Working as part of a newly formed Hastings CX Hub, I led the design team to implement their app-first strategy.

Client

Hastings Direct

Role

Product Designer

When

March 2021

The original app

The original home screen was limited in functionality, with core actions being hidden within the burger menu. The look and feel was also a little dated

With the business employing an app-first strategy, a new design would be needed to allow future features, which also gave us the opportunity to refresh the design.

Initial exploration

After speaking to stakeholders to ascertain what would be useful to have on the dashboard, I began to sketch out some rough ideas. I wanted to bring in more functionality with a view to make the app something that can be expanded with newer features further down the line.I kept in mind the need to scale, so it made sense to think about modular sections with some sort of quick action section for main user needs.

Rapid prototyping

In order to demonstrate how a modular approach could work, I put together a quick prototype so stakeholders could have something in their hands.

After sharing with the Head of Digital I was then able  show the CEO directly. The concept was well received and gave me confidence to proceed with this route.

Removing the burger menu

An obvious change was to remove the burger menu in favour of a more accessible bottom navigation

This means that we can give users quick access to key areas in the app and give as much visibility, rather then hiding them being the burger menu.This approach is also much better erganomically.

Design exploration

I wanted to explore how the policy cards could look, and also how the order might work with different layouts.

User testing

I made a prototype using Protopie to use in user testing. Users were asked to complete a few different tasks in order to help us validate the designs.

We used the findings to tweak the design. One of the major findings was around how users would get into the amend policy journey. We found that having a quick action on the dashboard was much more effective that requiring the user to tap into the policy.

Launch the updated dashboard

The user testing really helped us to refine what was needed on the dashboard and also gave us more insight into user expectations around the functionality of the app.

Users liked the fact they could see their key information at a glance and the found the quick actions useful.

Updating the splash

The original splash screen used an old asset which needed to be replaced. There was a range of photography available so I used some to design this splash.

I wanted to create a cleaner looking first impression of the app, and by using lifestyle photography really helps to convey the benefit of using the app.

Conclusion

The user testing really helped us to refine what was needed on the dashboard and also gave us more insight into user expectations around the functionality of the app.

Users liked the fact they could see their key information at a glance and the found the quick actions useful.