KEVA

Keva made their mission to improve the customer experience for its numerous pensioner and vocational rehabilitation users. rs. Previously, pensioners had acces to an electronic pension card application, which had challenges, especially for Apple users. Keva wanted to renew the pension card application and at the same time offer their customers new services that are user-friendly and accessible. ln this first phase, the aim was to limit the content to meet the primary information needs of pensioners and vocational rehabilitation customers.

As part of the initiative, in 2024 Keva collected feedback from its electronic services and pension card users, which helped scout our points of improvement and shape the service to meet the needs of their users.

"Early requirements from Keva regarding features and goals were high-level, as is typical at the beginning. Through design sprint workshops, we focused on uncovering the depth of these requirements, learning about our users, understanding context and involving diverse group of experts from Keva and Zure to bring all perspectives on the board.

This tightly collaborative approach helped us deliver the best user experience for Keva’s customers. The team is super pleased with our tool that helps Keva's customers in a straightforward manner and is easily expandable to all future needs."

Simple and safe start for use

As ease of onboarding, simplicity of use and overall security were important matters, the application uses strong authentication via banking and other official Finnish identity verification systems. Once the user has successfully completed the initial log in, they are quided through an easy PIN-code setup to give alternative and faster way to enter the application next time.

 

We recognized that some users still prefer the strong authentication method instead of remembering or relying on a PIN-code, so instead of it being mandatory, we made it completely optional for the user. This was because we wanted to allow the user to control the functionality to fit their needs, which is also why the PIN-code can be changed at any time in the app settings. 

Benefit payments at a glance

One of the main functionalities of the application is to allow users to quickly look at when their benefits arrive and the total their benefits. This is why we placed this information directly on the “Home” view, where the latest benefits are highlighted. We also made a payment view one of the three main views of the application, making it easy to find anywhere in the app.

The main thing for a user to see is the type of benefit being paid, as there can be multiple payment types, along with the payment date and the net amount. This information is typically enough for the user to confirm that everything looks correct. Additionally, users can check all the details, such as the breakdown of taxes and other deductions, and to ensure the correct bank account is used to receive the benefit.

Documents in your pocket

An important goal was to make it fast and clear to view and download all documents, wherever the user may need them. Like benefits, documents are one of the main views and are also featured on the ‘Home’ view, making them easy to find at all times. From a user experience perspective, we ensured that users could easily see that document topics and individual files would show up as ‘Unread’ until they were opened, preventing them from missing vital information. Once a file is opened, it is visually shown in a different shade to indicate it has been read.

Whenever new documents are sent to the user by Keva, their device will send a push notification, provided notifications are enabled. This feature helps Keva integrate their services into modern lifestyles, as an increasing number of future app users are familiar with smart devices and use services daily. All documents are in PDF format, easily viewable in the app, and downloadable, allowing accessibility tools to assist in reading the documents. 

Electronic Earnings-Related Pension Card

The physical card version is still used in Finland, but there is a common issue with many payment, loyalty, and other service cards: they just don’t all fit in your wallet. This is why electronic versions are useful in the modern age.

The card itself is required to be in Finnish, Swedish, and English. The original card already displays all the The card itself is required to be in Finnish, Swedish, and English. The original card already displays the language versions on one card, so after a few design iterations, we decided to mimic the physical card as much as our screen space allowed. The result is simple and stylistically connected to the brand and feel of the physical world version.

As an ease-of-use feature, we allow users to view the digital pension benefit card without having to log in. As long as the user has activated the card and logged in at least once, they can easily access it from the application’s Iog-in view even without an internet connection. During our user testing sessions, this feature received high praise for its simplicity and clarity.

“The technical phase began with joint workshops on key architectural topics, setting clear baselines for the upcoming application. These covered essential aspects such as security, scalability, performance, and resilience, along with specifics like system integrations and deployment architecture in a secure, cost-effective environment.

Software development is always rewarding: each project brings daily opportunities to learn, whether in technical, business, or cross-disciplinary areas. Ultimately, it’s both exciting and fulfilling to see an application you’ve helped create go live and start making a real impact in people’s lives.”

