Policyholder Portal: Giving Insurers a Modern Customer Experience​

Executive Summary

As Lead Product Designer, I designed a white-label policyholder portal for insurance carriers whose customers were managing everything via phone and email. The portal enabled small business owners to self-serve claims, policy documents, and applications—reducing support calls and improving customer satisfaction. Deployed across multiple carriers from Aug 2021 - June 2022.

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Overview

Role: Lead Product Designer
Timeline: Aug 2021 - June 2022
Team: Product, Engineering, Customer Success, External Stakeholders
Outcome: White-label portal adopted by multiple insurance carriers

Design files available upon request

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The Problem

Many insurance carriers lacked policyholder portals entirely, or had outdated systems that frustrated customers. This meant:​

• Policyholders spent hours on hold or playing email tag just to check a claim status or request a certificate of insurance

• Insurance carriers had support teams drowning in routine requests that could be self-service

• Simple tasks like updating contact information or downloading policy documents required calling customer service

 

Small business owners needed to manage their insurance quickly and get back to running their businesses—but the tools didn't exist.

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The Challenge

Design a white-label policyholder portal that insurance carriers could offer their customers. It needed to be intuitive enough for infrequent users (people only log in when they have a problem) while handling complex insurance workflows.

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Key constraint: This had to work for carriers with different branding, different policy types, and different internal systems.

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My Role

• Conducted user research with small business owners to understand their pain points

• Designed complete information architecture and user flows

• Created all interface designs and prototypes

• Built and maintained the design system

• Worked with engineering to ensure proper implementation

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Research & Discovery

User Research: Interviewed small business owners about their insurance experiences. The pattern was clear: they only thought about insurance when something went wrong or they needed to make a change.

Key Insights:​

• Users accessed the portal infrequently—sometimes months between logins

• They came with specific tasks: check a claim, get a certificate, review coverage

• They had basic tech proficiency but no patience for complex interfaces

• Desktop was primary access point (accessing during work hours)

• Documentation retrieval was a major pain point in current workflows

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Design Principle: Make it so simple that someone can accomplish their task without remembering how the system works.

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Design Process​

Information Architecture

The biggest decision: how to organize the interface.

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Initial approach: Single-page design with all information visible at once. The thinking: users visit infrequently, so show them everything immediately.

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The problem: After testing, users felt overwhelmed. Too much information at once made it harder, not easier, to find what they needed.

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Solution: Side navigation with clear, task-based labels:

• Dashboard (overview of active policies)

• Quotes & Applications

• Policies

• Claims

• Profile

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This made it immediately apparent what was available without scrolling, while keeping each section focused and uncluttered.

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Core Features

1. Authentication & Profile Management

• Standard login with password reset flows

• Profile management for contact info and preferences

• Designed to be white-labeled for each carrier's branding

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2. Quotes & Applications

• Review active quotes

• Complete insurance application forms

• Track application status

• Designed forms to be mobile-friendly despite complexity

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3. Policy Management

• View all active policies at a glance

• Download policy documents and certificates of insurance

• See coverage details without insurance jargon where possible

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4. Claims

• Submit new claims with required documentation

• Track claim status in real-time

• Clear status indicators so users know what's happening

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Design System

Built a comprehensive, white-labelable design system:

• Neutral base components that carriers could brand

• Consistent patterns for forms, tables, and status indicators

• WCAG 2.1 AA compliant throughout

• Responsive layouts prioritizing desktop but functional on mobile

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Key Design Decisions

Task-First Navigation Rather than organizing by insurance concepts (policies, endorsements, etc.), organized by what users actually want to do (check a claim, get a document, update info).

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Progressive Disclosure Show summaries first, details on demand. Users could scan their policies quickly and dive deeper only when needed.

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Clear Status Indicators Color-coded, clear language about where things stood—especially important for claims where users are often anxious.

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Minimal Onboarding No tutorials or tours. The interface needed to be self-explanatory because users wouldn't remember a tutorial from months ago.

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Outcomes

• Successfully deployed across multiple insurance carriers

• White-label system adapted to different carrier brands and workflows

• Reduced support call volume for routine requests (no specific metrics available)

• High carrier satisfaction—became a differentiator for Dais platform

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Lessons Learned

Test your assumptions: The single-page design seemed logical but failed in practice. User testing caught this before we shipped.

Design for infrequent use: Most UX advice assumes daily use. Designing for users who only visit when they have a problem requires different thinking—clarity over efficiency, simplicity over power.

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White-labeling is hard: Building a design system that maintains usability across different brands required extra planning upfront but paid off in deployment.

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Small businesses are time-sensitive: These users aren't browsing—they have a specific task and want to get back to work. Respect that urgency in every design decision.

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