Content design & UX writing for AT&T
I was the lead content designer/UX writer for a major revamp of Sun Life’s online Evidence of Insurability (EOI) application experience. The EOI application is a complex health and medical insurance application used by ~60,000 US-based employers and their employees.
Sun Life designs its EOI applications for corporate clients to determine which employees and employees’ family members qualify for group health and medical insurance benefits.
This project continues to support millions of employer-sponsored benefits applicants in all 50 states.
Challenges
- Translating complex medical content into clear, concise, easy-to-understand language for users of different reading levels.
- Creating an application that was inclusive, gender-neutral, and personalized wherever possible.
- Staying compliant with state regulatory and legal requirements.
- Making sure the application was fully accessible and WCAG compliant.
- Maintaining a consistent, empathetic brand voice throughout the process.
All of this had to be balanced with a tight deadline and frequent updates driven by evolving insurance policies.
Approach
I started by meeting with underwriters (the subject matter experts), and the two UX designers I’d be working with daily, as well as the legal/compliance team and an accessibilty expert to understand direction. Then I:
Helped prioritize content and streamline the applicant's potentially long journey
Worked with the development team to negate the need for gender neutrality by using the applicant's name throughout the process
Rewrote ALL of the application's previously existing copy to be concise, accessible, empathetic, and grammatically perfect
Added microcopy—button labels, error messages, field instructions—and helper text wherever the applicant might need assistance
Created opportunities for the applicant to pause and pick up the application process at a later time
I was also able to leverage AI to brainstorm variations, proof for consistency, and speed the process.
Impact
The resulting EOI application is a product that benefits applicants, their employers, and Sun Life itself.
Applicants now have a streamlined journey to seeking employer-sponsored benefits.
The process of determining eligibility is now a personalized, accessible, and empathetic experience.
Much of the content logic and copy was unexpectedly carried over to the paper EOI application.
Sun Life has enabled 50,000+ organizations and tens of millions of potential applicants with a smoother EOI process.
The online EOI application is now is use by organizations across all 50 states in the U.S.
Final thoughts
With teammates in Boston, Dallas, and New York City, and me in Peterborough, this project proved how powerful true remote collaboration can be. We synced almost daily, problem-solved in real time, and kept momentum high through weekly stakeholder reviews.
The team’s skill, speed, and commitment made the work a joy. Sun Life set the bar for what great collaboration feels like, and I’d gladly partner with them again.
“I had the pleasure of working with Colin on a very large project - think 100+ copy heavy screens. We had two designers on the project, working as fast as we could. The subject matter was lots of medical questions, some of which could be very sensitive. We knew that we needed a writer to come in and help us to make sense of it all. Colin was able to join the project, get up to speed quickly, and start contributing almost right away. We were working against the clock and for every hour Colin put in he probably saved us 2 hours that it would have taken us to do the same thing.”
Nathan Renihan – User Experience Designer @ Sun Life