Richard Picot
Streamlining Cuvva's app navigation
Cuvva · 2024
Cuvva is a UK-based insurance company offering app-based temporary car insurance. In 2024, we set out to launch a major new feature: peer-to-peer car sharing through user-created car clubs. This marked a shift from a single-purpose insurance tool to a broader platform for shared mobility.
We knew the existing app structure couldn’t support this direction. The challenge was to introduce this new functionality in a way that made it feel native and intuitive—without compromising our core user journey: getting a car insurance quote quickly and easily.
At the time, most of the app's functionality lived in a single Home tab, which had become a catch-all space for experiments and minor features. It was slow to load and confusing to navigate. So rather than continue piling onto an already overloaded tab, we saw an opportunity to rethink the app’s navigation from the ground up and give users clearer pathways and a faster, more purposeful experience.
What began as an exploratory design sprint within the Experience Team turned into the most commercially impactful product initiative of the year—driving significant revenue growth and improving the overall user experience across the app.
+£0.5M/yr
Revenue
+10%
Quote requests
+50%
Faster load time (approx)
Core product optimisations and UX evolution
Cuvva · 2022 – 2025
As the Product Designer in a product trio alongside a PM and Engineering Manager, I’ve led continuous UX improvements across Cuvva’s core app — from onboarding to checkout — by identifying friction, validating insights, and designing solutions that improved both customer experience and business performance.
Usability testing of the first-run experience surfaced clarity issues and friction in the quote journey. I redesigned the flow to simplify decision points and reduce drop-off.
I expanded support for under-served users by designing flows for drivers with international licences, brand-new vehicles, and those planning ahead — introducing the ability to buy policies in advance, which now accounts for over 10% of all sales.
To reduce fraud and support conversion, I designed a platform-native identity check using a Live Selfie, integrated directly with iOS. I also delivered iterative improvements across quoting and checkout to reduce errors, improve speed, and lower customer support demand.
+21%
Users onboarded
+6%
Quote to purchase
91%
Average Customer Satisfaction Score
Bringing Cuvva to the web
Cuvva · 2022 – 2025
Most people sort out their car insurance on the web, I led the design of key web experiences that brought Cuvva beyond its app-first roots — including quoting, purchasing, and account management.
I started by adapting our subscription product for web, redesigning the quote, checkout, and policy management flows to suit browser-based behaviours. This allowed us to test a new distribution channel at a time when we were exploring how to scale. Although the product was eventually sunset, the work shaped how we now approach cross-platform UX.
Later, I designed a short-term quote flow for web after we saw significant drop-off from users landing on our site but not continuing to the app. By giving people a way to get a price instantly on web — even though purchase still required the app for ID verification — we created a smoother handoff and gave users stronger motivation to continue. The flow remains live today and continues to drive acquisition.
Shaping the Cuvva Design System
Cuvva · 2020 – 2025
Since joining Cuvva, I’ve helped shape the foundations of our cross-platform design system — contributing to the components, patterns, and visual language that power both our app and web products.
Cuvva has gone through several brand evolutions during my time here, and a key part of my role has been translating those brand shifts into UI — making sure the identity carries through into the product in a way that feels consistent, predictable, and appropriate for the platform. This work has always been highly collaborative, involving close partnership with brand designers, content designers, and marketing teams to align voice, tone, and interaction. The work here never stops.
Designing for multiple platforms means constantly asking: how native should this feel? I’ve worked on patterns and components that need to balance platform familiarity with brand distinctiveness, and speed to design and build. Finding that balance is a challenge I never tire of — and one that’s made the design system one of the most rewarding parts of my work at Cuvva.
2
Brand refreshes
33
Components defined
~200
Pages impacted
Live Activities for iOS and watchOS
Cuvva · 2022 – 2024
In 2022, Apple introduced Live Activities on the Lock Screen, later expanding support to Apple Watch. It was the perfect opportunity for Cuvva to extend its presence beyond the app — keeping customers informed in real time about their short-term insurance policies without needing to open the app.
As a mobile-first insurer, this was a unique chance to stand out from the competition by embracing new platform technology in a way that felt useful, native, and delightful. The feature quickly became one of the most loved parts of the experience, regularly mentioned in App Store reviews for its convenience and clarity.
Delivering this wasn’t simple. Live Activities required a coordinated effort between product, design, and engineering due to its complexity and close ties to policy state and backend session timing. I led the design effort and played a key role in getting stakeholders on board early — shaping the vision, framing the opportunity, and collaborating closely with engineers to bring the experience to life across both iOS and WatchOS.
33%
Of policy extensions from Live Activities
4.8
App Store rating
Bottle Cap
2024
Bottle Cap is a small iOS app I designed, coded, and shipped — built to track weekly alcohol consumption in a simple, non-judgemental way. It started as a personal project to help me be more mindful about drinking, but also became a way to challenge myself to learn SwiftUI, understand the App Store processes, and ship something end-to-end.
I created Bottle Cap because I found existing apps either too complicated — obsessing over units and ABV, or lacking integration with HealthKit. I wanted something lighter: quick to use, data-aware, and designed around good weekly habits.
I built the app using SwiftUI and leaned on AI as part of my development workflow — especially when navigating the more technical aspects of HealthKit integration. It’s been a great learning experience, and a chance to explore what it’s like to own every part of the product process.
It’s a dinky little app, but it’s mine and I’m proud it exists. You can download Bottle Cap on the App Store and try it for yourself, let me know what you think!
