UMR.com
UMR is the country’s largest TPA and a United Health Care company. They need a complete overhaul and redesign of both their public site and secure site for all their constituents. UMR brought me to lead the redesign process from start to finish, a multi-year project by time we work through all the constituents. I collaborated with a Product Manager, Senior UX Designer, UX Writer, and the development team.
Research and Benchmarks
The research stage consisted of conducting user interviews, gathering Adobe Analytics, and researching our competitors. The existing site does not currently have a site map. Nailing down and improving upon the current IA was imperative to be able to have a secure site that was flexible but consistent for the many different ways users interact with UMR.
I mapped out the most common user flows starting with our member personas. I started with the current flows as they existed and looked for ways we could improve the architecture and flows moving forward. This was crucial to help visualize the user journey and proper hierarchy on each page.
A look at some of the research below. These are purposely small. I am happy to dive into more detail on a more formal call.
Research Insights
Based on our competitive research, we found that the biggest missing features on our current site were a search tool, a robust about us section, insufficient help throughout the app, and any mention of our existing customer mobile apps.
Our interview analysis showed the we needed our design to be flexible to meet all the needs of our customers (lots of varying plans for their members), more search options (including universal search) and funtionality within the portal, and specifically, buttons need a clear hierarchy of importance and purpose.
Other interview insights included the desire for an overall design that feels clean and friendly as well as clearer navigation around benefits and coverage.
Our analytics research showed that we would gain a lot of valuable space above the fold by moving to a top navigation bar as well as prioritizing our most important task (Claims and Benefit Information).
The analytics report also showed a lot of confusion around our benefits flow from the main dashboard as the links and buttons weren’t clear and help was not offered for often misunderstood terms (Explanation of Benefits.)
Public Site Content Mapping
First up on the Product Roadmap was enhancing our public site. You can see a sample of the strategy I took for “Getting to know UMR” pathway established through our research.
Pathway Approach
Audiences - Mapping out pathways allowed me to really analyze how our constituents might end up on our site and navigate through from page to page. Sometimes just looking at one flow or site map fails to account for the way our users tend to navigate through the site.
Purpose and Hierarchy - Establishing the purpose of each page allowed us to establish the priority of our content and buttons to help our users navigate their way through the site.
Content Outline - Outlining our content and mapping it out before the wireframe stage allows the UX writer to start thinking about content and where it might land on the page. When looking at the wireframes, they can still refer to this outline to make sure they are following the plan we set earlier.
Establishing Design Principles
When starting out the wireframe process, the main considerations were moving to a top level navigation, having member focused content while still appealing to possible partnerships, and proper use of inviting imagery and white space to not overwhelm our users. These were our overarching design principles that helped to guide our efforts.
Wireframing
Login Flow
One of the main flows we wanted to rework was out login flow. As it exists, it is just one big drop down menu with lots of content for everyone. It was important that we offered lots of opportunities to login and that it made sense for each constituent. Login was the main CTA on our homepage and each constituent could directly login in from their dedicated page on our public site.
Prototype
When presenting to stakeholders, it was beneficial to protoype out the site so that they could really get a sense for the flow of the site and how much the navigation has improved from the existing site. There was unanimous support for the wireframe and we were given the green light to bring it to life.
Design System
UMR did not have an established Design System. This was an important step as we built out the hi-fidelity so that the designs can remain consistent across the all encompassing site. Building out a specific design system for our secure site will also be important because it needed to be flexible for the many different options that employers can offer their members through UMR.
Design Process
Hi-Fidelity
As mentioned, the direction of the wireframe was approved so I moved forward with hi-fidelity designs. I started out with the homepage so that we could align on the general feel of the site before moving onto the rest of the site. The Hi-fi prototype was helpful in showing development the flows that we expected as well as presenting to stakeholders. This work helped guide our designs as we moved into the secure site next.
Secure Site
The constraints for our project started at the existing site. There was a challenge of incorporating some existing functionality and pages while upgrading the navigation flows and overall user experience that we captured in our research. We were in a bit of a time crunch at this point but were able to design a cohesive feel to the Member Secure Site which is currently in development.