Personalized & integrated

Favourites +Forms | Suncentral | Sun Life Financial

Role: Senior UX Lead & Sole UX Designer

Scope: System Integration | Interaction Modeling | Proactive UX Stewardship

Building on the success of the standalone Forms and Favourites features I designed, I proactively led the integration of these two 0→1 experiences into a single, cohesive interaction model. This project unified fragmented workflows, reducing cognitive friction for advisors and establishing a seamless, end-to-end "Single Source of Truth" for their most-used resources.

Moving from feature-driven silos to a unified interaction model

As Suncentral evolved, two powerful but independent capabilities emerged: a robust Forms experience and a personalized Favourites system. While both were successful 0→1 launches, they existed as separate functional silos. This led to a fragmented user experience where advisors had to manage "favourite" items in two different ways, using two different mental models depending on whether they were bookmarking a tool or a form.

This integration project was driven by three strategic needs:

Eliminating Cognitive Friction: Having two disparate ways to perform a similar action (favouriting) created unnecessary confusion. To achieve a truly intuitive interface, we needed to consolidate these into a single, predictable interaction model.
Unified Data Centralization: Advisors required a "single source of truth" for their high-frequency resources. The challenge was to architect a solution that could house both complex data-heavy forms and simple page links within one cohesive dashboard without sacrificing the specific functionality each required.
Architectural Scalability: Beyond the immediate fix, the goal was to establish a universal Favouriting pattern that could serve as a blueprint for any future features added to the Sun Life ecosystem, ensuring consistency from the start.

The Goal: My objective was to move beyond feature-level design and provide systemic stewardship. By proactively identifying the overlap between these two experiences, I aimed to design a unified Favourites & Forms ecosystem that reduced user friction, streamlined cross-functional development, and reinforced a cohesive brand experience across the platform.

Connecting a foundational Forms experience with Favourites for an end-to-end workflow

After creating the Forms experience from scratch (0 → 1) and later designing the Favourites feature (0 → 1), I integrated the two to create a seamless workflow. Users can now capture, organize, and prioritize information without friction, while the integration establishes a scalable pattern that can be extended across multiple platforms.

Key Outcomes

Bridged disconnected user flows
- Connected form interactions with saved content, reducing friction between data input and content management.
Enabled more actionable use of captured information
- Allowed users to immediately save and organize form-related content, supporting better follow-up and task continuity.
Reduced reliance on manual tracking
- Eliminated the need for users to remember or externally track important submissions by integrating them directly into their workflow.
Strengthened system cohesion across features
- Created a more unified experience by aligning two previously independent functionalities into a single, connected flow.

Design Impact

This work shifts the experience from isolated actions to a connected system that supports end-to-end workflows.

Supports continuity between actions and outcomes
Reduces fragmentation across the product experience
Enhances usability by aligning features with real user behavior

Learnings & Reflection

Designing this integration required thinking beyond individual features and focusing on how different parts of the system interact.

Key takeaways:

The value of a feature increases significantly when it is connected to other workflows
Integration design requires a deep understanding of user intent across multiple touchpoints
Creating cohesive systems improves both usability and long-term product scalability

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Discovery & alignment

Aligned with stakeholders to understand the opportunity to connect two existing experiences into one unified journey.

Reviewed both experiences to understand how they function independently and where alignment could improve continuity between them.

Opportunity definition

Identified opportunities for integration by analyzing how both experiences could complement each other when brought together.

Focused on how users could move between the two in a more natural and connected way, ensuring both experiences retained their value while working as one system.

Defining the experience

Explored different ways of connecting both experiences into a single, cohesive flow.

Focused on improving continuity between interactions and ensuring a smooth transition across both parts of the experience.

Key decisions centered on how to structure the connection between systems while maintaining clarity and consistency.

Design system

Aligned both experiences with shared design system patterns to ensure visual and functional consistency.

Adapted components where needed to support a unified and cohesive experience across both systems.

Design & iteration

Created high-fidelity designs to explore how both experiences could work together as a connected system.

Iterated on structure and interaction patterns to improve flow and ensure consistency across touchpoints.

Focused on making the connection between both experiences feel natural and seamless.

Stakeholder presentation

Presented the proposed solution to both business and engineering teams.

The approach was well received and aligned quickly across stakeholders, with teams immediately supporting the direction.

This helped confirm feasibility and alignment for moving forward with the integrated experience.

Collaboration & iteration

Worked closely with product and engineering teams to ensure alignment across both experiences.

Maintained continuous feedback loops to refine how both systems would be integrated into a single experience.

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Personalized & Integrated

Favourites +Forms | Suncentral | Sun Life Financial

Moving from feature-driven silos to a unified interaction model

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