Case Study

Compassionate estate planning and settlement, powered by agentic AI

End of an Era interactive prototype demo video (with narration)
Product
End of an Era
Role
Founding Product Designer
Deliverables
  • User personas & key workflows
  • Accessible design system
  • Interactive prototypes for fundraising

Overview

When the two founders of End of an Era reached out to me, they shared a common experience: both had been recruited to settle the estate of a recently-deceased loved one, and had found the process stressful, convoluted, and emotionally draining. The startup's pitch was simple: streamline the process of building and settling an estate, automating away the confusing parts and supporting users through the rest with compassion.

Problems

  • Most people don't know what's involved in planning or executing an estate, and reach for clunky resources like checklists and spreadsheets
  • Dealing with the estate of a recently-deceased loved one is emotionally difficult and overwhelming
  • Existing tools for estate planning generate static documents, with data becoming obsolete over time

Goals

  • Reduce user anxiety
  • Develop compassionate workflow patterns for collecting and updating personal information
  • Automate away technical & logistical complexity
  • Motivate progress through non-judgemental feedback loops

Process

My work on the team started with a heuristic analysis of the team's competitive research. In order to get a better understanding of the work to be done by users, I conducted several sessions with the founders to isolate the personas and user stories that would inform the UX. Collaborative brainstorming and card-sorting in the group led to more polished user flows, which were reviewed and approved by the team before UX sketching began.

A typical user flow, generated during collaborative brainstorming
A typical user flow, generated during collaborative brainstorming
An initial collaborative brainstorm of screens to be built
An initial brainstorm of screens to be built for a specific user journey

Once the key workflows had been identified, I used the wireframing phase to zero in on opportunities for UX innovation, taking inspiration from workflow-based interfaces like Better and Turbotax, and simplified project management tools like Todoist and Basecamp.

Several rounds of wireframing resulted in a few solid strategies that would inform subsequent design rounds, all in the interest of keeping users feeling confident and supported.

  • Simple, reassuring language
  • Spacious layouts
  • Short workflows
  • Clear expectations and obligations (number of steps, time to complete)

Wireframes: mobile onboarding
Initial wireframes: mobile onboarding
Wireframes: mobile onboarding
Initial wireframe: planning dashboard w/support sidebar

Two major UX patterns that emerged during wireframing and became integral to the final product were: customized experiences based on user stress level, and maybe most importantly, employing agentic AI chat to handle data and offload manual tasks.

Initial wireframe: user check-in
Initial wireframe: checking in with a user's feelings and bandwidth
Initial wireframe: agent chat
Initial wireframe: verifying info via agent chat

Solution

The final deliverables included hundreds of screens, several interactive prototypes, and a Figma design library. Throughout the refinement of the user experience, I continued to ask myself "does this reduce or add stress?", and "is this too much of too little information?", resulting in a set of patterns and styles that are clear and focused, with just enough compassionate support to keep the user from feeling lost.

A first step towards the final UX was the development of an accessible color palette and web-friendly type treatments, derived from preexisting brand guidelines. Soft colors and warm neutrals mimic paper-and-ink, paired with bold didone headlines create a calm, welcoming aura.

Final prototype, color library and mobile onboarding
Final prototype, color library and mobile onboarding

The heart of the platform is a series of self-contained workflows, gathering important data in a way that's focused but not overly burdensome. The order in which workflows are completed is suggested, but users are welcome to explore all tasks at their leisure. Support in the form of videos and articles are available at every step.

Final prototype, desktop landing page
Final prototype, desktop landing page

As a user progresses through onboarding and initial workflows, they're asked how they're feeling, and the dashboard UX is customized accordingly. Upcoming tasks are broken out into smaller chunks by time commitment, and farther-off workflows are hidden.

Final prototype, user sentiment check-in
Final prototype, user sentiment check-in
Final prototype, standard dashboard
Final prototype, standard dashboard
Final prototype, simplified dashboard
Final prototype, simplified dashboard

Every workflow is supported by the agentic AI; answering questions, providing access to support articles, and presenting interactive prompts to troublshoot issues. The tone of the chat is helpful but authoritative, with generative content kept to a minimum.

Final prototype, AI chat presenting commonly asked questions
Final prototype, AI chat presenting commonly asked questions
Final prototype, AI chat presenting support article
Final prototype, AI chat presenting support article
Final prototype, AI chat offering to schedule a reminder
Final prototype, AI chat offering to schedule a reminder
Final prototype, AI chat troubleshooting missing data
Final prototype, AI chat troubleshooting missing data
Final prototype, AI summary outlines remaining tasks for an estate executor
Final prototype, AI summary outlines remaining tasks for an estate executor

Extensive automations and platform integrations help reduce anxiety and save time for users, and creative legacy-building tools help them to think proactively about their lives and their loved ones.

Final prototype, Plaid integration for tracking probate assets
Final prototype, Plaid integration for tracking probate assets
Final prototype, public records integration for tracking property
Final prototype, public records integration for tracking property
Final prototype, legacy packet creation tool to capture memories for loved ones
Final prototype, legacy packet creation tool to capture memories for loved ones

Further Considerations

While the team was very satisfied with the final interactive prototypes, restricted budget and timeline kept us from carrying out any significant user research. Hopefully future rounds of fundraising will allow us to take the UX concepts developed so far to an audience of prospective users for critique and refinement.