EXPEDIA.COM
Claim Status
Travelers who purchased insurance on Expedia can view primary information related to it on their itinerary. To file a claim or know the status of a submitted claim they have to search through the insurer's site. Knowing the status of a submitted claim is of utmost importance to the user. This project is about integrating the insurance claim status and associated processes with the new post-purchase insurance system (Tripcare).
Team & Role
Solo UX Designer, a UX Manager, a PM, and an Engineering Team. My role included:
PWA Design
Design Swarm
Design Research
UX
UI
Tools
Figma, Trello, Miro
Timeline
1.5 months
Context
Traditionally, the itinerary on Expedia displayed only preliminary details of an insurance product purchased by the user. The user had to look up the insurer's site for complete information. A new insurance system - Tripcare, was then introduced for integration with the itinerary (trip system). Tripcare was supposed to be everything a user would need for purchased insurance. Tripcare was a multiphase project. The first phase was providing clarity on the purchased insurance, coverage details, cancellation policy, and the process of filing a claim. The second phase was to provide users with information about the status of submitted claims. This project focuses on the second phase.
Scenario
When a user books a flight and purchases insurance for that flight on Expedia, it becomes a part of their travel itinerary. It also applies to hotel, car, or any other travel insurance booked. A user can find everything about their booking in their itinerary on Expedia, except some of the insurance information. Insurance information is available in bits and pieces, spread across multiple sources.
INSURANCE DETAILS ON EXPEDIA
NOT ON EXPEDIA
STEPS TO CHECK STATUS OF A SUBMITTED CLAIM
Initial goal
As per the second phase (P2) of the larger TripCare project, provide Expedia users information regarding their insurance claim status and associated process on their Expedia itinerary.
Concerns
What data says
We looked at the call data, survey reports for customer dissatisfaction and satisfaction reasons to understand the customer experience with the Insurance.
OpinionLab findings
"I have placed several trips with Expedia. The service and flight deals are great. The problem is the insurance deals that are included. The one time I actually got into a car accident and need insurance, and I have had a really hard time, still nothing on it. I have submitted all the documents asked for. I am still waiting to find out what will happen to my case. I only want what was promised when I made my purchase with Expedia. I would like Expedia to protect its customers and speak to someone who can rectify this situation."
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For a user who has submitted a claim, knowing the claim status is the primary requirement, and currently, we don't provide that in our insurance system
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Claim process and timelines are not clear to the users
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It is not properly communicated to the users that all the claim process is managed by the insurer and Expedia doesn’t participate in the review process, leaving the users unsure whom they should reach out to in case of a concern
How users feel
This project started during the COVID-19 lockdown phase. Due to this, we were not able to do extensive user research. We still conducted user interviews on-call to understand their perspectives.
Goal:
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Understand how users' check their claim status
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Identify the process and where we can intervene to help users
Participants:
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Travelers/users who had recently filed a claim and were in the process
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Users with settled claim
Key findings:
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Users don't have an idea of what all documents might be required during processing and it may take time to get a specific document which delays the process
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After submitting the claim users feel their task is done, and uncertainty about additional steps in processing leads to frustration
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Time-related information is important
Claim status on the insurer's site
LANDING PAGE
CLAIM STATUS ON U.S. POINT OF SALE
CLAIM STATUS FOR REST OF THE WORLD
Problems with the above experience
U.S. POS:
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Ambiguous and incomplete information regarding the next steps
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The required documents section is confusing, it shows only the documents uploaded by the user and doesn't inform about any additional documents the user is are supposed to provide
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Users don't get an idea of the timeline, or number of steps before their claim is finally approved
Rest of the world except U.S. POS:
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The only information a user can see on this page is a line about the status of their claim
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There is no support information or contact (expect there is a customer support number in the footer of the website on all pages), making it difficult for the user to access customer support
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The payment section is only populated when the claim is approved, and there is nowhere mention of the claim amount which can be different from the final amount that gets approved
Redefined goal
Make claims-related information easy to access and understand for the users who purchased insurance on Expedia. Provide clarity on the process and whom to contact in case of concern.
Primary details to be made clear to the users:
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Current status
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Next steps to be taken
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Timelines
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Payments
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Support contact
Challenge
Expedia doesn't own any information regarding insurance claims, also doesn't participate in the claim process. We had to work with our insurance partner company on this project. It was a big challenge as our policies, goals, resources, and timelines didn't match. Though both the insurance company and Expedia aimed at delivering satisfaction to their customers, this project was a priority for Expedia at that given time. Strategically planning the project timeline and meaningful negotiations were essential for completing this project.
Scope
Expedia receives information regarding the traveler's claim status, in an API, from the insurance partner. This information is limited to the primary fields. Requesting any additional information from the insurance partner requires a legal loop. Considering this, the project was divided into two phases.
Phase 1:
Propose an MVP that utilizes the available information, or a few additional fields, for a better user experience.
Phase 2:
Add secondary/ancillary information that may enhance the user experience. Also, provide enhancements such as contextual notifications and alerts.
This project is limited to work done in phase 1 and planning for phase 2.
Understanding existing flow and data
We made a booking in our test environment and filed a claim. We went through each scenario such as filing a single claim, multiple claims, single insureds, multiple insureds, collected screenshots, and compiled a flow to look at each step in detail. This process was done in collaboration with our insurance partner company where we compiled detailed notes and had further detailed discussions on complex scenarios. By the end of this, we had developed a fair understanding of how the current flow and screens look like. We also made a detailed analysis report which contains confidential information and can't be shared.
