Transforming a portal into an engaging must-have
Just-in-time portal for California schools reduced search time 14 to 3 minutes
The Story
As California’s largest independent insurance broker, Keenan needed to reach its audience of schools, healthcare organizations, and municipalities with just-in-time information and tools for claims and risk management. Keenan turned to Experience Dynamics to mitigate the risk of experimenting with UX and relying on engineering to solve UX issues.
The Challenge
A portal was in place, but it was outdated, and users felt it was difficult to navigate important information regarding employee benefits, workers’ compensation, health benefit management services, and property and liability resources. With a time- and attention-challenged audience, Keenan needed to reach their end-users with just-in-time content that helped users efficiently stay informed while managing property risk and casualty issues. Keenan needed to know what was working and what was broken regarding the user experience and site usability. Were users even consuming the information and rich tools the portal offered?
The Turning Point
Experience Dynamics employed our proven Human-centered design approach to the redesign effort.
Learn more about how we approach Human Centered Design
At Keenan, we started by identifying ‘low-hanging fruit’ with an online survey, then conducted expert reviews (heuristic evaluation) and a usability test to learn how users navigated the current design. In addition, we conducted an analysis on Web Analytics to correlate observed issues. This allowed us to identify pain points and prioritize high-value user experience enhancements.
From the initial research, we discovered the areas of the current portal that frustrated and confused users. We realized that users were not entirely Web-savvy and only used mobile devices for very specific tasks. Keenan could see where users missed key content, features, and functionality and, more importantly, what they felt was most important to include on the dashboard.
Experience Dynamics took these key insights into multiple iterations of rapid User Interface prototyping. We gathered input from across the organization, involving stakeholders in design decisions to get leadership involved in the redesign direction. We then took the prototype out to end-users to see what was working and what needed re-thinking. The usability testing allowed users to express concerns and priorities over how the navigation and content should flow. It lets us validate ideas and throw out design elements that tested poorly.
Once the UI design concepts were refined based on evidence from the user testing, we created several versions (light and dark) of the visual design that internal stakeholders gave feedback on to steer the brand’s ‘voice’/ look and feel (UX Writing).
The Execution
Step 1: Find out how users are using the current portal.
To gather evidence on how users were *actually* using the portal, we needed to talk to them and observe them in action. Experience Dynamics deployed a rapid online survey, analyzed Google Analytics data, and conducted online usability testing with 15 users. While this was happening, we conducted a design audit of the portal (heuristic evaluation), to tease out known problems and opportunities for improvement. The online (remote) testing allowed for quick insights in a short time, especially since users were spread out across California.
The final home page wireframe based on our Interaction Design process is shown below.
Step 2: Prototyping new solutions and ideas based on evidence from Step 1.
Once we were armed with evidence-based insights, we moved to create sketches and wireframes that met the users’ needs and their expectations. The research informed the prototyping phase and allowed stakeholders to see how making evidence-based design decisions was less risky than making assumptions about what users would do on key screens…
The final home page Visual Design based on the Interaction Design wireframe is shown below.
3. Test the new ideas for usability and weak spots.
With a final prototype ready, we needed to get user feedback before starting the visual design process. Again, using rapid online user testing, we gained specific insights into what was a good idea and what caused additional effort in searching, looking up key data, accessing training, finding and saving tools, and starting conversations with other users.
The Result
The results of our Human Centered Design process improved both user engagement and task efficiency. The transformation wqas particularly evident in scenarios where the previous portal presented users with static PDF content and pages that lacked interactive possibilities. The new design strategically revolved around utilizing easily accessible HTML pages, which facilitate engagement and introduce novel mechanisms for users to interact with fellow users and explore related content. More efficiency metrics included:
- Reduced time on task: The average time spent searching for essential information they plummeted from 14 minutes to an impressive 3 minutes. This drastic reduction exemplifies the enhanced efficiency brought about by the revamped design.
- Search efficiency: The new design has yielded a substantial 15% enhancement in the efficiency of accessing routine transactions. This boost in transactional speed underscores the practical benefits of the redesigned portal.
- Increase ease of use: Ease of use skyrocketed by an astounding 150%. The intuitively restructured interface has been pivotal in enhancing this outstanding user experience.
Users’ feedback echoes these enhancements, as they reported a remarkable 30% increase in overall satisfaction compared to the previous design. This user-centric overhaul has undoubtedly struck a chord with our audience, leading to a significantly elevated satisfaction level.
Keenan school district users now experience faster task completion, smoother transactional interactions, and an unparalleled level of satisfaction.
Experience Dynamics responsive visual design deliverable pictured below.
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