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MyHumana is Humana’s secure website for member information. For many members the site is the primary point of interaction with their health insurance. They use the site when they need to understand their healthcare benefits, check the status of claims, see progress towards meeting deductibles, and to access a wide range of other personal plan and account information.
Logging in to MyHumana was very slow and the site was vulnerable to outages. Once logged in the user experience was complicated and the information provided wasn’t prioritized or personalized. Important information was often several clicks away - members could eventually accomplish their goals but often found it difficult. This experience created a negative impression and reputation for Humana.
The challenge was both technical and experiential. Our team needed to improve the speed and reliability of the site while also creating a more intuitive and useful experience for our members once they logged into their account. At Humana’s Digital Experience Center we work in balanced teams of Software Engineers, Product Managers, and Product Designers. This collaborative structure allowed our team to tackle both challenges simultaneously with the experience design taking advantage of the technological solution as it developed.
Discovery & Framing We started our process with a discovery and framing exercise. Discovery and framing is a collaborative process that quickly explores a problem and identifies a potential solution. The process is designed to ensure that the highest priority problems are being addressed first and the proposed solution will maximize user value and ROI.
MyHumana serves many members and is home to information that originates from all over the company. This makes it a high profile product with a diverse group of stakeholders. To make sure we understood the technological and business problems we began the discovery and framing process by talking with subject matter experts and interviewing stakeholders.
Another challenge was understanding our diverse group of members and how they used the wide range of insurance products serviced through MyHumana. Often, the easiest path to understanding people is to simply talk with them. At the Digital Experience Center, user research is a fundamental part of our design process. At the earliest stages these conversations with our users help us clearly define the problems and product goals.
Participants in the Design Studio exercise pitch and critique each others solutions.
Design Studio To facilitate our human-centered approach to software our goal is to begin learning from our users as quickly as possible. As part of the discovery process we used the design studio method to explore a wide range of possible experiences . A design studio is a fast-paced, collaborative way to generate many ideas quickly through sketching, iteration, and critique. In addition to our core team we included a diverse group of internal stakeholders with representatives from technology, business, and design.
The design studio helped us get to a tangible experience quickly. The sketched designs were translated into simple working prototypes that were then used for our first round of usability testing. This initial user feedback helped us to refine our solution and finish the discovery and framing feeling confident about where we would start developing the product.
An iterative process Our design team is responsible not only for the implementation of the interface and visual design but also for leading the research that informs the design and influences product decisions. Usability research is the centerpiece of our design practice. During the MyHumana engagement the product design was shaped through a cycle of weekly usability testing and direct conversations with more than 100 members. Humana’s membership is a large and diverse group and this ongoing research was invaluable in understanding our users and what they needed to know about their health insurance.
The product design team works together to address user needs.
“It’s clear you all have done your research, and it’s obviously important to Humana that I’m able to find the information I’m looking for!” — Humana Medicare Member
“It’s relatively easy for someone who doesn’t spend a lot of time on the computer.” — Humana Medicare Member
Technological improvements combined with the ongoing conversations with members helped our team create significant improvements to the experience design. The speed of logging in was made 3 times faster, reduced from over 15 to under 5 seconds. A micro-services architecture was a part of the technical solution to increasing the speed and resiliency of the site. The experience design was able to take advantage of this more efficient architecture to display 3 times the amount of information than the previous MyHumana landing page.
In addition to an increased quantity of user data we were also able to provide a higher quality of information. We implemented a modular design that provides a personalized experience for each user, showing only information that is applicable and relevant to that person. Although the experience is personalized the information is presented consistently across all products (medical, dental, pharmacy, etc.) so that members can find what they need when they need it.
Working in a mobile first design philosophy we could ensure members had a quality experience no matter where or when they were accessing the site.
Ongoing development The Digital Experience Center is Humana’s software incubator and accelerator. To serve that role our teams aren’t the longterm owners of any of the products we develop. To help distribute the product knowledge and facilitate the the longterm success of our products we work directly with the teams that will be solely responsible for the product when the initial engagement ends. The software engineers, designers, and often product managers work in pairs with our partners as the product is developed. Working together so closely with our partners helps ensure the product can continue to be designed and developed without creating a gap in knowledge. The ongoing development of the MyHumana experience is enabled by the automated testing a low-risk roll-out process established during our engagement. The human-centered approach to design also continues to shape the experience as new features are added.