Olli Alopaeus, Architect and Project Lead at Zure

Rampant security threats demand serious threat modeling

Through the project, Zure had one of our Security Experts involved to make sure we do not overlook any kind of threats from outside attacks and we minimize risks for sensitive data getting in wrong hands.

“The threat modeling workshops and their outcomes were taken positively and seriously. The workshops focused on the essentials, and discussions did not stray off-topic, which can be typical. During the workshops, the most critical risks and mitigation measures were identified.

The positive atmosphere continued through several sessions, and the number of participants throughout the threat modeling process was a positive surprise. The diverse group of participants helped identify risks across a wide range of areas, and all participants were committed to the process.”

Petrus Vasenius, Security Expert at Zure

Dedicated quality assurance from all parties

It’s important to catch an issues early in development with unit testing and deployment test runs, but equally important is to utilise requirement changing moments to write the test cases in unison with feature use cases. This helps in manual testing for product owner and QA Expert when the features move from active development to testing and review.

Using tools like BrowserStack, which was also used in this project, to test is necessary as functionalities on thousands of different devices would not be possible otherwise. Having a dedicated QA expert on the team ensures that information flows smoothly from design to backlog, through implementation, and into UAT. This proactive approach reduces critical production findings by users, which in turn helps prevent poor app store reviews.

“Keva’s active participation and responsible approach to testing were invaluable. Their eagerness to collaborate, learn new methods, and maintain transparency ensured we always knew the testing status. This open communication allowed us to address any uncertainties immediately, strengthening our partnership and make work efficient.”

Lucie Ylitalo, Quality Assurance Expert at Zure

When there are potentially hundreds of thousands of users for your application, it’s important to make sure that everyone can access and use it effectively. By adhering to accessibility standards like WCAG 2.2 AA, we can create an inclusive environment where everyone has equal access to information and services. It enhances user experience, broadens your audience, and demonstrates a commitment to social responsibility.

“Keva saw design work as an essential part of the project. During the project we together ensured the product’s user experience and overall accessibility, which devotion can be seen and felt in the smooth flows of the product and how the user group has been taken into account. As aging is a megatrend, the new Keva Pension and Rehabilitation application is sure to respond well to the demands of future pensioners of upcoming years.”

Sanna Kangas, UI & UX Designer at Zure

Accessibility as a requirement

The app was required to meet the WCAG 2.2 AA-level standards as Keva is a part of public administration, but also as the intended user group consists mainly of the elderly population. It was a natural and justified choice to design and build the app to be simple rather than complex, and to aim for overall clarity in use. This meant careful planning in both design and coding decisions, as well as overall accessibility-centered thinking by stepping into the shoes of a person with differing abilities and challenges.

Basic user interface design elements were provided by Keva, but Zure’s design team modified the elements to better suit the mobile and tablet environments. The user group’s needs guided the focus areas of the development process to be the following: 

• Understandable – the app must be easy to use and understand. The functionalities must be clear and unambiguous. Flows must be simple and not too long. 

• Accessible – the app must work both horizontally and vertically, and in both mobile and tablet environments. The design must endure for example augmented text size and inverse colors. 

• Brand compliance – the app must follow Keva’s brand guidelines to feel safe and familiar to users.

 

To ensure the development process met the project standards and the desired inclusive and pleasant user experience, in-house user tests and a third party accessibility audit were conducted before the release. The user testing methods were qualitative, including recorded interviews and team observations. The results confirmed the development was heading the right way with all participants overall confident and pleased using the app after short first-time use. The results were presented to the development team, and a report was made for the steering group. 

“In terms of accessibility, work was done to ensure that all possible features in the application support it. Accessibility was tested during development by using a screen reader and an external keyboard, and by changing the application settings from the Android or iOS operating system settings for different uses.

The work was slightly accelerated by the fact that some of these features worked directly in the Android emulator and iOS simulator, the rest are tested by hand with real devices. The development of the mobile application was streamlined by making reusable parts in the code. The release pipeline was also automated to the extent that it was easy to get a test version to testers. Package auditing and unit tests were added to run in DevOps so that their functionality and security could be monitored.”

Juho Heikkinen, Developer at Zure