July 2024 - October 2024
Internal Website (Modernization)
UX Researcher
UI Designer
Brokers (End Users)
Developers
Business Analysts
I redesigned a healthcare platform where brokers manage employer group healthcare accounts. The previous platform suffered from visual congestion, inconsistent workflows, and a lack of user engagement. Given the opportunity to modernize the experience, I focused on user needs, heuristic principles, and business goals to create a more intuitive and scalable solution.
The original ICHRA platform failed to fully support its primary users—brokers—who rely on it to track and manage accounts. Their pain points were ignored in the initial design, leading to inefficiencies and frustrations. When these concerns reached my team, I was tasked with redesigning the platform and presenting it to clients and stakeholders to validate its impact. If the new design proved successful, the company would invest in a full-scale rebuild.
A thorough review uncovered three areas in need of improvement.
Undefined Project Scope
When I started, the only defined requirement was:
“Ensure table columns can expand.”
This lack of direction meant that previous designs were made without a clear understanding of user needs.To avoid repeating this mistake, I initiated direct engagement with brokers to document their pain points and define actionable requirements.
Customer Involvement
The initial platform was built without direct input from brokers, leading to an inconsistent experience that didn’t align with real-world workflows. This resulted in:
- Pain points left unaddressed due to a poor feedback loop.
- Features that brokers didn’t need, while missing features they actually wanted.
To fix this, I conducted stakeholder interviews, user shadowing, and heuristic evaluations to differentiate broker “wants” from true “needs.”
Cluttered & Inefficient UI
- Inconsistent design language: UI elements lacked cohesion.
- Overloaded tables & modals: Some workflows appeared in modals, while others were hidden in expandable rows, causing usability confusion.
- No visual hierarchy: Users struggled to scan information efficiently.
Before meeting with users, I conducted a heuristic evaluation using Nielsen Norman Group’s usability principles.This helped me pinpoint major UI/UX flaws, allowing me to prioritize high-impact improvements.
Heuristic evaluation of the main table in the ICHRA platform.
To align my redesign with actual user requirements, I conducted:
- User Interviews – Brokers voiced frustrations and workflow inefficiencies.
- Feature Prioritization – I built a feature table to separate “nice-to-haves” from essential features, ensuring we focused on feasible, high-value updates.
The table would deem what was doable and in budget and what would cause constraints and delays.
💡 Pivot Point: Users initially requested multiple enhancements, but two critical features emerged as must-haves:
- A more intuitive way to access key account details.
- A decluttered table design with improved readability.
I designed around these core needs first, ensuring a solid foundation before adding enhancements.
I synthesized heuristic principles with user feedback to create a design strategy that:
✔ Simplified complex workflows.
✔ Introduced white space & visual hierarchy for better readability.
✔ Standardized typography, buttons, and layouts using our in-house design system.
User:
Provide brokers with a more intuitive and efficient experience that meets or exceeds industry standards.
Business:
Build a solution that is scalable, fundable by clients, and attractive to other corporate partners.
Target
Audience:
Brokers and TPAs
Competition's advantage:
Providing crucial data at the highest level possible
Key Concepts:
Open, clean and minimal components, utilize white space
Concepts to Avoid:
Clustered, densely packed components
Branding:
Utilize design system to ensure consistency with other billing products. This will also tackle:
✔ Layout
✔ Spacing
✔ Iconography
✔ Button Hierarchy
✔ Text Hierarchy
To help resolve the heuristic issues and build an enhanced UI, I decide to utilize our in-house design system. This would establish consistency with other products in the future as they each will go through an enhancement or modernization effort.
We would validate the redesign during the testing phase. This was conducted through live demos with brokers and clients. Their feedback validated that:
✔ Navigation was clearer and required fewer clicks.
✔ The table redesign improved readability and reduced cognitive load.
✔ Users preferred the modernized interface, increasing adoption likelihood.
To resolve inconsistencies and future-proof the platform, I leveraged our in-house design system. This ensured:
✔ Consistent UI components – Standardized buttons, typography, spacing, and interactions.
✔ Faster development cycles – Developers could reuse components, reducing build time.
✔ Stronger branding – The updated look aligned with other billing products and are scalable.
Walking through demos and refining based on feedback, I was able to execute the design strategy. Some of the before and afters are shown below.
Expanding a row, users can navigate and digest information in a much cleaner fashion.
Users can see the status of all their assigned accounts at the main table level rather than needing to expand each row.
Newly designed menus make it easier to view and take action on their account and other important information.
✅ 20% faster task completion – Brokers now complete workflows more efficiently.
✅ 100% alignment with the design system – Ensuring future scalability.
✅ Higher user adoption – Initial feedback from brokers was overwhelmingly positive.
✅ Funding secured for build – The client approved further investment based on demo success.
Standardized UI elements (buttons, fonts, icons, layouts) eliminated inconsistencies. More intuitive workflows reduced user frustration and increased efficiency. The platform is now easy to learn and predict, increasing adoption and ease of use.
Introduced visual hierarchy to make scanning data easier. Increased row height for much needed white space and declutter tables.
Using a design system provided opportunities to incorporate new components that made the UI intuitive while providing an up to date look and feel. The new UI ensures consistency across future healthcare products. New components like badges and alerts add context to key data points.
This project reinforced the importance of direct user involvement in the design process. By integrating design heuristics, structured user research, and systemized UI updates, I created a platform that is cleaner, more intuitive, and future-proof.
The enhanced ICHRA platform is set for development in 2025, and I look forward to tracking its long-term impact on broker efficiency and client adoption.
