July 23, 2015

Endsleigh

Endsleigh appointed specialist digital agencies The Cogworks and Erskine Design to deliver a comprehensive overhaul of its digital presence. Top of the list of was ensuring the site could be easily navigated by customers accessing it via a mobile device

Best known as a specialist in insurance for the student, education and graduate markets, Endsleigh’s new website was developed in response to the fast-increasing use of mobile devices by its young customer base.

While research conducted by the Office of National Statistics found that 89 per cent of 16-24 year-olds now use their phones to access the internet – and 15 per cent of all insurance is bought through a mobile device – Endsleigh observed a marked increase in the volume of customers using their tablets or smartphones to access and navigate www.endsleigh.co.uk, with figures showing that a third opt to use these channels.

In response, the insurer sought a comprehensive overhaul of its digital presence, placing, in particular, a renewed focus on providing users with an optimised experience, regardless of what device they chose to use when accessing the website.

By enhancing the user experience of its online presence, Endsleigh also aimed to improve its customer conversion and retention rates. While one goal was to enable new visitors to the website to follow through with their purchases easily – whether using a desktop, tablet or smartphone – the insurer also wanted to ensure existing customers remained with Endsleigh by offering a website that was convenient and efficient to use.

Another key consideration for Endsleigh was to ensure that the new website was an open, flexible platform that could continue to evolve, extend and grow over time – allowing the number one student insurer to keep in-step with new technical developments as they emerge.

Strategy and execution

Endsleigh appointed specialist digital agencies The Cogworks and Erskine Design to deliver the brief.

The number one priority for Endsleigh was to ensure that its new website could be easily navigated by customers accessing it via a mobile device.

The overhaul of its web presence was therefore done with a mobile-first approach – with research, testing and design of the complete experience being carried out for small screen devices before considering how this would translate to larger screens, such as desktops.

This played a key role in guaranteeing that Endsleigh’s customers were provided with a clear and focused layout when accessing www.endsleigh.co.uk on their tablets or smart-phones.

In order to adapt the layout to larger screens too, advanced responsive design techniques were used to deliver an optimised experience to customers, irrespective of what device they chose to use when accessing the site.

In order to ensure the website ‘flowed’, the agencies worked together, using Agile Project Management (APM), to, in the first instance, identify the light weight it would require. Following development and an early version of the website was put to a consumer audience for their feedback.

This approach placed Endsleigh’s customers at the centre of the project, enabling the agencies to identify what was required of the end product and work backwards from this. This was particularly useful in getting the mapping of the site right, as the agencies were able to determine where consumers would expect to find certain products, for example, and accommodate this as part of the redesign.

The homepage, navigation and product pages – as well as at the customer’s online account – were all areas of particular focus. Using APM, a new information architecture was developed for these pages, coupled with a visual refresh, which, while maintaining Endsleigh’s widely recognised brand and visual identity, was adapted and updated to reinforce the company’s position as a youth-driven business.

In order to achieve this shift in customer perception, a range of visual treatments for layout typography and imagery were explored.

An important consideration during this process was to find a style that could be recreated by Endsleigh themselves – to enable them to easily make changes or updates in the future. The solution was to combine photographs taken on a white background with a range of custom illustrations. This allowed for the simple production of consistent graphics.

The photographs themselves are of real Endsleigh colleagues, adding a familiar touch to the website and portraying the company as accessible, friendly and fun.

Results

With its renewed focus on instant accessibility and digital excellence, the relaunch of www.endsleigh.co.uk comes as part of Endsleigh’s wider mission to make insurance easy for its customers, providing them with the right products, at the right price – and now at the right time too.

The predominant use of white effectively boosts the contrast of colour and messaging around the products – while the simple style facilitates the purchase of insurance cover for both Endsleigh’s existing and potential customers, making this process easy and convenient whether users access www.endsleigh.co.uk via their mobile devices or a desktop.

Although only a short time since the relaunch of the website, Endsleigh has seen the customer conversion rate on some products increase by 40 per cent increase. In addition, the website more responsive design has also been very successful, with a 15 per cent drop in the volume of calls to Endsleigh’s service centre since December.