Mass GeneralBrigham Health Plan

MGBHP is an integrated healthcare plan that connects its members to the Massachusetts’ largest premium provider network.

RecognitionMost Active Digital Strategies - Beckers Healthcare

Role: UX DesignUX ResearchIA RedesignService Design
Tools: FigmaQualtrics
Team: Director of CXPMsEngineeringLegal
Timeline: Nov 2023 – Sep 2024

Overview

As the sole UX designer for the member app and portal, I rebuilt navigation around how members think about care and shipped a self-service tax portal for former members. I also audited accessibility across mobile and web and led the move to a WCAG-compliant design system.

45%fewer tax document requests

ZEROPHI email transfers

Challenge

Every January, hundreds of calls came in from members with expired plans, all asking for the same document. Reps had no way to send it except by email, which was a security risk.

Customer Service Rep

According to the 2023 survey, over 65% of members struggled to navigate and 62% couldn’t locate their own benefits and documents.

Health Plan Members

A member on the phone at home, looking frustrated

Research

Mobile Menu Testing

Designed four distinct menu layouts exploring different hierarchies, groupings, and visual patterns. Each reflected a unique structural hypothesis.

Three homepage concepts with heat-map test results

Homepage Redesign Validation

Designed and tested three homepage concepts with distinct focuses to determine which layout best supports member’s needs.

First Problem Statement

How might we help members find what they need without calling for help?

Solutions

Designed for membersRelabeling for ClarityClearer menu names show members what lives in each section, using words they already know from other sites.

Designed for membersSurfacing Items in Multiple PlacesPages like View Claims fit more than one category, so we placed them everywhere members might look.

Designed for membersCare First in the MenuTesting showed members came to find care first, so Find Doctors & Care moved to the front of the menu. The redesigned IA launched in April 2024.

Results

“This homepage would make me feel like my health insurance provider genuinely wants to empower me to manage my health care.”

+26%Ease of finding information

+16%Overall member satisfaction

+16%Self-service capability

Source: 2023–2024 patient survey

Second Problem Statement

How might we help former members get their tax documents safely, without calling customer service?

Solutions

Designed for membersStripped to What They Actually NeedFormer members only needed tax documents. A status banner points them there, and the menu shrank from 25 items to 12.

Designed for engineersMobile-Web FirstRebuilding the app by December wasn't realistic, so we sent former members to the mobile site and shipped on time.

Designed for customer serviceSocializing the ChangeQuarterly guides explained each release in plain language, so the support team could answer questions without escalating.

Results

“You should have seen the Teams screen today 'light up' with hearts and applaud emojis. There is so much less activity to CS as a result :)”

45%Reduction in tax requests (400+ → 222)

ZEROPHI email transfers (down from 400+)

Reflections

Users don't think in org charts

The old navigation mirrored internal structure. Rebuilding it around how members think about care drove the biggest gain in findability.

Security is a UX problem

Manually emailing PHI was not only a support burden, it was a security risk and a broken experience. Solving both at once made the case for design as a business function.

Small changes, big results

The visual edits for former members were minimal. The impact was not. A focused portal cut call volume and freed the team for higher-value work.

About Me