embracing e-business

Context

By the end of 2004 UnumProvident had protected over 2.1 million incomes, making it the market leader in the UK. During 2004 the company paid total benefit claims of over £249 million, of which more than £177 million related to income protection claims. As we found out, UnumProvident is not just about income protection insurance. The organisation is expert in rehabilitation, actively helping customers plan their return to work.

With the company's long history, supportive ethos and renowned customer service, UnumProvident needed a partner, enthusiastic about taking the business model online.

e-scape media's expertise in creative design, content management systems, developing intuitive navigation systems, and designing for usability and accessibility were key to our appointment. Our financial services industry experience put us in an effective position to work with UnumProvident.

Objectives

• Translate the offline brand to a new medium
• Identify key customer groups and target website content accordingly
• Plan customer paths through the website, with key goals and calls to action
• Reflect the company's status, its values and strategic differentiators through our work
• Ensure the website is intuitive to use and open to all through usability and accessibility testing
• Provide consultancy and documentation throughout the build process (carried out by internal IT team)
• The resulting website design and navigation must pass independent tests to Conformance Level AA of the W3C Accessibility Guidelines

Solution

Working alongside the UnumProvident eBusiness Manager and her team, we ran a series of workshops with staff and focus groups with customers. We built the project's strategy around our findings.

The content was edited and categorised to be intuitive. We used card sorting techniques to determine and develop useful navigation routes through the website. Having created a blueprint that we knew would produce results we turned our attention to design. Building on the established offline brand, we created a new colour palette and devised the online visitor experience. We tested a site prototype for usability and accessibility and created a set of guidelines to ensure that all future design and development work would meet Conformance Level AA.

With our prototype approved and determined as content management ready, we continued to provide consultancy and assistance to the in-house IT team throughout the production process. At this point our original remit was achieved. We identified further areas where we would be of assistance and were duly commissioned to produce new website copy, office location maps, online advertising and further accessibility consultancy.

For further examples of the work we carry out, please contact us.