Increasing engagement in Root's Test Drive
We built a more accurate and engaging version of Root’s Test Drive.
Business problem
People weren’t completing the Test Drive with high levels of driving accuracy.
Timeline
Began work Q3 2020; shipped in Q1 of 2021 on iOS and Android
Role
Content designer & UX writer; design co-lead
Company
root.com↗
Customer problem
Customers in the Test Drive didn’t have a good sense of progress.
Result
28% increase in engagement; increases in telematics eligibility and test drive completion
Product initiative
An engaging experience, “Checkpoints”, that surfaced easily digestible information to customers, allowing them to gain a better sense of progress in the Test Drive
Background
Root is an auto insurance company that gives people insurance rates based primarily on their driving behavior, measured through the smartphone app.
It accounts for things like phone interactions while the car is in motion and hard braking. This use of telematics data (driving data) is assessed via the “Test Drive”.
Approach
We designed an experience called “Checkpoints”. It surfaced easily-digestible information to customers and allowed them to gain a better sense of progress in the Test Drive.
We had to chose what type of information to display, figure out how to display it in an easy-to-understand way, and communicate to users when there was an update or status change. We also had a request from leadership to increase engagement in the Test Drive, since increased engagement leads to higher-quality driving data.
Low fidelity sketches
Inspiration from other apps and products
High fidelity solution
Checkpoints referenced in Letter to Shareholders
Main responsibilities & highlights
🧠 Feature ideation & development
Partnered with product design and product management to create this feature
Drove the design strategy and consulted the data science and telematics engineers to understand the technical constraints
👩🏻💻 Content design & UX writing
Wrote all of the in-product content for this feature
Updated onboarding screens, modified the pre-existing “Scorecard”, identified entry points, and wrote push notification copy
Wrote tooltip copy that helped customers understand the feature
♟️ Product strategy
Partnered with product management to ensure that this feature met a primary business goal of increasing engagement
Negotiated with different stakeholders across product, engineering, and legal to ensure we were surfacing accurate data to customers
Aaryn K., Former Senior Product Manager at Root
“Gracie has unmatched customer intuition that lifts entire teams to deliver better features. She was an extremely productive partner in helping to create a product vision, socialize that vision, and get buy-in from leadership. More tactically, she has a high degree of technical fluency to work cross-functionally with engineers and understand complex subject matter quickly. I've seen Gracie lead insightful discussions where tough decisions have to be made around balancing scope, customer needs, and business needs. She is an incredible asset and I would jump at any chance to work with her.”