Guiding people for the end
with Yellow
Yellow is an app that lets people easily create digital wills while simplifying the legal workings behind the process. They looked to introduce this as a one-of-a-kind tool in the Indian markets, believing that succession planning should be made accessible to everyone.
I led the visual design for the app, and I also helped define some of its core design patterns.
My role
Visual design lead
Timeline
October 2021 - March 2022
🏔️ The Challenge
Yellow came to us with a vision of enabling everyone to think about their legacy. We started by understanding some of the basic reasons why succession planning is essential for anyone holding any assets 👇🏽
Without a will in place, a person’s loved ones would be taken care of by their state/religious laws, which may not align with what they wished for them.
It's a way of disclosing one's assets to their family to avoid disputes later on. Undisclosed assets can even go unclaimed.
Claiming those assets is a process that is long, tedious and expensive.
Nominees are not the same as beneficiaries, who become the final heirs of the assets. A will requires you to name those beneficiaries, allowing you to plan further.
To solve for these challenges, Yellow sought to make a succession planning tool that valued convenience, security and guidance. We worked with the founders and lawyers to understand the landscape of succession planning in India. We also learnt about the many laws, cases and mindsets that surround legacy and wills.
Here are some of the areas I focused on
Component Library
One of the first things I did was set up a component library that built on the branding and the conversations we had with the founders. We wanted the product to feel legible, warm and simple. I chose colours, type and forms that came together to create spacious layouts, large touch targets and familiar interactions.
Illustrations
As part of the visual design, I created an illustration language that extended the brand identity. I wanted to keep these deliberately simple and in doing so, wanted to compose thoughtful images that would complement the copywriting. (Fun fact : I made these with a trackpad because I didn’t own a stylus at the time 🙃)
Patterns that walk with the user
Making a will can be an uneasy and alienating experience. To help reassure and guide users throughout this process, we used copywriting and design patterns that focused on transparency and healthy friction.
As much as we stuck to familiar interactions, we also had to show the user how they could go about using the app and filling their data. We used tutorial overlays to spotlight important sections and interactions. Along the way, the copy in these tutorials encouraged users to take their time and complete their will at their own pace
A lot of the language around creating wills might be new and complex to users. Sometimes, they would want to know the purpose behind the data collection. Contextual drawers could bring this information to the user without completely stopping their tasks. We placed prompts and buttons that allowed users to inform themselves before proceeding to the next step
The app's largest feature was asset management. After users allocated their assets to their chosen friends and kin, we provided a story-like summary of the distribution. Users could view their relatives and all the assets they would bequeath them.
Similarly, when users complete other sections of their will, they are presented with a confirmation screen that frames their choices in clear sentences. This view also allows them to change their selections on the spot.
🚀 The Outcome
Over six months, we developed a MVP based on a comprehensive list of user stories. The patterns and illustrations we established are still in use and have been expanded too. Yellow went on to user test the MVP for an additional six months before launching it.
