RED Lab was a small team within Manulife that focused on innovative product discovery. We supported the organization with user research, while conducting our own research into potential future features. During my time with RED Lab, I supported our Innovation Lead in conducting user interviews, card sorting activities, research reports, proof of concept prototyping, and user testing.
user research
I assisted the Innovation Lead in conducting user interviews with newly immigrated Canadians. We were investigating the points of friction encountered within an unfamiliar banking environment. Manulife had just launched new online personal banking tools and were looking for ways to ease the process for new Canadians, as a way to grow their user base. Our research was summarized in a report and presented to the banking team to inform future work.
card sorting
As part of our user research services, I worked alongside UX Designers from our Group Benefits division to put together a card sorting activity that was ultimately used to inform the information architecture used within the internal Manulife portal.
Our team would often take projects into the early stages of the design process, fleshing out the experiences as a proof of concept in order to conduct further user testing. We used the expansive network at Communitech in downtown Kitchener for testing resources as well as using Manulife employees from a variety of different teams. This method allowed us to iterate quickly and refine the solution before handing off our results to the corresponding teams within the business.
hack it out
RED Lab supported Manulife's Hack IT Out — its internal
hack-a-thon where teams across the country worked together to design and build creative solutions for existing and new Manulife products. I worked with a small team of developers to solution how our chat bot could reduce wait times using a triaged system, connecting users with the right team in a shorter period of time.
Although my time at RED Lab was brief, I took so much from this experience. My richer understanding of UX research progresses has been critical in working smoothly with internal research teams, and my focus on research-driven design.