Helping employees choose their yearly health benefits can be overwhelming, especially when they’re trying to understand complex plan options. Our recommendations engine uses past claims data to surface personalized plan suggestions, helping users make more informed, confident decisions.

However, the main recommendations page needed a refresh. We wanted to better balance showing personalized recommendations with the ability for users to easily explore and compare other plan options, in a way that felt clearer, more flexible, and easier to navigate.

Redesigning our most important pages to give users the information they need.

Project Background

For this open enrollment project, we focused on tackling client and employee feedback about the recommendation flow in benefits enrollment. The main issue was that users couldn’t easily switch to a different medical plan or waive coverage during the process. This led to a lot of confusion and extra work after enrollment.

To better support users, we aimed to introduce a “low” option to the medical recommendations page as part of a pilot integration, with a longer-term roadmap to expand into a full range of options, including a “high” tier in the future. This was especially important given rising healthcare costs and the need to give users more agency in finding plans that fit their financial situation.

I stepped in during this work while the original designer was on maternity leave, taking ownership of the redesign and helping move the work forward under tight development constraints. I focused on delivering a clear, usable solution that balanced user needs, business requirements, and technical limitations while ensuring the new experience could be successfully implemented and iterated on over time.

Process

To begin, we had a multi-tiered process to ensure we were solving the problem correctly and holistically, working side-by-side with Product and the rest of the UX team. Our process involved the following:

1. Stakeholder Alignment

   We opened with deep alignment sessions alongside Product to establish shared goals from the start. Together, we scoped the initiative into a phased roadmap: delivering a robust low priced option immediately while architecting a clear path toward high priced option enhancements.

2. Research

   Our research grounded every decision. We synthesized existing user feedback that consistently surfaced confusion within the recommendation flow, identifying friction points that were quietly eroding the experience. We also conducted a competitive benchmarking review of our offerings, using industry standards to pressure test our assumptions and identify opportunities to differentiate.

3. Ideation

   Each iteration was a dialogue: designs were refined in response to feedback from Product and cross-functional stakeholders, ensuring alignment at every fidelity level before advancing.

4. Collaboration

   We maintained a consistent cadence of working sessions with Product throughout the project, creating space to navigate trade-offs between design integrity and technical feasibility in real time. This kept momentum high and prevented costly misalignments late in the process.

5. Implementation

   Designed features allowing users to:

   • Users can waive any benefit type, including medical, without being forced to exit the recommendation flow, eliminating a major source of drop-off and frustration.

   • Users can select alternative plans inline, directly within the recommendation process, reducing context-switching and cognitive load.

   • Users can continue receiving recommendations for remaining benefit types after waiving one, preserving the integrity of the full benefits experience rather than abandoning it mid-flow.

Design Work

For this project, I focused on creating designs that were user-centered, accessible, and consistent with native design patterns to ensure a seamless experience. My process began with understanding the core issues users faced and crafting solutions that addressed their needs while meeting business goals. The resulting design introduced several new capabilities that significantly improved the experience:

• Compare Multiple Plans
  Users could now compare more plans, not just the one recommended, giving them more flexibility and confidence in their choices.

• Waive Coverage
  A clear and easy-to-find option to waive coverage for any benefit type was added, including medical, so users no longer felt forced to accept recommendations they didn’t need.

• Access More Information
  Users could dig deeper into each health plan, viewing details and benefits with just a click, empowering them to make more informed decisions.

• Improved Navigation
  The option to skip to the next page in the recommendation flow was made much clearer, reducing confusion and frustration during the process.

Throughout the design process, I kept accessibility top of mind, ensuring the experience worked for all users. By leveraging native design patterns, the interface felt intuitive and familiar, making it easier for users to navigate and engage with the new features.

Conclusion

This project was all about solving real pain points in the benefits recommendation flow while juggling client needs and technical constraints. All of this being said, there were definitely moments when the design team had to compromise and not get everything we wanted in the low priced option. But ultimately, we created a solution that made the process clearer for users and reduced admin headaches. It was a great example of teamwork and making the best of what we had while understanding business and development constraints, while still planning for even better down the line.