Making products or services accessible online has become imperative for enterprises to thrive in this highly digital age. However, attracting consumers or users is more than just building a website or an application – it also takes a well-planned user interface (UI) and user experience (UX).
Sun Life Asia Service Centres (ASC), a company providing Business Processing, IT, and Investment Research services to Sun Life’s global businesses with locations in India and the Philippines, revealed that the key to transformative UI and UX design is empathy and creative storytelling.
In their recent webinar series entitled “The Future of UI/UX Design,” Sun Life ASC brought together key opinion leaders who shared their expertise with hundreds of tech professionals from the Philippines and India. This is in line with the company’s commitment to promoting digital transformation and building UI/UX capabilities among web developers, UI/UX designers, graphic designers, among others.
Sun Life Philippines Service Design and UX Lead Nabeth Gaston discussed the power of UX in the insurance industry, while Sun Life ASCP Solutions Architect Aivy Torres presented the UI/UX trends in 2022, and Sun Life Asia Client Experience Architect Peter Buckingham shared the latest methodologies and tools.
The webinar was also graced by industry experts such as Experience Australia Founder and Principal UX Consultant Bryan Caoyonan who tackled the supply chain and user experience as well as ON-OFF Group UI Designer Joel Delos Reyes who provided insights on how UX transforms into client experience.
2022 UI/UX trends
Having a dynamic user interface and experience is crucial for a business’ growth, especially given the accelerated digital shift following the pandemic. According to Torres, the top three UI/UX design trends for 2022 and more likely in the coming years include scrolly-telling which creates more immersion to engage users, minimalism which is a powerful web design technique to highlight the essentials, and inclusivity for a more accessibility and meaningful inclusion of diverse culture, gender, sexuality, races, among others.
“UI/UX design has the potential to be a major change maker, and to do this ethically and efficiently requires empathy. Because having empathy and maintaining curiosity for these trends help us understand what to expect when entering the field and be able to contribute to shaping a better user experience,” Torres shared.
In addition, Buckingham discussed in his webinar episode that UI/UX design success should be measured by three U’s – useful, usable, and used – which basically implies that an effective UI/UX contains beneficial information, is functional and easily accessible, and is being continuously utilized by users.
“Because users may not appreciate good UX design, but they do notice bad UX,” he pointed out. He advised designers to leverage data insight and utilize a human approach to better understand the needs of customers and provide a fulfilling experience.
UI/UX in insurance industry
When it comes to the insurance industry, Gaston shared in her session that UI/UX plays a vital role – not only to bring clients to a certain solution but to also provide a valuable journey. She encouraged designers to create a remarkable experience, empathize with the users, anticipate their individual needs, and deliver a personalized experience by integrating human and digital interaction through persuasion, emotion, and trust.
“Our job as designers is to figure out and design with empathy because clients don’t know what they want until we show them what they would want to see,” Gaston added.
With digital competencies at its core, Sun Life ASC promotes digital transformation not only for technological advancement but also building relevant business models, enhancing operations, creating best-in-class client experiences, and forging a digital culture and mindset. In the past three years, they have launched over 20 digital assets, including the Sun Life Mobile Application.
Sun Life Asia Service Centre-Philippines (ASCP) provides Business Processing, IT, and Knowledge Service to Sun Life’s global businesses. ASC Philippines is part of Sun Life Asia Service Centres and together with ASC India, support Clients through all stages of client and software life cycle for Sun Life in Canada, the US, and Asia.