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A new way to plan your Estate.
Overview
BeyondMii is a B2C product that addresses planning for life after death. A problem many households face: family members cannot find documents or information pertaining to a person's assets or estate once they have passed. BeyondMii addresses this issue by providing a protected vault for individuals to archive and sort their affairs, while supplying an "assets map" for beneficiaries to help streamline the executor process.
Role
UI Designer
UX Researcher
Teaming
Client
Duration
Nov 2020 - Present/On-Going
Tools
Adobe XD, Adobe CC, Lucid
InVision
Define
INITIAL PROBLEM
People view their personal affairs as private and are often unwilling to share information.
From my experience, I know that conversations about mortality can spark uneasy feelings. Discussing such a sensitive topic is even harder once an individual is gone. I have heard stories where family members find money "under a mattress" and sometimes heirlooms in the most random places. In sadder cases, such items are forgotten or "lost" and assets (such as bank accounts) remain frozen only to sit for decades because no one even knows they exist.
SOLVED PROBLEM
I was partially wrong. American's aren't only worried about sharing their estate planning affairs, they're genuinely confused about what it is.
According to Wealth Counsel's Estate Awareness Survey, the confusion result they found related to the erroneous belief, shared by half of respondents, that estate planning is only for the wealthiest people. 47% percent think that estate planning is primarily for those who are most prosperous, while 49% say their assets aren’t worth enough for them to even consider having an estate plan, and that a will is sufficient enough for their real-estate needs.
source: https://craft.wealthcounsel.com/
DESIGN CHALLENGE
How do we help families stay organized during times of great stress?
Ideate
DISCOVERY
I began by researching the market for issues surrounding this problem.
In my research, I discovered that substantial gaps in knowledge exist around three major areas of estate planning: health and family; courts and conflict; and business and tax implications.
source: https://craft.wealthcounsel.com/
COURTS & CONFLICTS
35%
have either personally experienced, or known someone who has experienced, family conflict as the result of not having an estate plan or comprehensive will.
BUSINESS &TAX
74%
say they’d be more likely to create an estate plan if it would help lower their families’ tax obligations
HEALTH
45%
say they understand that estate planning can be used to express an individual’s wishes related to personal healthcare decisions.
FAMILY
71%
say having a well-thought-out plan would help them feel like a good spouse or parent.
Interviews revealed that users want to be able to share information but don't know how to start the conversation with family/beneficiaries.
I interviewed 24 people from different walks of life to better understand the chaos and challenges that occur during a changed life event. These interviews also included questions on how users organize their own affairs or affairs for a loved ones. These sample sizes remain small as I wanted to focus on a group of individuals who have experienced many life events to find out how they have planned in the past and vice versa with users who have 0 events and how they expect to plan for the future.
24
6+18
23-70
interviewees
men / women
ages
Goals:
1. Understand how users use tech for and during a life event.
2. Learn what types of information users are comfortable sharing.
3. Learn how users keep their information organized.
4. Understand what users value and protect.
5. Understand how users define time and expectations.
JOURNEY MAP
I synthesized interview results to form a typical user journey. My discovery led to a list of clear points where users struggled. Users became exhausted from the amount of input required to use to the app effectively. This led to various solutions for data input and finding the best method to avoid data input fatigue.
KEY INSIGHTS
Happy
Users were happiest when they were researching existing products and signing in for the first time.
Satisfactory
Users demeanor was okay once profile was complete.
Unsatisfactory
Users were unhappy with the price. They wanted to do a trial run before committing to the year long subscription.
THE IDEA
What if your loved ones knew your plans now? What if you could control the level of access to those plans, and vice versa?
Prototype
DESIGN
A set of design principles to guide decisions:
I created a set of design principles to follow and validate the design decisions I was making. These principals held me accountable to the end user goals which helped create a cohesive and unified experience.
Family & Access
Easy connections and interactions with selected beneficiaries
Privacy & Security
Feeling secure and safe to enter & give access to personal information
Adaptable
Interface and option selections should be adaptable for life events
USER FLOW
First I began with a display of the complete path a user would take when using the app. This laid out the user's movement through the product, mapping out each and every step the user would take—from entry point right through to the final interaction.
Test
PROTOTYPE
Testing interactions between users and their personal vault.
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