Exploring how Canadians can better connect health and wealth
Overview
Designed a first-place winning concept for Manulife
My Contributions
Conducted heuristic evaluations, user interviews, and usability testing; created user flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototypes.
Team
2 designers
1 UX researcher
2 business analysts
Type
Case Competition
AI-Assisted
Year
2026 (2 months)
Tools
Figma AI, Miro, Lovable
How might Manulife improve its health and wealth ecosystem to become a trusted lifelong partner for Canadians?
Context
Young professionals lack a trusted system that connects their health and financial decisions in a way that feels relevant to their lives today, leaving them unprepared for major life moments (e.g. job loss, a new child) until those moments become a crisis.
This is also a chance to reach an underserved group early, helping shape financial and health habits that will stick with them for life.
Solution
Moments
Helping Canadians turn life’s Moments into Momentum ✨
A proactive guidance layer in the Manulife app:
Life Map: plan upcoming life moments
Preparation Checklist: health & wealth actions for that moment, linked to existing Manulife data + tools
Life Impact Simulator: preview coverage & finance impact before committing
Yearly Wrapped: Spotify Wrapped-style annual health & wealth recap
This isn't just useful for users, it's also an opportunity for Manulife to connect its existing health and wealth products at the moments customers care most, building loyalty and opening the door to more products without building new systems.
Research Process
Competitive Analysis
Assessing current banks and insurance companies
Across 15 competitors, we discovered a key gap: today’s platforms manage finances or health separately, and none help people understand how their health, wealth, and life transitions connect.
Interview Insights
Discussing future health & wealth goals with young professionals
10 young professionals (aged 22-30) who are navigating frequent life transitions and represents future high-value earners were interviewed.
⭐ AI helped with clustering interview insights into common themes which was manually checked afterward.
Insurance feels abstract until life forces relevance
Trust is built through personalization, not branding
Financial independence increases stress, not confidence
Health and finances are mentally connected, but not structurally supported
An impactful quote that stuck:
“Staying healthy saves money, but maintaining health costs money.”
Solution Phase
Prioritization Matrix
Ranking features for impactful design
After compiling research insights, we ideated (⭐ with the help of AI) and prioritized features using a 'Impact x Effort' framework which we then voted as a team to guide our solution.
Impact was assessed both for user value and business feasibility (e.g. buildability within existing Manulife infrastructure, alignment with Vitality/rewards ecosystem).
📝 After generating many strong ideas, it was very difficult to prioritize. We ultimately voted with our persona (backed from user research) in mind:
"A high-performing early-career professional building long-term wealth but doesn't yet view insurance as part of their financial strategy."
This gave us the focus we needed to make more intentional design decisions.
Ideation
Creating the app's information architecture
After ideation voting, we combined three core features into a single experience: an interactive Life Map, where selecting a milestone reveals a personalized preparation checklist, paired with a Life Impact Simulator that previews the financial implications of that milestone.
To encourage long-term engagement, we also introduced an annual review summarizing the user's health and wealth progress over the past year.
Low-Fidelity Prototype
Translating insights into prototypes
After sketching the UI, I created low-fidelity (traditional Figma) and mid-fidelity (⭐ Figma Make) prototypes using Manulife's design system to map the journey for returning users.
Usability Testing
Testing the mid-fidelity prototype for feedback
5 "think-aloud" sessions were conducted with young professionals.
⭐ AI helped cluster similar observations during early affinity mapping, which I then refined manually.
What worked
(5/5) Design matched the app's purpose, felt sleek, supportive, not overwhelming
(5/5) Users would use the app for planning/overview, not major decisions alone
What to fix
(5/5) Users were confused by financial terms in the life map simulator
(4/5) Users struggled to locate the yearly wrapped review on the insights page
(3/5) Users wanted to see examples of life moments before adding
(3/5) Users were confused by the numbers on the life map
Testing Iterations
Refining the prototype using feedback
Overall, usability testing showed that the core value proposition resonated with participants and aligned well with the app's purpose and target audience.
The main issues were not with the concept itself, but with the execution (i.e. unclear labels, missing context, and discoverability). These were addressed through clearer language, improved wayfinding, and added guidance throughout the experience.
Final Prototype
Homepage
Upon opening the app, users receive a personalized prompt to add a detected or predicted life moment to their Life Map based on their Manulife data.
Interactive Life Map
Users can plan out their life moments through a visual map, adding past, present, and future moments.
Preparation Checklist
What steps should be taken to prepare for a life moment (e.g. job loss)?
The checklist contains action items tailored to the user's selected moment. After checking off completed items, users can "check readiness" to see what they'd gain by completing the remaining items.
Life Impact Simulator
How long can a life moment (e.g. job loss) be financially sustained?
Users adjust sliders to enter details about their situation and explore different scenarios.
They can also explore how Manulife supports their health during the transition, from therapy access to physical checkups and Vitality rewards.
When hitting "check impact," users receive a tailored analysis of how long their savings will last, giving them clarity and confidence to make informed decisions during the transition.
Yearly Wrapped
At the end of the year, the user gets a notification that their year in review is ready.
They open it to see their wellness and financial progress laid out, a clear picture of how much they accomplished in a year that started with so much uncertainty.
Value for Manulife
What this means for the business
Financial impact: ~20% lower acquisition costs, higher customer lifetime value, projected $113M of expected future profit
Key success metrics: Checklist engagement, combined health + finance activity, customer retention
Risks to watch: Data silos, privacy concerns (both flagged for mitigation in future phases)
By the way, we won first place at the Rotman x Manulife Design Challenge with this project! 🥇
Lessons Learned
Using AI throughout the entire process is a game-changer but…
AI needs explicit context for prototyping. I had to describe the current state and exactly what needed to change, rather than expecting the AI to recognize its own mistakes.
AI is a collaborator, not an autopilot. It accelerated production for generating user research questions, ideation, synthesis themes, and prototyping, but manual refinements and design judgment always remained essential.
Always tie decisions back to the objective
It's easy to get distracted by interesting ideas during ideation, but repeatedly returning to the user's needs and core problem kept the work focused and prevented scope creep.