Favourites experience

Suncentral - Sun Life Financial

Favourites in Sunlife's Suncentral is a feature that allows users to "bookmark" and organize frequently used content, such as PDFs and forms, into custom folders for quicker access and to save time. By designating favourite items and creating tailored folders with custom names, users can personalize their Suncentral experience, making it more efficient for tasks like preparing for client meetings

The favourites experience is one of the first personalized experiences within Sun Life and it is currently live.

I was the UX lead, and only UX designer, in charge of everything Suncentral related from day one.

My process involved

| Stakeholder alignment | Strategic problem-solving | Wireframing and prototyping

The challenge

Users needed quick and easy access to their most frequently used items (tools, forms, pages, and more), without navigating away from the site.

To address this, I designed and implemented the Suncentral Favourites experience, enabling users to save any item on the Suncentral portal for fast, personalized access.

The process

Personas.
The site serves three key personas: Advisors, Assistants, and Back-Office staff; each with unique workflows, requiring tailored experiences and features. This experience was intentionally designed to be consistent across all three user personas.

UX research
Saving favorite items is a common behavior, especially on social media. To create this new experience, I analyzed popular platforms such as Instagram, and TikTok. Key features I identified for high impact included the ability to create “collections” (which we called “Folders”) and an icon to visually indicate previously liked items.

Beyond the standard functionality identified in the UX research, I added advanced capabilities to differentiate Suncentral in the insurance market and stand out from competitors, such as adding an item to an existing folder while simultaneously creating a new folder containing the same item.

User testing of two different iterations (A/B testing)

To ensure the new “Favourites” experience truly met user needs, I explored two distinct design directions: one featuring collapsible/expandable sections and another using card-based layouts. Both iterations supported the same core interactions, saving items as favourites, organizing them into folders, and moving content between folders while offering different visual and interaction patterns.

During usability testing, I evaluated the overall look and feel of the Favourites landing page, the visibility and clarity of icons, and how intuitively users could complete key tasks. Insights from testing revealed that users strongly preferred the collapsible/expandable design, citing its simplicity and ease of navigation. Based on this feedback, we moved forward with refining and implementing that version.

Design system and component creation

While working with Sun Life’s evolving design system, I encountered a gap that would affect the Favourites experience: the existing collapsible component didn’t support all the actions users needed.

To address this, I first verified with the design system team whether the need could be met with current components. When it couldn’t, I designed a new component that adhered to all design system guidelines while solving the user problem.

This solution not only improved usability for the feature but also proved valuable to other Advisor teams, who expressed interest in implementing it across their sites.

Cross-functional collaboration

Worked closely with Product and Development teams to align design solutions with business goals and technical feasibility, ensuring seamless implementation and impactful user experiences.

The new Favourites experience

Built from scratch, this is Sun Life’s first fully customizable experience. Users can create and manage folders to organize items by workflow, with full control to move, rename, or delete content.

Future updates will enable sharing, supporting collaboration and scalability.

Early feedback has been highly positive, and users quickly began engaging with the Favourites experience, demonstrating its immediate impact and usefulness.