The Medicare supplement section we were hired to create would act as a microsite within the overall brand website. While we needed to stick to brand guidelines, we were asked to explore new approaches to the brand.
Investigating the existing brand website I discovered that it had been built, revised and expanded over many years, with different sections varying how closely they hewed to the brand guidelines.
One of the first tasks I tackled was to create a detailed style library to nail down the aesthetic guidelines our UI would match. Because various portions of the existing website did not match either the brand's own web guidelines or each other, I used my style library to find a compromise between the various styles which would provide an easy transition between the other parts of the site, the Medicare supplement section we'd be creating and the brand's new online quoting system, codenamed 'Ladybird'.
I worked closely with our content writer and strategist to distill a very complex topic into a format that would be easy for users to understand. I used fully interactive wireframes to communicate our ideas to our client contact as well as test with live users.
Over multiple iterations across two dozen page layouts, we finally settled on user interface that was functional, legally compliant and conveyed the marketing information required.
One of the crucial pages of the site was "Compare Plans" where users could evaluate the various Medicare supplement plan options. During user testing it was clear that users preferred a chart style layout to compare plans, a tricky element to include on mobile. I settled on a swipable interface that allowed the full chart to be viewed on mobile by hiding a portion of it offscreen.
During testing we found this swipable chart was intuitive and usable. An elegant solution to a thorny problem.
After extensive testing and refinement I delivered a series of annotated comps to the brand's internal development team.
After months of work with our corporate client contact we transitioned to a new internal team who would implement our designs. They were surprised at the direction we had been given, as they were under strict orders to follow a proprietary layout structure. Much of our UI work had to be redone to match these new restrictions.
While the spirit, language and core ideas of this user experience have survived, the unique UI work we handed over was modified and did not make it to a live environment.
