APPLICATION UX CASE STUDY / INSURANCE BROKERAGE
MS Amlin
Underwriter
Workbench.
Transforming a complex, legacy underwriting platform into a streamlined, role-based digital workbench for insurance brokerage and underwriting teams.
This rebuild uses the full public case-study sequence and the recovered source-page images, while re-presenting the work in the portfolio’s dark editorial system.
The page now gives the original project more room: challenge, role, information architecture, low-fidelity exploration, design system, high-fidelity dashboard, submissions, risk management, and reflection.
A complex underwriting operation was split across too many tools.
MS Amlin’s underwriting teams needed to manage submissions, assess risk, review documents, track policies, coordinate tasks, and support role-based decisions. The existing experience forced too much context switching, so the workbench needed to consolidate the operating model without flattening the complexity of expert insurance work.
5+
Disconnected legacy systems
Submissions, risk review, documents, policy data, and task tracking were split across separate tools.
50+
Screens to design
The workbench needed enough structure to cover a broad, operationally dense enterprise product surface.
5
User roles to support
Different underwriting participants needed role-aware access to tasks, decisions, and review flows.
1
Unified workbench needed
The north star was a single place to manage intake, review, evidence, risk, referrals, and policy work.
Design problem
Consolidation without oversimplification.
The goal was not to make a dense enterprise product feel artificially simple. The goal was to make the right complexity easier to navigate: a clearer dashboard, better task visibility, structured submissions, document-heavy review, and safer risk-management decisions.
The project therefore began with product structure rather than surface styling. Once the operating model was mapped, the interface could become more consistent, role-aware, and implementation-ready.
Leading UX from discovery to high-fidelity handoff.
As Lead UX Designer, I owned the end-to-end UX process for the workbench. The work included stakeholder discovery, information architecture, low-fidelity wireframes, UI kit creation, high-fidelity prototyping, and developer handoff in collaboration with business analysts, another UX designer, and two UX engineers.
Stakeholder discovery
I led discovery conversations with underwriting stakeholders to understand the operational reality: fragmented systems, repeated context switching, high document volume, role-specific responsibilities, and the decisions that needed better visibility.
Information architecture
I created the sitemap and role-based pathways before designing the high-fidelity UI. This gave stakeholders, analysts, designers, and engineers a shared map of scope and navigation dependencies.
Design system + prototypes
I developed a comprehensive UI kit and screen system so a complex insurance platform could stay consistent across dashboards, task queues, submissions, document review, risk management, policy forms, and referral flows.
Developer handoff
I worked with business analysts, another UX designer, and two UX engineers to make the Figma specs practical, consistent, and implementation-ready for a large enterprise product surface.
Map the workbench ecosystem
The first design move was to make the product understandable. The sitemap captured key areas such as Dashboard, Tasks, Submission Hub, Document Review, Risk Management, Policy Information, Document Management, and Referral Tasks.
Use paper to test layout logic
Low-fidelity sketches helped explore page structure quickly without over-investing in polish. The team could discuss hierarchy, filters, document comparison, form grouping, and navigation before Figma production began.
Define the design system
The UI kit translated MS Amlin’s brand language into product rules for color, typography, inputs, buttons, grids, KPI cards, tables, page templates, and collaboration patterns.
Deliver operational screens
High-fidelity work focused on the real jobs underwriters needed to complete: reviewing submissions, working through tasks, comparing documents, managing risk information, reviewing policies, and tracking referrals.
Mapping every pathway before designing the screen set.
The information architecture work translated a scattered insurance workflow into a navigable product map. This established the workbench’s main destinations, the relationship between user roles, and the screen families that would later become the high-fidelity prototype set.
Initial Sketch
Role-based structure before screen design.
The early architecture sketch captured underwriter routes, support roles, dashboard access, tasks, documents, notes, and audit history as one connected ecosystem.
Final Sitemap
The application map became the single source of truth.
The finalized sitemap translated rough product thinking into an aligned structure for role-based navigation, screen scope, and delivery planning.
Navigation icon strip
Early product navigation language.
A small recovered asset showing the product modules as a sequence of workbench destinations.
Paper sketches made the dense workflows easier to discuss.
Before moving into Figma, I used low-fidelity paper wireframes to explore the core application patterns. This made it easier to validate hierarchy and behavior quickly: where a dashboard begins, how submissions are filtered, how documents are compared, and how complex policy information is grouped.
