The Path
Pembridge Insurance, backed by Allstate Insurance Company of Canada, needed to modernize a broker portal that was still dependent on a legacy back-end and a DOS-like interface.
Agency
OnX & Architech
Role
Sr. UI/UX Designer
Client
Allstate Insurance
Year
2019 - 2020
The existing system was fast and highly efficient for experienced brokers, but it no longer reflected the expectations of a new generation of users or the future direction of the product. The challenge was to create a modern UI that improved usability and brand presence without disrupting the speed and keyboard-driven habits that brokers relied on every day.
The work focused on turning a deeply functional but outdated workflow into a scalable, future-ready experience. In a senior design leadership role, the project included shaping the end-to-end automotive policy flow, defining a new design system, testing interface concepts with brokers, and helping establish a brand direction that could support future growth into home and life.
Designing for expert brokers
A key insight from research was that brokers did not simply want a prettier interface. Many had developed highly efficient work patterns around the legacy tool, often relying on the number pad, tab key, and constant visibility of key customer data. In some cases, newly modernized competitor tools were actually slower because they forced too much mouse interaction and reduced scan efficiency.
This shifted the design challenge from “make it modern” to “make it modern in a way that respects expert behaviour.” The solution needed to preserve the speed and precision brokers valued while introducing a cleaner, more scalable UI for newer users entering the industry.
Building the broker flow
The experience work covered the full automotive policy journey, including policy lookup, driver profiles, vehicle profiles, editing flows, and change logs. Each part of the flow had to support dense transactional work without adding unnecessary friction. The design had to balance clarity, completeness, and speed, especially because brokers often needed to process complex changes quickly while maintaining confidence in the data.
This made the experience architecture as important as the visual design. The portal needed to support high-frequency actions, keep critical information visible, and make change history easy to understand and trust. That combination helped the team design for both operational efficiency and long-term maintainability.
Building the system
The project also required exploring multiple visual directions and establishing a new design system that could support the platform as it evolved. That meant defining component patterns, page structures, and interaction conventions that would work across present and future insurance products. The design system was not just a visual layer; it was a practical tool for future-proofing the portal as the business expanded.
The final implementation work included high-fidelity page design, close collaboration with development in Northern Ireland, and hands-on design QA. That partnership helped ensure the experience translated cleanly from prototype into production and that the final product retained the speed and usability brokers needed.
“Yippppppppppppppppppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I am DELLIGHTED!!!”
— Product Owner form Allstate Northern Ireland on me returning to their project.