Competitor analysis
We looked at how the claim status is shown on the insurance sites. We were able to find these primary sections of information:
1
3
2
4
Claim ID
Time information/ timeline
Next step/ action required
Contact details
Payment information
Benefits and claims as per trip phases
Click on the image to see complete list of benefits
Possible user Scenarios
We created a user for our study, Frank Funston, and looked at the distinct claim scenarios possible.
CLAIMANTS
BENEFITS
CLAIMS
EXAMPLE
1
1
1
> 1
1
<= No. of benefits
Frank Funston had booked a flight with the Flight cancellation protection plan, and due to sudden health issues, he had to cancel his flight. He filed a claim for trip cancellation.
Frank Funston is on a business round trip from Settle to London. He purchased a Flight protection plan along with his flight booking. He fell sick while in London and wasn’t able to make his return flight. He filed two separate claims: Medical benefits & trip interruption
So, he is tracking at 2 separate claims for 2 benefits covered under one plan/one product (flight).
>1
1
1
Frank Funston is on a family trip to Universal studio. 2 days before the trip their destination was hit by a natural disaster and they could not travel. Frank Funstun filed a claim for his entire family.
>1
1
<= No. of claimants
Frank Funston is traveling with his friends John and Sheldon to Universal studio. 2 days before the trip their destination was hit by a natural disaster and they could not travel. Frank Funstun filed a claim for himself and shared the itinerary number with John and Sheldon so that they can individually file their claims and track it directly at their end.
>1
> 1
<= No. of benefits
Frank Funston and his wife Jane are on a round trip from Settle to London. He purchased a Flight protection plan along with his flight booking. Jane felt sick while in London and they weren’t able to take their return flight. Frank filed two separate claims:
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Medial benefits – for Jane
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Trip interruption – for himself and Jane
Traveler journey map
Mapping the users' activities, thoughts, and feelings after the user has filed the claim.
Pain-points
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Uncertain timelines and next steps
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Difficult to manage multiple claims
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Lack of clarity about additional documents, too many iterations
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Difficult to discover support contact. Not clearly communicated that Expedia can’t help with the claim processing
Click on the image to see the complete journey map
Analyzing claims information
We looked at the information that we received from our insurance partner. We analyzed the working, capabilities, and limitations of the current API. We had developed an understanding of what our users are looking for from the research. We compared the information that's important to the users with the information we receive in the API to find what's missing in the system. We assigned priority to this additional information (in collaboration with the content strategist) so that we know what's non-negotiable for the new designs.
UX Swarm
This project was during the phase of COVID-19, so we had a virtual swarm. The participants included - one product manager, one content strategist, one design manager, and one UX designer. It was different from a typical design swarm. We set aside 2 hours daily, for 4 days in a row, to brainstorm problems, opportunities, design directions, and design solutions.
The outcomes of the swarm include:
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A more detailed user journey map
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Content mapping and hierarchy
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The job of the page
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System entry point
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New system map
Content mapping and hierarchy
We took a content-first approach. Based on the journey map we looked at what information is important at which phase (done in collaboration with the content strategist). We then arranged the identified information in a logical order to form the content hierarchy at each step.
Job of the page
Insurance claims are primarily part of the post-purchase system. We looked at the job of each page in the post-purchase trip + insurance system. We compared this information with the purpose of claim status to identify where claim status fits in the system.
Trip Folder
Trip Overview
Itinerary
Primary: Show list of upcoming travel, trips should be distinguishable from each other, and users should be able to know products in each folder.
Secondary: Past and cancelled trips.
Primary: High-level product core data.
Secondary: Access to planning tools.
Tertiary: Access to inspirational content and relevant cross-sell to help users plan/build out their trip.
Primary: Core product details that help users get on/to their reservation.
Secondary: Access to secondary itinerary details categorized intuitively.
Benefit Overview
Benefit Detail
File a Claim
Primary: Show all the benefits purchased along with coverage status and claims (if filed).
Secondary: Highlight the benefits that cover the current event/situation.
Primary: Benefit status and coverage details.
Secondary: Access to managing the insurance (cancellation), filing a claim, checking claim status, support.
Primary: Details of the claim filing process and enabling users to file a claim.
Secondary: Access to assistance.
The job of claim status
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Help users understand the status of their claim and the next steps (if any)
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Help users understand the final outcome of their claim
Entry point and system mapping
We explored multiple variants - a separate page for claims, one page for each claim, or upfront claims information. A major challenge was, Expedia didn't receive information about the claim-benefit relationship. Considering this, we weighed the pros and cons of each variant to arrive at the preferred solution.
Pros:
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Everything is on one page contextual
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Predictable navigation and discovery
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All claims in a single view
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Common info will be centralized
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Scalable, as this page can be linked from benefit details, emails, or push notifications
Cons:
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Claims are not tied to benefits
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Multiple claims on one page may be complex to comprehend
But, we don't receive benefit-claim relationship information from our insurance partner. Also, multiple claims under one itinerary are less than 1%.
Designs
We came up with a first draft that had some extra content than what was provided by our insurance partner. We did multiple iterations based on the legal discussions to arrive at the preferred solutions. We converted these solutions into prototypes with actual content and tested them with the users.
Learnings
Legal requirements and constraints can affect the timeline. It's better to strategically plan the project and keep a buffer when committing to deadlines. Insurance deals with a lot of legal data and sensitive information. When designing for such content-heavy scenarios, it becomes critical to involve the content team from the start and at every step in the process. Contextual and precise documentation is key to saving time during discussions, especially in a remote working situation.
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I'd love to hear from you
Email me at tanyaswami1@gmail.com • Connect on LinkedIn