Sunshine Surplus
Revitalizing the user experience for insurance agents and agencies
SLIP is an essential tool for insurance professionals managing policy filings and compliance within Florida’s surplus lines industry. Despite its utility, the platform’s interface and workflows needed modernization to improve usability and user satisfaction. Sunshine Surplus Lines tasked me with leading the redesign of SLIP, introducing new features and simplifying navigation to enhance the overall user experience.
*Please note this is a real client project. Client names and sensitive information were removed to protect confidentiality.
Role(s)
Lead Product Designer
Timeline
~10 months
Date
August 2023 - June 2024
What's the problem?
The existing SLIP interface and workflows were outdated and cumbersome for users, leading to inefficiencies in managing policy filings and compliance tasks. Specific pain points included:
Limited search capabilities that made finding policies and endorsements time-consuming
A cluttered navigation system that confused users and slowed task completion
Goals
Redesign SLIP to provide a more modern, user-friendly interface
Enhance search functionality for better efficiency
Simplify navigation and improve the organization of key features
Create a home page to display essential information prominently
Process
Here's how I worked on this project as the lead
When I joined the project, a previous designer had already completed the initial research and the clients created a Confluence page outlining the many features of SLIP. However, the information was unorganized and presented as a stream of thoughts, making it challenging to extract actionable insights.
To bring clarity and structure to the project, I:
Reviewed Research: Carefully read through the Confluence page to identify key features, pain points, and user needs.
Visualized Workflows: Created user flows to help me and the development team better understand how SLIP’s processes and features actually worked. This step was critical in identifying inefficiencies and gaps in the existing workflows.
This groundwork allowed me to grasp the complexities of SLIP and provided a strong foundation for redesigning its features.
Design and Iteration of Features
After mapping out workflows and defining the scope of specific features, I moved into the design phase. My approach was iterative and highly collaborative:
Lo-Fi Wireframes: Created low-fidelity wireframes to outline the structure and interactions for each feature, focusing on usability and simplicity.
Hi-Fi Mockups: Translated wireframes into high-fidelity mockups that incorporated SLIP’s branding and visual guidelines.
Two Rounds of Iteration:
Subject Matter Expert (SME) Feedback: Conducted the first round of reviews with the SME of SLIP to validate functionality and ensure the designs aligned with system requirements.
Stakeholder Feedback: The second iteration involved presenting designs to stakeholders who actively used the specific feature being redesigned. Their insights helped refine the experience further, ensuring the designs addressed real-world needs.
This process ensured that every feature was thoroughly vetted and iterated upon before moving forward.
Collaboration with Development
With the designs finalized, I collaborated closely with the development team to transition the work into the build phase. Key activities included:
Design Handoff: Provided developers with detailed assets, annotations, and documentation to ensure seamless implementation.
Ongoing Refinement: Worked iteratively with the team to address any challenges that arose during development, making adjustments to maintain design fidelity and usability.
While SLIP underwent significant improvements across multiple areas during the redesign, my primary focus was on three key enhancements that had the greatest impact on user experience.
Problem 1
Limited search capabilities that made finding policies and endorsements time-consuming
Users faced difficulty finding policies, renewals, and endorsements quickly because the search lacked predictive capabilities. They often had to manually input exact terms or sift through irrelevant results, which slowed down their workflow and led to frustration.
Implemented a Smart Search functionality that:
Allows users to start typing keywords or partial terms, with search results dynamically predicting and updating based on intent.
Highlights relevant results by analyzing patterns in frequently searched terms and user behavior.
Introduced a cleaner, more intuitive search interface to guide users seamlessly.
Problem 2
A cluttered navigation system that confused users and slowed task completion
The original navigation in SLIP was cluttered and unintuitive, making it difficult for users to find tools and features. Pages were poorly grouped, requiring users to click through multiple layers to reach their desired destination. This confusion slowed workflows and frustrated both new and experienced users.
To combat this, I implemented a:
Consolidated Menu:
Grouped related pages into logical categories, reducing the cognitive load on users.
Simplified the overall structure, making key features more accessible.
Home Page Dashboard:
Designed the home page to act as a central hub, providing users with a clear overview of SLIP’s offerings.
Introduced direct links from the dashboard to frequently used tools and features, allowing users to navigate quickly to their desired destination.
Problem 3
Lack of Consistency in UI Design
The existing SLIP interface suffered from inconsistent design elements, which led to a fragmented user experience. Different pages used varying styles, components, and interactions, creating confusion for users and increasing the time and effort required for development and maintenance.
I leveraged MUI to create reusable components that provided consistency and scalability across SLIP, ensuring a cohesive user experience throughout the platform. This helped our timelines and the developers by providing a readily available library of pre-built, customizable UI components for React applications.
Outcomes
Improved Usability: The redesigned interface and enhanced features resulted in faster task completion and reduced user frustration.
Positive Stakeholder Feedback: Stakeholders praised the new design for its clarity and modern look.
Increased Efficiency: Enhanced search capabilities reduced the average time to locate policies, renewals, and endorsements by 40%, improving user productivity.
Higher Engagement with Compliance Tools: The refreshed home page, with the prominently displayed Compliance Checkup dashboard, resulted in a 50% increase in users accessing compliance status updates directly from the dashboard.
Challenges and Learnings
Successes: This project showcased my ability to lead a complete redesign, from gathering requirements to delivering a polished product.
Takeaways: This experience reinforced the importance of iterative design and collaboration when balancing user needs with business goals.