Life Cover Digital Journey Redesign

The Challenge

The existing Nedbank MyCover Life digital journey was facing high drop-off rates and poor sales performance. Our heuristics evaluation and research uncovered key pain points:

• Complex Medical Questionnaire: Multi-condition questions overwhelmed users, especially BMI inputs (height/weight), causing abandonment.

• Unclear Communication & Value Proposition: Jargon-heavy language and unclear product benefits on the first screen.

• Limited Guidance for Decisions: Users lacked context when choosing cover amounts or reviewing quotes.

How We Uncovered the Problem

We applied a multi-faceted research approach combining heuristics, behavioral insights, and competitor benchmarking.

Heuristics Evaluation + Old Flow Walkthrough

Using Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics, I conducted a detailed audit of the existing MyCover Life flow. Instead of just reporting issues, I mapped them directly to the old flow screens to show exactly where usability broke down:

• Get Cover: Generic entry point, poor visibility of value proposition, jargon-heavy with missing trust cues.

• Consent: A standalone screen that added friction and broke continuity. It violated minimalist design principles and felt like an unnecessary hurdle so early in the flow.

• Medical Form: Long, multi-condition questions with no progressive disclosure. Error-prone, overwhelming, and discouraging completion.
  
  

  

  
  

• Personal Info: The medical form required exact height and weight upfront. The issue wasn’t why we asked — it was availability and accuracy: many clients didn’t know precise values in the moment, had to leave the flow to check, and never returned. Later, additional details like gross monthly income (open free‑text) and smoking status (binary yes/no with no definition of “smoke” or frequency/recency) added friction through ambiguity and validation risk.

• Cover Amount: Users had to select how much cover they wanted with almost no guidance. This left them uncertain about implications, contributing to abandonment.

• Review Quote: Only displayed the premium amount without a playback summary of all inputs. Violated the heuristic of recognition over recall, and missed the opportunity to confirm accuracy before submission.

• Beneficiary Nomination: Heavy copy, confusing expectations, and placed too late in the flow, causing potential drop-offs at a critical stage.

Behavioral Analysis

We applied insights from behavioral science research on disclosure rates in insurance applications.

The study revealed:

• Decomposition Bias: Users are more truthful when asked one simple question at a time rather than multi-condition questions.

• Framing Effect: Neutral, action-based wording (e.g., “Do you take medication for diabetes?”) is more effective than judgmental labels (“Do you have diabetes?”).

• Moral Priming: An honesty declaration upfront improves truthful disclosure by appealing to integrity.

These insights directly influenced how we redesigned medical and lifestyle questions, ensuring the flow encouraged accuracy and reduced drop-offs.

Competitive Benchmarking

We analyzed competitor journeys to understand best practices:

• Capitec: A quick, under-10-minute process with only five health questions. They emphasized simplicity and customization, allowing users to personalize cover and payouts.

• FNB: Integrated emotional and benefit-led messaging, e.g., “Protect your home with life cover that adjusts with your FNB Home Loan.” They also included a Help Me Choose tool to guide unsure users.

The takeaway: Competitors leaned heavily on simplicity, emotional resonance, and personalization. This guided us to focus our redesign on upfront clarity, trust-building, and contextual support for decision-making.

New Flow Overview

We redesigned the journey with clarity, transparency, and control:

• Education Screen with Consent & Honesty Nudge: Combined product key benefits, a link to Important Cover Details, and the consent checkbox with honesty-focused, user-friendly copy. This reduced friction and built trust upfront.

• Prep Screen: Sets expectations upfront, includes save option.

• Important Cover Details: Presented as an accordion view where clients could explore information at their own pace without feeling overwhelmed.

• Simplified Medical Questions: Action-based, broken down into individual items, with problematic BMI questions removed.

• Cover Amount: Added contextual explanations to support informed selection.

• Prominent Save Points: Save option available at any point via close button, and made especially prominent on key decision screens such as the Cover Amount screen.

• Review & Playback Summary: Comprehensive summary of all inputs that contribute to premium shown before final submission.

• Add Beneficiaries: Redesigned with skip option and transparent next steps.

Key Redesign Improvements

• Reduced Friction & Guidance: Prep screen and accordion-based info give context for decisions.

• Honesty & Transparency: Consent integrated into the education screen with revised, honesty-focused language.

• Simplified Question Design: Medical and lifestyle questions redesigned to be simpler, one at a time, and in plain language. This reduced cognitive load and encouraged more honest disclosure.

• Improved User Control: Save/resume functionality and playback summary before submission.

• Cover Selection Support: Clearer guidance plus prominent save button on the cover amount screen.

• Beneficiary Nomination: Clearer, less copy-heavy, with skip option.

Impact

• 📈 105% increase in sales with the new design.

• ⬇ Significant drop-off reduction across critical steps.

• ⚡ Faster completion: Average time under 5 minutes.

Reflection & Learnings

This project reinforced for me that impactful design goes beyond aesthetics – it’s about understanding how people think, feel, and behave in high‑stakes moments. Clients weren’t dropping off because the interface was ugly; they were leaving because the questions felt intimidating, the product benefits weren’t clear, and they weren’t confident in the decisions they were making. By combining a structured heuristics evaluation with behavioural science and competitor insights, we were able to identify exactly where anxiety and confusion set in and redesign around those pain points.

Some key reflections:

1. Transparency builds trust – When clients can see the value of the product and have access to “important cover details” without being overwhelmed, they feel more confident to proceed.
   
   

2. Small friction = big abandonment – Even something as simple as asking for BMI created disproportionate drop‑offs. It reminded me how small details can have massive commercial impact.
   
   

3. Tone & framing matter – Behaviourally informed language made a huge difference. Framing medical questions around actions rather than labels encouraged honesty and reduced intimidation.
   
   

4. Save flexibility reduces anxiety – Insurance is a serious financial decision. Adding save/resume points and making them prominent gave clients the sense of control they needed to complete the journey.
   
   

5. Heuristics + Behavioural Science is a powerful duo – Heuristics gave us the structural fixes; behavioural insights gave us the human touch. Together, they created a journey that is both rationally efficient and emotionally supportive.
   
   

6. Competitor benchmarking provided context – Seeing how Capitec and FNB simplified and personalised their flows reminded us that clarity and guidance are competitive advantages, not just “nice to haves.”

Overall, this work reminded me that great product design is as much about psychology as pixels. When we respect users’ cognitive and emotional states, we not only improve conversion but also build lasting trust with the brand.