Jose Torres

Tool: Learning Launch

Challenge

Business lead on the design and launch of the company’s first mobile app. The company was an  insurance company specializing in Property & Casualty Insurance. The aim was to be first to the local  insurance market with a mobile app that can deliver basic services that would limit the need for the  customer to physically enter the office thus allowing the claim officers to focus on analyzing claim  submissions for faster processing times. Development of this app would be considered a phase one  approach, based on customer feedback and suggestions to improve; these can be build out in  subsequent phases/upgrades of the mobile app.

During the app development, the team notices that a large majority of the claim officer’s time is spent  on documenting claims rather than processing them quickly. Another factor also influenced the decision  to develop the app; the rise of smart phones in the country and mobile web technologies. The company  decided to merge these two major factors to develop a solution that would meet the needs of its  younger emerging customer who are tech savvy and rather conduct business transactions online with  convenience at their fingertips. This was would coincide with the overall insurance group’s strategic  objective of embracing technology to improve efficiencies with which the company treats with  customers and as a mechanism to continue to differentiate itself from the others to maintain the  company’s leadership role within the local/regional insurance industry.

The major challenge of this project would be to drive app acceptance and move the customer base to  conducting business online; reporting claims, queries and general information about company products.  I would like to mention here that in my country, we have a population that’s skewed to the older  generation so changing that culture of in person claim submissions would be a challenge.

Selection

The launch tool would be the most effective method to gain buy-in from customers and to received  direct feedback from our target audience on the app’s design, user ability, functionality and aesthetics  just to name a few. The launch tool would also serve as a final test before the app is submitted for  acceptance by the Google & Apple Stores.

Application

Before submitting the app to the respective store, the aesthetics was tested by our sample audience for  menu option and priority listing, elements, titles, fonts, colors etc for acceptance. Apple’s iOS and  Google’s Android design principles describe the basic requirements for designing a user-friendly  interface. We built the app using a cross-platform development tool, therefore the app’s conformity and  consistency had to be tested using a wide range of mobile handsets that uses both IOS and Android.  By  previewing the app in the launch test for both operating systems, we were able to make adjustments to  the apps to ensure that we met the design requirements of the operating systems.

We also tested the app’s usability for ease of navigation and user experience. All the menus, drop down  for sub menus and navigation through these menus and functions were tested and customer feedback  was given on areas of improvement.

The workflow for the app was also tested; the user access was set up to pull information from the  company’s ERP so as to display as much information on the customer we had on the system. This was  essential to the app’s functionality as well.

Insight

Applying the launch tool was somewhat logical, it would have been irresponsible of me as the business  lead to launch a mobile app geared towards customers of various backgrounds and tech savvy levels  without it first being tested by a sample audience. The test would help us iron out any navigation issues  that the team may have over looked because of our involvement in the development of the app, it  would be wise to get feedback from the faintness of mobile users to ensure a smooth and user friendly  approach that would ensure that we meet the customers’ needs and expectations.

There were some major changes needed; during the testing phase we realized that an added feature of  the app was to locate gas/service stations but testing revealed that some of the service stations and gas  stations were no longer operational and these where not updated on Google Maps.

All other functions of the app were tested and updated for optimal use.

Approach

Launch testing is hard wired into the design process, the design must be tested to ensure that it met all  of the customer’s expectations. To test the app, we selected a wide cross section of our customer base  to ensure we covered all segments of customers; from first time mobile user to the very young  professional who’s always on the go. Each function of the app was tested and we asked that the users  rate the effectiveness of each function and application. We asked customers to give suggestions as to  improvements to the app and what they would like to see for future upgrades to the app. This approach  is vital to the survival of the app because the app was developed for the customer therefore it should  meet the desires and expectations of the customer.

