An accessible will writing product for the general public

Will writing often carries a stigma, as it's usually associated with death or impending death.

In Singapore, public will writing services are typically provided through arrangements by the residents' committee. Information about these services can usually be found on public housing notice boards or their related social media posts.

However, residents of landed and private properties may not receive such information unless they happen to see a banner or notice about it elsewhere.

Intender is a social product with a singular goal: to provide accessible will writing services and educate the public about the benefits of having a will. It also aims to dispel the stigma and myths surrounding will writing.

Honestly, Intender wasn't the most successful product I've owned. In fact, it never saw the light of day to be ship and consumed by the public.

In 2021, Intender was shelved due to a drastic change in management, causing it to cease to exist. Article about it can be read here.

Fortunately, I have ample design artifacts to share with you regarding our journey to establish Intender as both a brand and a social product.

What you are about to see is a semi-final version of how Intender was envisioned to be as a social product. Not all UX writing is finalised, so expect to see some lorem ipsum (oh no!) and some bland UX writing in the designs.

I am the sole Product Designer and Product Owner for this project. I have the privilege of building a simple style guide for the Intender branding, which is intended to evolve into a design system.

I often collaborate with the Design Principal and Product Manager from our division. I also work actively with the engineering team to ensure that technical feasibility is well-incorporated into my design decisions.

Intender began as a question: What are people's thoughts on will writing?

We started by interviewing colleagues, then expanded to a quantitative survey for the public. Finally, we focused on qualitative interviews.

Here are some statistics we gathered from the research —

Other interesting figures uncovered during the research include —

We shared the research outcomes with selected Will Solicitors. Their response was unsurprising —

Educate first is the primary principle we've established as our initial guideline in product design. Our priority is to ensure that the public is well-informed through various means before they engage with our service.

Prototype for result was the next principle on how we planned to test and iterate the product. We believed that education shapes the mindset and can inspire changes in behaviour towards a product or service.

Intender, a brand name derived from the word —

The smile in the logo signifies satisfaction with our will-writing service. We haven't considered any potential negative effects of incorporating the smile into our brand (If you know, you know 😊)

Intender adopted a unique design approach. In line with our 'educate first' product principle, we created a publicly accessible knowledge base about will writing. This serves as an educational portal for those who have attended the will writing seminar organised by Singapore Press Holdings.

We heavily incorporated experimentation in our design process. This was an effective way to analyse public usage behaviours before and after attending the seminar when accessing the knowledge base.

Marketing upcoming features to gauge interest was another strategy we employed to assess the public's readiness to engage with Intender as their will writing service provider.

Intender's design emphasises substance over style. The aim is to ensure each stage of the service is clearly and adequately communicated.

We believe that if a product or service satisfies the needs and pace of the user, they are more likely to recommend it. This consideration is important in design decisions.

Designing a social product presents a set of challenges that we aimed to continually address.

The most prominent issue is always monetisation, especially since Intender started with a low capital and self-funded. The major challenge lies in how Intender can attract different Will Solicitors to join as partners and representatives for will-writing knowledge sharing through seminars and talk shows.

Not all public users have the same needs or levels of understanding. Striking a balance in the information provided pushes us to test the size of information bites and how well they are digested by a broad range of public users.