Dashboard Layout
Testing the underwriter home base.
The dashboard sketch explored where tasks, quick stats, submission status, search, and work queues should live so underwriters could start from one reliable view.
Submission Hub
Shaping high-volume intake.
The submission sketch focused on filtering, status visibility, action access, and quick review routes for a large volume of incoming insurance submissions.
Document Review
Comparing evidence without context switching.
The document-review concept tested a split workspace where source documents, extracted information, validation status, and comments could sit together.
Policy Review
Grouping dense policy information.
The policy form sketch explored how risk and policy fields, notes, history, and completion states could be arranged without creating a long, unstructured form.
A reusable design language for more than fifty screens.
The design system UI kit was aligned with MS Amlin’s brand guidelines and became the connective tissue between product strategy and engineering delivery. It defined the repeated choices so designers and developers did not need to solve the same interaction problems screen by screen.
Color palette
Brand-aligned usage for hierarchy, state, alerting, and decision emphasis.
Typography
Readable scales for dense dashboards, tables, forms, and evidence-heavy review screens.
Input fields
Reusable controls for complex risk, policy, and submission data entry.
Button variants
Clear action hierarchy for primary decisions, secondary moves, and utility actions.
Grid systems
Consistent layout rules for dashboards, hubs, forms, and document-heavy screens.
KPI charts
Data modules that surfaced priority signals without overwhelming expert users.
Page templates
Repeatable structures that helped the product scale across 50+ screens.
Collaboration states
Comments, referral patterns, and review affordances for shared underwriting decisions.
Design System UI Kit
A practical product language for enterprise underwriting.
The recovered source visual shows the UI kit direction: brand colors, component categories, type scale, field rules, buttons, alerts, and content patterns for a scalable workbench.
The workbench took shape across dashboard, submissions, documents, and risk.
The high-fidelity phase translated the architecture and sketches into operational screens. The emphasis stayed practical: reduce context switching, improve scanability, support expert review, and make the status of underwriting work visible across the product.
Final Dashboard
One operating view for underwriting work.
The dashboard brought KPIs, charts, status summaries, work queues, navigation, and submission access into a single high-fidelity surface.
Task Management Screen
A focused queue for operational progress.
The task screen supported the day-to-day cadence of underwriting work, making task status, priority, and next steps easier to scan.
Final Submission Hub
A structured center for intake and review.
The Submission Hub translated the earlier wireframe into a data-rich management screen with filtering, submission metadata, status, and action pathways.
Final Document Review
Evidence, extracted data, and validation in one place.
The document review screen placed the source document beside extracted fields, confidence, comments, and review actions so underwriters could validate information with less jumping between systems.
Final Policy Form
Dense risk information organized into workable sections.
The policy information flow was structured around grouped form sections, persistent review context, and safer completion patterns for risk-heavy data.
Document Management
A clean inventory for underwriting documents.
The document-management view made uploaded material, review status, and document metadata easier to navigate inside the wider workbench.
Referral Task
Decision work made visible across roles.
Referral tasks supported the collaborative side of underwriting by clarifying status, priority, owners, and review outcomes across the product experience.
A unified workbench that made complex underwriting work more navigable.
The final outcome was a role-based digital workbench that consolidated fragmented workflows into a coherent product system. The project moved from discovery and rough sketches to a comprehensive sitemap, reusable design system, high-fidelity screens, and implementation-ready handoff.
50+
Screens designed end-to-end
The application was mapped, structured, designed, and prepared for implementation across the workbench journey.
8
Design system categories
Reusable rules covered color, type, inputs, buttons, grid, data modules, page templates, and collaboration states.
3
Role-based experiences delivered
The platform supported clearer routes for distinct underwriting participants and operational responsibilities.
100%
Figma specs for handoff
The final prototypes and component rules were prepared to support engineering delivery and future scaling.
Reflection
Structure creates speed.
This project reinforced that complex enterprise UX is rarely improved by adding more UI. The stronger move is to define the operating structure first, then use a design system to make repeated decisions easier for users, stakeholders, and engineers.
Rebuilding the page in the current portfolio theme also makes the project easier to read: the original artifacts are preserved, but the story now flows as a clear case study rather than a loose gallery of screens.