Case study: Standard Life

Our user-centred design consultancy helped Standard Life to beat business targets by 75%.
 

The brief

Design an easy and useful online process to move substantial amounts of independent financial adviser (IFA) business online.

Standard Life approached us for help with the design of a major new online life insurance application process for IFAs: LPS online.

At the time, IFAs buying life insurance from the company needed to fill in and submit paper forms, which were then keyed in by Standard Life staff. The company wanted to transfer a significant amount of this process to the web, to increase margins and save time for staff and customers.

The challenge was to integrate internal technology and third-party acquired software, while also designing a new interface for the submission process.

Standard Life had set a target. They wanted 40% of this business to be submitted online within the first year.
 

What we did

Working with the Standard Life project team, we followed a user-centred design (UCD) approach consisting of:

• Persona workshops to help the project team define the needs and requirements of their target audience.
• Two three-day interaction design workshops to design a submission process and screens that the target audience could use.
• Three rounds of rapid usability testing with independent financial advisers to get essential feedback and direction for the process.

The results

The target of 40% of business submitted online was achieved by the end of the first quarter. By the third quarter, the company was achieving an unprecedented rate of 70% of business submitted online. Overall, the results exceeded business targets by 75%.

Money Marketing, the main newspaper for independent financial advisers, awarded the site a top ranking 'eee' status for excellence.

The site also won the award for Best Protection Site B2B at the 2005 IFA Online awards, with 'usability' described as a key factor.
 

What Standard Life say:

"Development ran smoothly because we ironed out the problems during the prototyping phase, rather than during implementation. The positive response to the finished product was great for our brand."

Gary Anderson, Standard Life
 

Visit the Standard Life website (opens in new window)