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theodo experience

Making climate risk readable for an insurer

  • AXA Climate
  • Data viz
  • UX research
  • 2024 → 2025
A designer presenting to the team gathered in a conference

01.The brief

Sound climate models, and underwriters who could not act on any of it.

02.The challenge

Show uncertainty without hiding it

The data was there, the science was sound, and the screen stayed unreadable. We worked the question the other way round: what decision does the underwriter have to make, and what do they need to make it?

We started from the decisions an underwriter makes, then worked back to the data strictly needed for each — and looked for a representation of uncertainty the climatologists validate and the underwriters can read.

A designer presenting to the team gathered in a conference
Three team members talking, laptops on their knees

03.The product approach

Start from the decision to be made, work back to the data.

Three team members talking in a bright room

Start from the decision

We listed the decisions an underwriter makes, then worked back to the data strictly needed for each.

Drawing uncertainty

Several representations tested with both trades, until we found one the climatologists validate and the underwriters can read.

Our approach: draw uncertainty rather than round it off.

  • 001.

    Uncertainty that has to be shown

    A climate model gives ranges. Hiding them would be false, showing them raw is unreadable.

  • 002.

    Two trades that were not talking

    Climatologists and underwriters shared neither the vocabulary nor the expectations.

  • 003.

    A decision to be made fast

    An underwriter assesses a file in minutes, not in half a day of reading.

04.The outcome

Three times as many files assessed

Three team members talking, laptops on their knees

Checking against real case files

Assessment sessions filmed on real files, at every iteration, rather than lab testing.

05.Our impact

  • × 3

    files assessed per underwriter per week.

  • -52%

    fewer questions escalated to the science team.

  • 9/10

    stated satisfaction after six months of use.

« Six weeks of framing saved us a year of building in the wrong direction. »
Sophie MarchandHead of product — AXA Climate

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