Design strategy for health benefits enrollment
Background
I joined the Postal Service Health Benefits program at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management less than eight months prior to open enrollment, which is the annual period all federal employees can change their health benefits. The program was created from the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 to save money and streamline operations. The program goal was to create the largest health benefits exchange ever created in the United States for 2 million postal service workers in 2024 and then roll it out to all federal employees iteratively.
As a seasoned design lead, I was hired to jump into a fast-moving train of decision-making to analyze the program's website, print notices, and enrollment platform to advocate for the user experience and create a backlog of improvements.
I knew right away the usual steps I would take wouldn't work. I didn't have the luxury to go through all the steps of a design process to understand, ideate, prototype, and test. A designer had been in the position previously, but moved to another team and there was a gap of 3-4 months.
I dug into documentation and started making introduction meetings with stakeholders, subject matter experts, consultants, and engineers to understand the roles of who I would collaborate with, and what processes were already in place.
A high-level current and future state service blueprint had been drafted, and some initial UX feedback on the flow and language of the SAAS product. There was also a high-level user journey defined for current and future state. I knew my partners wouldn't be receptive to re-doing this high-level work so I needed to focus on the tactical work that was still needed.
My goal: How can I use my UX expertise to determine what is necessary for an MVP release, then operationalize UX work iteratively post open season?
I put my service design hat on to think through what do our customers need before, during, and after enrollment.
At my 1:1 conversations with stakeholders, I led discussions around the questions in the current and future state blueprints and personas for USPS employees and annuitants. I wanted to make sure I understood user needs as well as organizational goals and regulations.
Service blueprint for USPS postal service enrollment
User groups: Postal service employees, retirees, and those in special circumstances like disability leave
Persona for postal retirees
Achievements
I helped launch a successful open enrollment season with subject matter experts and digital standards stewards in Healthcare and Insurance, Retirement Services, USPS, and the Office of Communications. I think my biggest super power is building relationships, and that's what enabled me to accomplish so much in a short amount of time.
I also have broad experience across user experience and was able to evaluate the SAAS enrollment product we were customizing, but also related websites, training materials, and notices that were sent home to USPS employees. That helped me add value in areas that specialized designers may not have been able to.
Acccessibility+ design
I facilitated an accessibility review of the enrollment application with internal 508 experts and an accessibility primary contact withe SAAS vendor. The agency’s 508 team signoff was required before launch. I acted as the project manager as well as UX expert. I created design mockups for UI changes as needed and tracked the accessibility tickets in Jira.
Accessibility change example where I also used design expertise:
Problem: Disabled form fields do not need to meet WCAG standards for color contrast and were not prioritized to change for MVP. However, disabled fields with low contrast were being used to show enrollees their personal details they weren’t able to edit themselves.
There was also a disconnect between clicking on "Complete my benefits form" from the Dashboard's left navigation to linking to “About You.”
The language wasn’t consistent linking from the enrollee’s dashboard where it said “Complete your benefits form.” Subject matter experts were relying on internal language that was disconnected from the experience.
The progress bar steps doesn't make sense because enrollees weren’t browsing for new benefits yet. They needed to verify their personal eligibility information and submit. Selecting a plan was a separate flow after their eligibility was confirmed.
I recommended and had prioritized for MVP:
Removing disabled fields altogether to display enrollee data with the same level of contrast used for all body copy on the platform
Consolidating all personal information together to reduce steps
Changing the progress bar to a breadcrumb and remove the misleading progress bar.
Change the copy from the dashboard link to “Enroll in benefits.”
Content design & UX writing
Content was the biggest user experience impact with the smallest effort. Development was not needed to update copy, but it did require coordination with subject matter and legal experts when there were regulations involved.
I wrote and edited page copy and developed a repository of reusable messages. Here you can see an evolution of messaging from an e-Commerce marketplace to customized federal program messages addressing user’s questions and evolving business changes.
Homepage changes in imagery, layout, navigation and writing guidelines.
Healthcare benefits and insurance is complex and has its own internal technical jargon. I often had to convince stakeholders to update confusing benefits language to plain language that most people would understand. Talking about the large retiree user population and highlighting standards for federal plain language helped.
This is an example of language when an enrollee is confirming their health benefits. I removed unnecessary words and more direct language to improve digital scanning and comprehension.
Wordy block text changed to formatting, simpler copy for digital scanning and comprehension.
I audited the navigation, location cues, button and link copy that were updated for the MVP.
Working session board to review location cue usability issues with stakeholders.
I made alignments to button placements that are known to speed up form completion times in usability studies.
Example showing updated specificity and reduced jargon to page copy, progress bar names, and button placements.
Before and after progress bar, page copy, and button copy and placement.
Mobile optimization for responsive layouts
I conducted cross-browser testing with native browser tools in Chrome and Edge. Responsive design changes were needed to ensure thee most important information was showing in mobile views. Design changes included:
Rearranging elements to maximize the mobile task flow, moving redundant headings and navigational elements, reducing unnecessary white space, and creating a backlog of mobile-first interaction patterns to explore post-MVP.
“Shopping” page where enrollees selected and compared health plans
Ideation sessions to define MVP vs post-MVP backlog
I participated in user acceptance testing (UAT) and then led several ideation sessions to improve usability issues I found along with other team members.
This example is a workshop I with product managers, customer service, and our contracted development vendor. I led discussion reviewing the interaction, content and features available when enrollees received their eligibility results and next steps.
Problems included:
There were unclear next steps for enrollees. Copy was redundant and confusing, but not specific.
Plan changes and timebound rules were not disclosed.
The interaction between individual enrollees and their required actions was disconnected in a vertical tab design that I had seen not work well before in usability testing.
Enrollees were required to upload documents, but were not provided that feature or a link to the feature. They were directed in words.
Results:
For MVP I incluenced the team to:
Include a link to add documents, the ability to print the page moved from a popup to this screen
Improve messaging to make it clear enrollees did not have to choose a plan if they were happy with their current one
Provide due dates uploading documents
Connect the vertical tabs visually to the main body area to make interactivity clearer
Add options at the bottom of the screen for next steps to compare benefits plans or return to the main dashboard.
For post-MVP we agreed to a new design that has clear areas for messaging, plan changes/rules, and next steps.
Ideation session to review usability issues and map out the MVP changes
Post-MVP design
Design exploration to accommodate federal benefits
Under new legislation, postal workers eligible for Medicare were required to enroll in it to save the government money. The plans needed to accomodate price differences showing enrollees Medicare vs non-Medicare, specific union rates vs non-union and other variables.
I explored interaction patterns that were native to the SAAS platform like popups, switches, or hide/collapse functionality. Then, we agreed to display larger cards instead. The interaction cost was too high. The product team and I agreed that there could easily be information misread or missed when enrollees would scan through plan cards, especially thinking of retirees that were likely to resort to call centers with any questions.
Card ideas and iterations for different federal rules and benefits
UX workflow and operations
Design workflow diagram
