Skip to main content

The rise of research

We’re taking a user-centred and design-led approach to the Future at Lloyd’s. But what does that actually mean? And importantly, what does it mean for you?

Waseem Ali & Vanessa Daly

01 May 2020

User-centred simply means to understand what the user needs are and to design for them. In the past, companies would ‘design something’ put a marketing plan around it and ‘sell’ the benefits to the users. At best, results were okay, but often they had a high fail rate. 

More recently you might have heard the term ‘usability’, and maybe you’ve heard of usability testing. These methods explore if people find services or products easy to use. This was critical when the digital age moved from websites, to online tools and services. Internet banking was a really early example of being able to go into a website and complete your banking jobs, rather than simply reading or posting on forums. 

And while usability is still ultra-important, a curious trend started to emerge. Products that were very ‘usable’ were still failing in high numbers. Often these were apps. The reason for this is that just because someone can use a product or service, doesn’t mean it actually solves a need for them. There has to be a tangible benefit to people if you want them to change behaviour and use your new product or service.

"Products that were very ‘usable’ were still failing in high numbers. Often these were apps. The reason for this is that just because someone can use a product or service, doesn’t mean it actually solves a need for them" 

User research is about understanding what someone's needs are, and the context they are in. Pain points are typically a great place to start, as people are readily able to share and articulate them. By solving the problems highlighted we can immediately and positively influence likely use of the solutions created. Researchers use a number of ways to find out these pain points, and get to the heart of where the need for improvement is greatest. By using many of these techniques we’ll be able to ensure the Future at Lloyd’s will be able to focus effort on improving the parts of the experience that matter most to people in the market.

As we undertake research and uncover pain points, we will identify areas which should be explored further through an experiment spike. These short bursts of activities will enable us to drive fast insight and feedback from you. The experiments will then be progressed into the Future at Lloyd’s workstreams where they are shown to make a different to addressing the heart of the pain points.

Of course, to do this, we need you to sign up and help co-design the future experience you want. As we progress, we’ll be asking you to test and give feedback and ultimately develop something that works for you.

To be part of our research group click here.