Sean Berger Product Designer

Blue KC Telehealth

Product Design Case Study by Sean Berger

Opportunity
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City saw an increase in consumers accessing telehealth. The organization wanted a seamless experience that integrated their existing telehealth offering directly into the existing mobile and web apps used by health plan members.
Product design mockups for a health insurance app. Designed by Sean Berger for Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
I was the lead designer for the user experience of this product. I guided brainstorming and decision-making during cross-functional team meetings with business partners and software engineers. As the team scaled, I coached and mentored a design teammate who focused on scheduling and therapy features.

My Contributions

  • Product/UX Design
  • User Research
  • Content Design
  • Visual Design
  • Prototyping

Tools

  • Figma
  • FigJam
  • UserZoom
At project outset, I defined personas so our team could align on user needs.
Photo, persona #1

Ashley has never used telehealth before, but understands it can be quick and cost-effective. She woke up with a migraine and wants to talk with a doctor about possible Covid-19 symptoms.

Age Occupation Details
25 Classroom Teacher First-time user
Photo, persona #2

Penelope accesses therapy through the Blue KC telehealth app. Ashley prefers to see the therapist she has an established relationship with, so she uses the app frequently to schedule appointments.

Age Occupation Details
31 Travel Nurse Expert user
I defined the existing customer journey working with product and customer experience teams. We used call center data and user-submitted feedback to shape our thinking. I created a journey map to identify friction and highlight opportunities.
A customer journey map visualizing an end-to-end telehealth experience, including moments of delight and frustration along the way

Problems To Be Solved

Severity Problem To Be Solved Design Goals
Critical Users must download a second app for Blue KC telehealth visits. Eliminate the need for a specific telehealth app. Guide users from MyBlueKC web and mobile apps to their telehealth experience.
Critical Users must register a second account for Blue KC telehealth visits. Eliminate the need for login. Provide design leadership in discussions with architect and third-party partner to eliminate unnecessary tasks.
Major Users must manually enter membership info which leads to typos and billing errors. Work with cross-functional team and third-party partner to eliminate manual ID card step and other unnecessary tasks.
Major Visit costs are introduced at the end of the flow only before starting a telehealth call. Design the end-to-end experience with useful, friendly content. Use teamwork to introduce pricing early.
Early team discussions focused on how we could organize the flow with simple decisions and tasks, while also eliminating questions that would not be required.

To visualize the end-to-end experience, I created a series of FigJam sticky notes. Each sticky represented a specific screen or feature users would interact with prior to a doctor visit. We discussed and debated the ideal flow. As we progressed, I transformed this series of sticky notes into a flow diagram to articulate the end-to-end experience:

A flow diagram illustrated in FigJam that defines the end-to-end experience of a telehealth app

Benefits to UX Diagrams

My digital whiteboards and flow diagrams benefitted our teamwork in several ways:

  • Business partners could visualize and articulate their needs
  • The team defined upcoming work and sprint-planned against these visuals
  • As a team we forecasted edge cases and specific problems to be solved
  • Visual diagrams aided the design process as we moved into screen and content design
After several weeks of ideation, the design vision and strategy I laid forth had matured. I wanted to understand how users would engage with a prototype.

I prioritized research and organized a usability study in parallel to design efforts. I wrote questions, organized the testing schedule and moderated 1-on-1 sessions. I worked with the customer experience team to recruit end users.

Format Recruited Participants Focus Technology
Moderated 7 active health plan members 24/7 Sick Care flow UserZoom, Figma prototype

Observation

UserZoom allowed us to observe behaviors and interactions directly on the participant’s device. Team members from product, customer experience, marketing and engineering participated in observation. I sent meeting invites for individual sessions. Meeting invites helped the cross-functional team prioritize the research study on their calendars. We took notes as a team. I facilitated debriefs for individual sessions on FigJam.

After talking with users, I analyzed and summarized their feedback. I organized meetings to discuss and revise design flaws. Working as a team, we eliminated and resolved the issues described below. Here are my top findings:
Met Expectations
77.8% of the proposed experience was met with ease and satisfaction.
 

When users interacted with the proposed product in prototype, many aspects performed well. This was an improvement from the current state. We made it easy for users to authenticate to the telehealth platform, prepare their device for a video call, provide necessary personal info and select a healthcare provider.


Failed
Users struggled to find the telehealth experience in our mobile app.
Resolved

Behaviors within the study led to consensus answers from participants. Mobile app users expected to start from the dashboard screen or hamburger menu.

We placed telehealth on the mobile dashboard and retested the task a few months later, when the ease of use score rose from 4.4 out of 10 to 8.0.


Friction
Users did not want to select a pharmacy prior to their visit.
Resolved
Eliminated

This was obvious heading into research sessions, but users confirmed it. Armed with that confidence, we eliminated pharmacy setup after more discussion with our partners with the third-party platform.


Friction
Adding medical allergies prior to a visit proved to be challenging.
Resolved
Eliminated

Users didn't understand the medical allergy options that were displayed by our SDK partner. We eliminated this screen by discussing with an internal practitioner and our partners.


Failed
Users struggled to add current medications within the visit flow.
Resolved
Redesigned

Doctors need to know which medications a patient is taking prior to their telehealth visit. In user testing, users made it clear they didn't want to mess with this feature.

I re-tested an updated design with new participants in a study a few months later. Users felt the updated design made it easy to add and manage meds, or simply skip the question. I worked with the engineering team to implement an improved design following the re-test.

Design Showcase
To accommodate all screen sizes, I took a mobile-first approach in design, while prescribing specific breakpoints for mobile, tablet and desktop.
Responsive design for a telehealth app
I write content early in my design process to define the purpose for each screen. I shaped the scheduling flow using a friendly, conversational personality with no wasted words or tasks. I co-wrote the entire content experience with help from marketing and customer experience leads.
To summarize, I took on the role of lead designer and successfully reimagined our telehealth experience, eliminating three major points of friction.

I worked closely with the project architect from the early stages to ensure alignment on the technical approach. Business partners in product, customer experience and marketing collaborated closely to shape product outcomes and observe user research. To meet our delivery date, I collaborated with a team of nine engineers, leading and guiding them to ship our final outcomes. Overall, my leadership and collaboration skills enabled the team to deliver a revamped telehealth experience that was highly successful in improving user satisfaction.

Status Problem To Be Solved Outcome
Resolved Users must download a second app for Blue KC telehealth visits. Blue KC telehealth was seamlessly integrated into the existing MyBlueKC mobile and web products.
Resolved Users must register a second account for Blue KC telehealth visits. Users accessed telehealth providers using their existing Blue KC email and password.
Resolved Users must manually enter membership info which leads to typos and billing errors. Blue KC member info was seamlessly passed to the telehealth partner.
Resolved Visit costs are introduced at the end of the flow only before starting a telehealth call. Cost information was explained early in the flow, with content design that explained specific pricing.
I expanded my influence with leadership and across departments as a design leader for Blue KC.

I contributed at a high level as lead – simultaneously pacing collaboration with the team, partnering up and building rapport with business leaders, mentoring my peer in design, and fulfilling my individual design and research duties.

Sean Berger is an expert-level product designer
About Me

I consistently exceed consumer expectations with intuitive user experience design. I build relationships with business partners and drive cross-functional teamwork to deliver exceptional outcomes. If you have an opportunity or project you’d like to discuss, send me a message.