows.
Customizable Report:
A flexible reporting tool allowing users to define data types, date ranges, and specific parameters for tailored insights.
Notifications:
Integrated email and in-app alerts to ensure immediate awareness and faster response times for new tasks.
Translated research insights into new user flows and a comprehensive site map to visualize the system's logic. Showing the new design direction, helping us to validate the new concept and ensured that the PM and stakeholders were fully aligned on the redesigned user journey.
Building on the research and user flows, I developed wireframes to explore solutions that balance business goals with user needs. This iterative process allowed me to validate the layout and functionality.
Before moving into high-fidelity design, I created several color variations to align with the team on a final color palette.
Dashboard
The goal of the new Dashboard is to provide an aesthetically updated starting point for every user group. Each has a similar structure, with access to new features like quick links, task lists and item lists relevant to their roles. Hoops indicate place-holder icons that can be used to enhance identification of locations. Visually each item is more condensed to increase screen real-estate. Some can be collapsed to reduce or expand the real-estate as desired.
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Side Menu now has two persistent action buttons for user tasks and notifications, these use badges to indicate new items. A persistent search bar lets users find cases. And users can navigate to other page by the side menu.
New Quick Links section at the top, users customize this and place features they use the most here
KPI section is enhanced with date filtering, member filtering. It now takes up less screen real-estate and have enlarged numbers for clarity. Additional KPIs can be reduced or included with the "View all" caret.
Each user group has a task list, then team specific lists(i.e. Claims listfor A&S). Every table has a new quick filter and download option, and each column has a new search and filter option to meet user’s need.
Task Tracking
Easier accessible task tracking for all user groups by moving it to a more prominent location, addressing the challenge of tracking tasks.
Task Tracking is accessible from the side menu action item, a badge for indicating task number is on the button as well.
All tasks assigned to the user are visible once the action button is clicked. Users can see the name, due date and statuses of tasks. Click on a task to open a modal for task details, click "View All" to go to a "Task List" page for every task.
Task modal provides all the same functionality as the side bar and table, related links may be added manually or automatically. Policies, brokers and other IDs will be automatically applied with related tasks.
Notifications
Showing notifications in side menu to create faster acknowledgment of new incoming items.
Notifications is accessible from the side menu, a badge will be shown on the button when there's new notification.
Users can “mark all as read” to dismiss every notification, or users can mark individual notifications as read to dismiss them one at a time. Notifications will otherwise remain and count towards the numerical badge on the persistent action button
Claims List
Redesigned claims list pages for enhanced functionality. One of the goal of the listing page is building robust customization for grids and tables to reduce manual labour and to help with searches.
Custom Filter Set can be set up by users to fit their own needs, this robust feature can apply multiple filters and toggle columns at the same time. Once set, this is a quick toggle system at the press of a single button.
The icon buttons on the right hand side provide 3 other major feature: Edit Custom Filters, Download Custom Reports and Toggle Columns.
Each column features built-in Search and Filtering capabilities. Users can quickly locate items via free-text search or filter manually using checkboxes. Users can also customize their view by toggling off any unneeded columns.
Claims Details
New details page introduces widget sidebars for updates, notes, and actions. This layout can be applied across various detail pages (e.g., Policy Details or Quotation Details). The goal is to provide a comprehensive view that allows users to track timestamped update logs, perform quick actions to boost workflows, and add notes for communication within the team.
Info Bar shows the general info of the claim, also able to navigate to the corresponding policy if needed.
Categorizing content into tabs improves information hierarchy and accessibility, this resolves the navigation issues caused by the previous system's excessively long, single-page layout.
Actions Widget shows actionable items related to the details, reduced the friction of users having to search across multiple pages for contact data.
Viewing updates and adding notes can be done with the Updates & Notes Widget. AlI the changes will be logged. Users can view and add notes, attachments and history of attachments are shown as well.
Bulk Actions in grid
To reduce the manual effort of managing individual policy or case, bulk actions in the grid were introduced to let users multi-select list items and apply changes at once.
Users can multi-select specific rows to perform a bulk action.
A new Bulk Actions section appears above the table, users can approve / reject all of them at the same time. Export selected data also available in this section.
I conducted usability testing on the high-fidelity prototype with members from each team. The goal was to validate whether the redesigned interface effectively solved the pain points and to observe if users run into any trouble when using it.
Results:
Feedback was positive, with participants finding the new design is easy to operate. The new dashboard was cited as a big improvement over the old system, providing useful functionailty for daily operations. Participants from A&S Claims team said the new Actions and Updates Log widgets are nice, they like those are easy accessible and scannable.
New Finding:
We found that users struggled to identify the functions of icon-only buttons. After discussing with the PM, we agreed to add a tooltip message to it when user is hovering on the button as a quick fix.
