Kat Fenton

No, we didn’t talk to users when we made this.

What a scary response to a basic user experience question. That’s usually a fact when it comes to old applications and websites. The original warranty application (built in the early 2000s) not only looked outdated, it was confusing and difficult for our users to complete even the simplest tasks. Creating a new, “pretty” application would satisfy business. But ultimately we wanted to ensure our user experience was amazing. The ultimate goal for this redesign was to create a tool that is not only the most convenient method for completing a task, but also differentiates us from competitors. Several key business drivers were created with UX in mind.

Who are our users?

This company has a unique mix of internal and external users. Some of the users include internal employees that are receiving claims and processing them. The other users were employees of other businesses that were submitting claims. In both cases, users had been in their position for at least 3 years but in some cases 30+! Field service engineers, financial analysts, warranty manager, and business and general aviation administrator were the primary titles of the users we worked with. The first step we took was to watch. We recorded our users actually using the current application and then created a journey map. Finding out the needs and opportunities for the new application.

Once we were done journey mapping, I worked with the technical product manager and product owner to determine scope and capacity. Thankfully, we had minimal limitation. A 5 year plan was laid out with the first year focus being on improving the experience for our primary users. This meant I could start on the initial sitemap and wireframing for the first feature set. It was messy and more questions than answers. Over 50 form fields and 16 types of documents forced me to sit down with business to talk requirements. Surely we didn’t need to put such a heavy load on customers. We worked together to reduce the required fields and documents for the users. After that was ironed out, I was able to focus on making the process make sense. Originally, I focused on a linear model, but after comparing a few times I noticed a repeating pattern throughout the forms. This lead me to move the application towards a more cyclical approach. Most of the forms contained the same, core fields but asked for different documentation. They also had the same end result.

Sitemap Simplification

Time for some A/B testing

The team was split between 2 directions. A vertical or a horizontal workflow? It was time to talk to our users again. Before the interviews, we identified a few hypothesis for the user experience. From there we created a list of questions that we hoped to get answers to. We interviewed 5 users, 2 internal and 3 external. I created 2 clickable prototypes for user to experiment with. They were also given an excel with dummy data to fill in though most did not use it.

• Would users prefer to have a dynamic list of documents requested upfront or as they fill out the form?
  • 3/5 users had no strong preference for where the list of documents occurred.
  • The other 2 preferred to have the list of documents upfront so they could prepare them before even starting the form.
• Do users want to review all fields on one page?
  • 4/5 users preferred to have form fields grouped throughout multiple pages.
  • “I just want to tab through everything quickly, copy/pasting as I go.“
• Where is FAQ information most helpful?
  • 3/5 had no preference on where the FAQ information was located
  • 2/5 did not attempt to even find the FAQ information
• How many tables is too many tables?
  • 5/5 users said that they would only want 1 table

One quote stuck with us.

The highlighted quote really struck a cord with all of us. Our users weren’t enjoying the current experience because it was too form heavy. They were working from multiple excels and pdfs to copy/paste data into these form fields. Bouncing back and forth between tabs to accomplish something that should be obvious. Needless to say, I went back to the drawing board. Our users were fascinated by the review table, that was the primary point of interest for them in the interviews. One even said it would be nice to work in it instead of a long form. So that’s what I designed next.

User interviews are up next.

We now have an incredible amount of functionality in a small space so it’s time to speak to our users again. What functionality would be most helpful for them? Answers to these questions would help development prioritize what to put into the first release. These demos were done through screen share by a developer (too technically complex to mockup in Figma). This user groups was comprised of 3 internal and 3 external users.

• Which columns do you group line items by?
  • 6/6 users said they would not use this functionality
• Would you use any preset table setups?
  • 6/6 users said they would not use this functionaltiy
• What columns do you usually filter by in your excels?
  • 6/6 users said ESN
  • 1 user said quantity, unit price, percentage, and maybe a few others
  • 2 users also wanted filtering on line number
  • 1 user said they would want to filter in the column, not a side panel
• Is the copy/paste functionality what you would expect from this application?
  • 5/6 liked the copy/paste functionality
  • “This would be much faster and more efficient for us”
  • 1 said she probably wouldn’t use this functionality unless it was presented in the review of a bulk file
  • “I want to be able to copy hundreds of line items if possible, but I feel like bulk upload lets me work around that.”
• Is there any part of the new experience that is confusing to you?
  • 2 users asked for clarification on agreement types and acronyms in the table headings

What were our results?

This application is currently in development and updated metrics will be put up once the project is complete. Our starting metrics include the total number of claims submitted (4,977 in 2024), 25% of which were bulk upload. 1,496 claims had more than 10 line items. The average time it takes a user to complete a claim (from opening a new form to submitting that form) is 30 minutes. About 15 inquiries are made each month to ask how to use the current application.