Aaron Duffin Lyons Product Designer

Work AIB Life

Replacing a fragile Excel workbook with a guided tool for financial advisers

A hub and spoke Power App that keeps advisers in the conversation with their client, not wrestling a spreadsheet.

Discovery to build ready design
2 months

My role

I led the UX and visual design, from adviser interviews and workshops to a build ready Power App design, inside Power Apps' platform constraints.

Client
AIB Life
Timeline
2024, 2 months from discovery to build ready design
Team
Presidio (formerly Ergo) delivery team, AIB Life advisers and stakeholders

All screens use sample data.

The AIB Life Business Fact Find Power App with sample data. A Need Areas list sits on the left, and the main hub shows a business overview marked 5 of 5 sections complete, consultation IDs, and personnel cards listing each person's cover.

A fragile spreadsheet in the middle of client meetings

Advisers fill in a fact find while sitting with a client. They were using a macro heavy Excel workbook with logic hidden across sheets, so they jumped between tabs mid conversation, made entry errors and lost focus on the client.

The new tool had to be built in Power Apps, which limits layout and components, and match AIB’s digital brand.

Before and after of the Executive Income Protection section. Before: an Excel sheet with yellow highlighted cells, instructions written into the cells and a security warning bar. After: a guided Power App form where the adviser picks key people, fills in labelled fields with dropdowns and Yes or No buttons, and saves each person's details.
Before and after. Instructions buried in spreadsheet cells became a guided form with labelled fields, dropdowns and clear actions.

My role

What I owned

  • Adviser interviews and workshops
  • Information architecture and the hub and spoke structure
  • Interaction and visual design within Power Apps' limits
  • A lightweight branded component set with usage notes

What the wider team owned

  • Business rules and compliance (AIB Life)
  • Power Apps build and data (engineering)
  • Delivery planning (Presidio)

Three decisions that kept advisers focused on the client

Hub and spoke, not one long wizard

The tension
A wizard is the obvious fix for a messy form, but fact finds don't follow a fixed order. The conversation goes wherever the client takes it.
Options on the table
  • A strict start to finish wizard
  • A central hub linking out to focused forms for each need
What I chose and why
Hub and spoke. The hub shows what's been captured at a glance, and advisers can jump to any need area as the conversation moves.
What we traded away
A little more navigation, kept manageable with clear completion states on the hub.
The Fact Find hub. Need areas are listed down the left, such as Business Loan Cover and Executive Income Protection. The main area shows the business overview with 5 of 5 sections complete, consultation IDs, and a card for each person showing what they're covered for.
The hub: every need area one click away, with progress and each person's cover visible at a glance.

One task per screen

The tension
Advisers were used to seeing everything at once, but that's exactly what made the workbook hard to use in front of a client.
Options on the table
  • Dense screens that mirror the workbook
  • Short forms covering one task each, with a progress tracker
What I chose and why
One task per screen, with progress down the side so the adviser always knows where they are.
What we traded away
More screens overall. The hub keeps the overview, so nothing is lost.
The Business Details step. A progress tracker on the left shows Pre-requisites and Reason for meeting complete and Business Details in progress. The form asks for business name, address, Eircode, business type and up to two contacts, with Next and Back buttons.
One step at a time, with progress always visible down the left.

Catch errors while the client is still in the room

The tension
In the workbook, mistakes surfaced late, sometimes after the client had left.
Options on the table
  • Validate everything on submit
  • Inline validation with a clear summary of what to fix
What I chose and why
Inline messages on the field itself, plus a summary above Next that links straight to each problem.
What we traded away
More validation rules to agree with AIB up front.
The Pre-requisites step with adviser and meeting details filled in and four documents ticked. The question Is this Business Loan cover ONLY case? shows a red message saying an answer must be provided, and a summary above the Next button lists the one issue to resolve.
The error appears on the question and in a summary above Next, so advisers know exactly what's blocking them.
The full design file. Open in Figma

Starting from proven patterns and real advisers

I started from form patterns already proven on the SBCI Hub, then ran interviews and workshops with AIB advisers to see how they really used the workbook.

Validating as we went, on a two month timeline

With two months from discovery to build ready, validation ran as a loop: regular check ins with the AIB team reviewed the latest designs, and anything missed was fixed on the spot before build.

Fewer errors and less admin

  • Faster fact finds with fewer errors
  • Better quality data captured first time
  • Less admin after the meeting

What I’d do differently

  • Constraints sharpen the design. Power Apps’ limits pushed us towards simple, consistent patterns that were easier for advisers anyway.
  • Next time I’d fit in a short session with two or three advisers using the prototype with a mock client, to test the flow under real conversational pressure.