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BenefitExpress

BenefitExpress was Coventry Health Care’s primary quoting tool for Small Group.  It consisted of hundreds of screens and flows, forms, and tabular data screens.  Although the end users were insurance brokers, others such as underwriters, product specialists, and account representatives used the applications. Although sun-setted now, it was a powerful application that served an important role in small group sales for Coventry Health Care and Aetna.​

Goals

  • Business goals

    • Bring an existing application in-house (It was currently in the hands of a vendor).

    • Replace the existing application code with new Java code.

    • Create a series of standard screen templates.

    • Create a CSS library to ensure ease of updates.

    • Replace custom JavaScript code with a JavaScript library.

  • User goals

    • Identify pain points and redesign screens for optimal usability.

    • Improve screen validation.

    • Redesign screens for more accessible color and text.

    • Speed up screen load time.

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Research

  • I conducted over 20 in-context interviews with existing users from all roles to discover what the pain points might be. Our standard persona was directed at external insurance brokers.

  • We also gained insights from contact emails sent by users to administrators.

  • Users expressed the following:

    • Screens are too cluttered with information.  Little or no white space.

    • Color contrast is poor. Color choices resulted in text that is difficult to read.

    • Screen validation is not clear about what the problem is.

    • Too many screens.

    • Screens do not adapt to my browser size and I cannot increase the text size.

    • Application is too slow.

    • See the word cloud below.

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User Flows

  • It was essential for such a large complex application that we create user flows based on roles.  I worked with developers to diagram each role and how it connect to others.  This helped in screen design and understanding what the scope of the project might be.

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The existing application

  • BenefitExpress was created in 2012 with the current standards of the time.

  • It was previously developed by an external vendor that utilized custom code that lacked efficiency and slow performance.  In addition, no efforts ere made to even attempt to make the application accessible or user friendly.  The application was developed by developers and product owners with no input from user experience design.

  • Our first step was to conduct an internal heuristic review to act as a baseline for change.

  • We then created a style guide that incorporated a more usable application that conformed to Coventry branding.

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Wire frames

  • After analyzing the user feedback we thought carefully about information architecture and screen design. 

  • For all screens we created mid-fi wire frames that we then presented to the business for approval.

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Design

  • UX and UI worked ahead of developers to ensure that they were busy.

  • We conducted research into how other companies designed similar applications in 2015.

  • We established that a handful of templates would suit our needs:

    • Form

    • Tabular data

    • Text only

    • Results

  • As we redesigned the existing screens, we then presented them as static designs to our users to get their input.

  • We then made any necessary changes and then handed off the designs to the developers.

  • Below are some example screens:

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UX, Development, and QA

  • As developers completed screens, UX and UI reviewed the screens to ensure they were exactly as designed.

  • We then worked with the QA team in creating test cases for them.

  • Once the QA process was complete and all necessary changes had been completed, we moved on to the next role.

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