Case Study: LA Care Health Plan – Enhancing User Experience Through Dashboard, Onboarding, and Payment Design
https://www.lacare.org/about/applications
Project Overview:
LA Care Health Plan is a public health plan that offers healthcare coverage to low-income individuals in Los Angeles County. As a Product Designer on the project, your focus was on redesigning and improving three key sections of the LA Care Health Plan app/website:
- Dashboard – Providing users with a personalized, easy-to-navigate overview of their health plan, coverage, and important metrics.
- User Onboarding – Simplifying and streamlining the process for new users to register, select their plans, and access resources.
- Payment Section – Improving the payment process to be more intuitive, secure, and transparent for users.
The goal was to create an intuitive, user-friendly interface that would improve the experience for members while ensuring that the system supported the needs of LA Care Health Plan’s diverse user base.
Challenges:
- Diverse User Base:
- LA Care Health Plan serves a wide demographic, including individuals from lower-income backgrounds, elderly populations, and those with limited technical skills. Designing for this diverse user base posed challenges around accessibility, simplicity, and clarity.
- Complex Information:
- Health plans often involve complex information such as coverage details, claims, and medical expenses. Presenting this in a clear, concise, and understandable way was critical to ensuring that users could easily navigate and make informed decisions about their healthcare.
- Sensitive Data:
- The nature of the product (healthcare) involves sensitive data, which required a secure and trustworthy design for handling payment information and personal health records.
- Regulatory Compliance:
- The product needed to adhere to strict regulations related to healthcare information (e.g., HIPAA in the United States), ensuring that privacy and data security were prioritized throughout the design.
Approach:
1. Dashboard Design:
The dashboard was the central hub where users could access and monitor their health plan information, track their health goals, and view recent activities.
Research & Insights:
- User Interviews: We interviewed members who had used the app before and others who were new to LA Care Health Plan. Many users expressed difficulty in navigating their existing dashboard, struggling with finding key details such as coverage summaries, recent claims, and health appointments.
- Analytics: Data showed that users often bounced off the dashboard page after struggling to find the information they needed. Users wanted a simple, high-level summary with clear calls to action.
Design Approach:
- Simplified Layout: We reorganized the dashboard layout to provide quick access to the most important information, such as policy details, claims status, and coverage limits. Large, clearly labeled tiles represented different sections.
- Health Metrics Tracking: For users who had specific health goals, we integrated health tracking features. Users could input or sync data on their appointments, medications, and health activities, which was presented in an easily digestible visual format.
- Personalized Notifications: Integrated with push notifications, the dashboard displayed timely reminders, such as when a payment was due or when an appointment was approaching.
Outcome:
- The dashboard was made more visually intuitive and allowed users to access information with fewer taps. Initial testing showed an increase in engagement by 30%, as users were able to quickly navigate to the information they needed without frustration.
2. User Onboarding:
User onboarding was critical in ensuring that new users could seamlessly register for their health plan and access the necessary features from the start.
Research & Insights:
- Pain Points: New users reported confusion around the initial registration process, particularly with understanding the differences between health plans, coverage options, and eligibility requirements.
- Key Goal: The goal was to simplify the process, clarify language, and provide helpful resources to support users during their journey.
Design Approach:
- Step-by-Step Process: We broke the onboarding into smaller, digestible steps. Each step provided guidance, explaining the next actions in plain language, avoiding jargon, and highlighting important information.
- Interactive Features: During registration, users could input their details through interactive forms that validated inputs in real-time, ensuring accuracy and reducing error rates.
- Progress Indicators: To improve engagement and reduce drop-off, we incorporated a progress bar showing how far along the user was in the onboarding process. Users could clearly see where they were in the journey and how much was left.
- Educational Resources: Integrated pop-up tips and short videos helped educate users about their available plans, coverage details, and what the next steps would be. This was particularly important for first-time insurance users who were unfamiliar with terms like “deductibles” and “copayments.”
Outcome:
- After implementing the new onboarding flow, user sign-up completion rates increased by 25%. Additionally, there was a noticeable reduction in support inquiries related to onboarding, as the new process was much clearer for users.
3. Payment Section:
The payment section needed to be easy to navigate, secure, and transparent to avoid confusion and ensure timely payments.
Research & Insights:
- Pain Points: The old payment system was described as cumbersome. Users had difficulty understanding when payments were due, how much they owed, and what payment methods were accepted.
- Goal: To create a clean, user-friendly payment system that minimized friction and clearly communicated payment timelines and amounts due.
Design Approach:
- Clear Payment Summary: We redesigned the payment section to include a clear summary of the current balance, including past payments and upcoming due dates. We used bold typography for the most important details (e.g., the next due amount).
- Payment Methods Flexibility: Users could securely store multiple payment methods (credit/debit cards, direct bank transfer, and even assistance for those who needed government assistance programs). The payment flow was simplified by reducing the number of steps and providing users with visual cues that helped them through the process.
- Payment Reminders & Alerts: Push notifications and in-app reminders notified users when payments were due. If a user missed a payment, they received a gentle reminder with a link to pay quickly.
- Secure & Trustworthy Design: The payment interface adhered to the latest security standards (SSL encryption, PCI-DSS compliance) and used two-factor authentication (2FA) to ensure secure transactions.
Outcome:
- The redesign led to a 50% reduction in missed payments and a significant decrease in customer support queries related to payments. Users also appreciated the improved transparency and security of the payment system.
Final Results:
- Increased Engagement: Overall app engagement increased, with users spending more time on the dashboard and interacting with their health data more regularly.
- Higher Onboarding Completion Rates: The improved onboarding process led to more successful sign-ups, especially among first-time insurance users who felt more confident in navigating the system.
- Improved Payment Success: A reduction in payment-related issues and better payment transparency led to higher payment completion rates and reduced churn.
Lessons Learned:
- Simplicity is Key: When designing for a diverse user base, simplicity should be prioritized. By breaking down complex processes (onboarding, payment) into smaller, manageable steps, we made the system more accessible to users of all ages and tech-savviness.
- Transparency Builds Trust: Clear communication around financial details—especially for payments—created transparency, which helped users trust the platform and reduced frustration.
- Iterative Testing is Critical: Conducting regular user testing and analyzing metrics helped identify friction points early in the design process. We were able to continually improve the user experience based on actual user feedback.
Conclusion:
By focusing on user-centered design principles, the improvements made to the dashboard, onboarding process, and payment section of the LA Care Health Plan app led to a more accessible, intuitive, and transparent experience for users. These updates helped improve engagement, reduce confusion, and ensure that users could manage their health plans more easily. The success of this project demonstrates how a well-designed product can enhance healthcare access and contribute to a more seamless user experience in the digital health space.