HealthPath

A responsive end-to-end mobile application helping young professionals to research and select an insurance plan that fits their lifestyle.

Problem

Users conducting their own health insurance searches are not provided with a clear direction in what plan is best suited for their needs. We want to know how current young professionals research, select, and determine value in health insurance so that we can develop a platform that can result in a quick and confident decision.

Background

In the U.S. the options of selecting the right health insurance plan depend on a lot of variables such as employment status, what state you are in, budget, household size and more. With the Affordable Care Act, many young professionals rely on dependent status to retain health insurance until they turn 26. Once this runs out, users are left conducting their own research to understand what options are available to them. With the added burden of understanding industry jargon, users feel burnout over selecting a plan. In making these decisions, there is currently no way for users to check the accuracy or validity of information found on the internet. With a rising need for transparency from web based sources, we are diving deeper into the current U.S. health insurance search experience to develop a platform that fine-tunes the selection process to the users needs.

Project Timeline

May-July 2024 (120 Hours)

Role

UX/UI Designer

Tools

Figma, Google Applications

Skills

User research & testing, wire-framing, prototyping, and branding

*Educational project part of Designlab’s UX Academy. Any feedback is appreciated!

Competitive Analysis

We explored the strengths and weaknesses of 4 direct competitors and 2 indirect competitors to identify gaps where there could be opportunities for a new platform. In our findings we found:

  • Issues with concise information

  • Geographical limitations

  • No final resolution to a plan selection

All of these platforms still relied on the user to have prior insurance knowledge to trust the information that was being shared to make their decision

Research

We conducted a survey with participants between the age of 25 and 35, which informed us to focus our interviews on how users felt about conducting their own research for health insurance planning and what barriers they face that affect their decision making.

We did 45 minute interviews with 4 participants in the same target group and 1 participant aged 60+ to compare experiences. Some insights we found were:

  • Employment heavily influences insurance selection

  • Majority of participants experienced paying out of pocket for care despite having coverage

  • Participants sought help to pick the right plan using the internet and word-of-mouth

  • No participants claimed to have a high level of understanding their current plan and limitations

  • All target range participants stayed as dependents for the max amount of allotted time (26 years)

Quotes from Interview participants:

“I value things that are cost friendly and having a continuity of care where I stay with the same doctors and know my history.”

“I don’t want to learn about this stuff unless I have to. I don’t go out of my way to understand these things because it has been overwhelming.”

“There needs to be a better way to find that connection between what’s offered and what people are looking for and what they actually need.”

From our research, we were able to synthesize our findings into one Point of View and How Might We statement:

We would like to explore ways to help young professionals who are overwhelmed by the abundance of health insurance information because of the insufficient and irrelevant search results they encounter, instead achieve an informed choice of picking a plan that suits their lifestyle and budget.

How might we present health insurance information that is digestible and relevant to a user's needs?

And created a persona that summed up the target audience we would be focusing on for the rest of this study:

Goals:

  • Make decisions that align with health needs and maximize benefits

  • Understand scope of care and have personalized information to find best solutions

Mia is a young professional looking to make serious decisions concerning her health for the first time. She doesn’t want to dedicate time to learning more than what is applicable to her budget, goals, and needs. She values accuracy, credibility, convenience, and personalization with her tech usage being high. 

Needs:

  • Credible sources to back information about current plan and offer clear explanations

  • Adaptable insurance platform to access health information any time

Frustrations:

  • Too much information that is inconsistent or applicable to current coverage

  • Terminology and older platforms that hinder comprehension of plan and benefits

Paint Points:

  • Getting inaccurate information that does not help resolve problems

  • Worry about having coverage package that does not fulfill needs

Flows and Wireframing

We developed user flows to create different scenarios the user could run into when completing the 3 tasks we were going to test: Account creation, Insurance Plan Selection, and the Match Quiz.

In our task flows, we narrowed down the screens most necessary for the tasks that would be tested with users.

Translating low-fidelity sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes, we created these key screens to think critically of the overall user journey and what secondary screens were needed such such as user information, error states, and success states.

Testing and Prioritization

In 2 rounds of usability testing, we had 3 participants in our target age group go through the 3 task flows of creating an account, looking at insurance types, and the insurance match quiz.

After testing low fidelity wireframes, we received feedback with the main takeaway being to reconfigure the homepage to have an easier and quicker pathway to the main features. We expanded the search bar and placed it closer to the top. We added the compare plans features closer to the top of the homepage for better visibility as well. Users enjoyed the match quiz and saw value in it, so moving it to the homepage was necessary instead of coming to it through an explore page.

Branding

After initial sketching, we liked the idea of playing with shapes that formed the name of our platform intertwined with a winding pathway. We then tested if it could be scaled to different sizes without losing shape and could be paired with a wordmark to complete the final logo design (right).

Inspired by nature, we looked to use greens and blues to evoke calmness and consideration. In our designs we went for a more spring green to feel more energized and optimistic. The blues were to relate to being trustworthy and private aligning with HealthPath’s values. Catering to the young professional market, we incorporated illustrations into the final designs to convey friendliness and approachability. Accessibility was checked to have an AA rating or above.

High Fidelity

We created a UI kit for HealthPath which incorporated a new logo and illustrations.

An added section to the homepage was created showing how HealthPath works so that users who are unsure about the platform or needing to create an account have better instruction of how to get started.

Next Steps

Our next step would be to develop more screens for this platform and go beyond the three key features to continue to make this platform fully functional.

I learned a lot during this project and am so proud of the final product. I see there’s room to improve but my biggest lesson was how important usability testing is to make sure my own preferences or beliefs don’t get in the way of the needs of the users I am building for.

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