Solveig
DURATION
June - August 2025
PROJECT TYPE
Internship, Storebrand
MY ROLE
UX-designer
Overview
Solveig is an AI-based investment guidance concept developed for SKAGEN Funds, as part of Storebrand's Sandbox programme. I was responsible for user insight, concept development, prototyping, and UI design throughout the process.
The goal was to explore how AI could be integrated responsibly and transparently into a regulated financial context — without compromising user trust. The result is a validated service concept with a clear path forward for SKAGEN.
Problem
How can SKAGEN make it easier for customers to make investment decisions?
SKAGEN has a broad and solid product and content library — but many customers, particularly those with significant capital, found the threshold to fund investing too high. They wondered whether they had chosen the right fund, whether they should adjust their portfolio, and what financial news actually meant for them. They didn't necessarily need more information — they needed help interpreting what they already had.
Discover & Define
What the Research Revealed
I conducted user interviews and a competitive analysis to map both customer needs and market trends.
The most surprising finding was that AI skepticism among users was not primarily about a lack of technical understanding — it was about control. Users weren't afraid of AI; they were afraid of losing oversight and feeling disconnected from their own money. This fundamentally changed how we thought about Solveig's role and communication style.
The four most important barriers we identified:
Financial terminology created confusion and distance
Users lacked confidence to make decisions independently
AI was associated with impersonal, generic chatbots
Many customer service enquiries were questions that could actually be answered digitally
Three core needs emerged:
Security and control over their own choices
Personal relevance — not generic advice
The ability to learn at their own pace
Competitors combining AI assistants with learning platforms were perceived as more credible and user-friendly. This confirmed that SKAGEN had a genuine opportunity in the market.
Concept Development Workshop
To translate insight into direction, I facilitated a cross-disciplinary workshop with participants from finance, strategy, and digital transformation. Rather than presenting findings and waiting for feedback, I structured the workshop around concrete design decisions: Who is the user? What should Solveig not do? Where is the line between guidance and advice?
This helped the team establish shared premises early on — saving us significant time in the development phase, as everyone understood the boundaries we were designing within.
We defined the target audience as engaged customers aged 35–70, often with investments exceeding one million NOK, and sharpened the design question:
How can we help SKAGEN customers understand and navigate their investments in a simple, secure, and personal way?
Develop & Deliver
During the development phase, it became clear that one of the biggest barriers to adoption was user skepticism toward artificial intelligence. Users often associated AI with impersonal and unhelpful chatbots — a perception we needed to overcome for Solveig to be embraced.
We chose to design Solveig as a context-sensitive, personal guide integrated directly into content rather than as a separate chat window. The design is grounded in three principles: trust, accessibility, and human-centred communication.
This means that Solveig always provides relevant and easy-to-understand information, adapts language and detail level to the user’s knowledge, and interacts in a professional yet welcoming tone. In this way, she appears as a genuine helper — not another generic chatbot — lowering both skepticism and the threshold for use.
The Design decision That Defined Solveig
The most important decision we made was structural: Solveig would not be a separate chat window — she would be embedded directly within the content of the customer portal (CIP).
The reasoning was clear from the research: users associated pop-up chat with impersonal customer service bots. A floating icon in the corner would trigger the exact skepticism we were trying to overcome. By letting Solveig appear where users already were — while reviewing their portfolio or reading about a fund — the guidance became contextual and relevant, rather than intrusive.
This became the guiding design principle: Solveig meets the user where the decision happens, not in a separate window they have to actively seek out.
Context-Sensitive Guidance
Solveig provides ongoing tips and explanations based on the user's portfolio, market changes, and risk profile — directly within the interface where decisions are made.
Fund Guidance Without Sales Pressure
Users can get help understanding and selecting funds that match their goals, time horizon, and preferences. We deliberately removed all language that could be perceived as sales-driven — because the research showed this immediately undermined trust.
SKAGEN School + Solveig
Always available via Chat Icon
A discreet chat icon provides quick access to Solveig throughout the platform. To lower the threshold for engagement, pre-written example questions (prompts) are presented so users can click to start a relevant conversation.
User Testing & In-Depth Interviews
I conducted five in-depth interviews with SKAGEN customers using an interactive Figma prototype. I deliberately recruited a mix of technology-positive and more skeptical profiles — because a solution that only works for early adopters would not solve SKAGEN's real problem.
Participants explored different use cases freely while I asked questions about experience, usefulness, and trust.
The most important finding was not what we expected: All participants were open to receiving messages from Solveig, but interest in actively using the chat function varied more than anticipated. This confirmed that contextual, embedded guidance was the right primary choice — chat is a supplement, not the core.
Other key findings:
Strong interest in video lessons combined with interactive support
SKAGEN's brand gave Solveig an immediate credibility advantage
It was essential to communicate clearly that Solveig is an addition to — not a replacement for — human advisory services
Testing led to concrete adjustments: we strengthened Solveig's plain-spoken tone, added clearer role explanation in onboarding, and prioritised prompts that lowered the threshold for starting a conversation.
Deliverables
What I Learned?
I came into this project assuming that AI skepticism was primarily a communication problem — that users just needed better explanations of how AI works. The research proved otherwise: the skepticism was rooted in a need for control and trust, not understanding. That shifted the design direction from "explain AI better" to "give users control within the AI experience."
It was also my first time working within a heavily regulated context. Designing for a financial product required learning to distinguish between what makes good UX and what is actually permissible — and finding design decisions that satisfy both.