CASE STUDY  |  2017-18

Location:
Mumbai & Bengaluru, India

Acko is India's first digital native insurer, founded in 2017. As of 2021, the company is worth over $1 Billion.

Background

Customer Problem

Indian consumers traditionally buy motor insurance offline, through agents or at gas stations.

Our Users

Over 300 million Indians, ages 18+, with varying socio-cultural and economic backgrounds.

Goal

Create an online experience that makes buying insurance as simple as purchasing something from an e-commerce platform.

Research

Field Interviews

We spoke to 20 car and motorcycle owners from varying backgrounds, and asked questions pertinent to their experience with insurance purchase in the past. Drawing on our conversations with customers, we developed the following user personas:

Archit Kapur

IT PROFESSIONAL | 26

Archit is tech savvy and drives a sedan to his job at a fintech firm. He bought insurance from the car retailer and has been renewing the same since. He's very enthusiastic about moving to a more affordable digital insurance provider but isn't sure how to go about switching. 

Kavita Patel

BUSINESS OWNER | 58

Kavita runs a local textile business, and drives her family's secondary vehicle, a hatchback. She can't believe that she can get insured cheaper online, and save a trip to the insurance office. Her main concern is that while she uses her phone for messaging & e-commerce, an insurance website might be too complex for her to use.

Jitender Sharma

SECURITY GUARD | 53

Jitender is a security guard at an apartment building and rides a motorcycle. He owns a basic smartphone, which is mostly used for making calls and messaging. Jitender generally purchases two-wheeler insurance at the gas station, and says he'd be open to purchasing online but would require his son's support to set it up.

Design

Logo: The Toggle

The concept behind the Acko logo emerged from discussions between stakeholders from marketing and product teams, and ad agency BBH. The idea was simple- with Acko, getting insured would be as effortless as turning on a switch.

Acko's a young brand targeted at new-age India that would primarily live in the digital space. As such, we decided to treat the logo with modern typography and an edgy purple-green colour combination. I constructed the letterforms on a geometric grid, and gave each letter's spine adequate thickness to promote readability and legibility, even in small sizes.

Construction

Digital Identity

User Journey & Wireflows

Acko was scheduled for release on web, iOS & Android platforms. We laid out V1 of the customer journey through iterative exploration and testing cycles using lo-fi prototypes.

A 3-Step Process

Data Input  >  Quote  >  Checkout

Product Design

We worked on multiple product features, including purchase of car and motorcycle insurance, an automobile self-inspection UI, and the claims experience. For demonstration purposes, the following prototypes focus on the motor vehicle purchase journey. Some rationales behind our decisions were:

• Prioritize user feedback and solve problems we identified.
  
  
• Demistify insurance by explaining concepts clearly and making information easily accessible. One way we achieved this was through progressive disclosure.
  
  
• Provide agency to users at any step in the process. They should be aware of what they've already accomplished and how much is left. Additionally, we provided in-line validation for input errors.

Mobile Web, Android, iOS

Desktop Web

acko.com

Acko's website was designed to fulfil two functions:

1. Serve as the company's online presence, and
2. Allow customers to get coverage instantly.

The site's look and feel was designed to immortalize Acko's vision to be India's "new-age" insurance. The illustrations for the site were conceptualized with ad agency BBH.

Key Documents

To establish a coherent omnichannel experience, it was essential to align the information architecture and design language of key documents such as the policy document and inspection report.

Sample Policy Document

Illustrations: Gaurav Rukhana

Conversion Funnels

The funnels below were designed to display conversion data on large monitors within the office, different colours representing different products.

Results

• To quote an Acko customer, "A very smooth buying process, look no further than Acko if you are looking to buy insurance online!"
  
  
• Acko counts 62 million unique customers and has sold 800 million insurance policies as of 2021.
  
  
• The product designed by our team was one of the pillars that led to multiple rounds of subsequent funding.