user research . IA redesign. cross-platform mobile app
Benefits Enrollment:
Creating an On-the-go Mobile Experience
user research . IA redesign. cross-platform mobile app
Interaction design
Visual design
Prototyping
Dec 2019 - Mar 2020
(7 Design sprints)
1 interaction designer
1 visual designer
10 Developers
1 Project manager
BenefitExpress provides employees with effortless enrollments and benefits information. Their clients include Autodesk, Crate and Barrel, Lululemon, and GAP.
BenefitExpress operates in a competitive marketplace where its solutions aim for a "unique, laser focus on client service delivery and support" in today's landscape that certainly requires a customer experience built around mobile.
With competitors investing heavily in mobile and a growing user base, It is business-critical to fill in the gap with an engaging mobile experience.
The goal is to deliver an on-the-go experience that allows users to have ID cards and benefits info "in your back pocket". Providing benefits policies and coverages that are easy to consume.
We want to create full-design customization to their customers' branding. With this market differentiator in mind, this will enable BenefitExpress to give client branded-skins to the app, so their customers' employees feel they were using their own company's application.
BenefitExpress provides employees with effortless enrollments and benefits information. Their clients include Autodesk, Crate and Barrel, Lululemon, and GAP.
The vast majority of the BenefitExpress users don't sit at desks every day, only tapping away at keyboards. Instead, they're on factory floors, construction sites, and operating retail cash registers. So it certainly requires a customer experience built around mobile that helps employees better engage with and adopt the benefits that their companies provide.
Moreover, with competitors investing heavily in mobile and a growing user base, It is business-critical to fill in the gap with an engaging mobile experience complementary to the website.
Dec 2019 - Feb 2020 (4 Design sprints)
Interaction design, visual design and prototyping
1 interaction designer, 1 visual designer, 1 Project manager, 11 Developers
The goal was to deliver an on-the-go experience that allows users to have ID cards and benefits info "in your back pocket". Providing benefits policies and coverages that are easy to understand.
We wanted to integrate the client-branded skins into the app as a market differentiator. This will provide employees with a cohesive experience with the rest of the applications in the IT ecosystem.
The app needed to achieve the native app look and feel on Android and iOS platforms with one code base to reduce development effort without compromising the user experience.
We first mapped the existing site IA, and marked 7 menu items that will be readout info on the app, and users will be redirected to the website to complete these actions. Then we conducted an open card sorting exercise with a team of 8 users and labeled bottom navigations and sub-components for each menu.
I choose wireflows that combine wireframes and flowcharts to help document the complex workflows and interactions with multiple steps. Because the mobile app doesn't have many unique pages but instead features a few core pages that change content (or layout) dynamically based on user interaction.
To reduce the development time, we use cross-platform framework using a single code base. Here is a few examples where I applied the usability best practices from Material Design and Human Interface Guidelines to create a cohesive and on-brand cross-platform application.
Upon opening the app, fingerprint and facial recognition (when the device supports both biometrics login) detection will be used to sign in to the app.
Dialogs inform users about critical tasks that require a decision, and they can contain multiple actions. I am using platform-specific alerts here because only two actions with short text labels fit horizontally.
I choose to use platform-specific controls that clearly indicate how users should interact with them.
I used the action gesture that makes the app feel more native to each platform. Android uses long press gestures to let users interact with elements and access additional functionality. iOS uses swipe gestures with graphics to communicate the actions users can perform.
To reduce the development time, we use cross-platform framework using a single code base. Here is a few examples where I applied the usability best practices from Material Design and Human Interface Guidelines to create a cohesive and on-brand cross-platform application.
Upon opening the app, fingerprint and facial recognition (when the device supports both biometrics login) detection will be used to sign in to the app.
Dialogs inform users about critical tasks that require a decision, and they can contain multiple actions. I am using platform-specific alerts here because only two actions with short text labels fit horizontally.
I choose to use platform-specific controls that clearly indicate how users should interact with them.
I used the action gesture that makes the app feel more native to each platform. Android uses long press gestures to let users interact with elements and access additional functionality. iOS uses swipe gestures with graphics to communicate the actions users can perform.
.png)
As the result, we successful launched the Benefitsexpressway app on apple app store and google play store, and received 5 star rating in the first a few months after launching which is aligned with our project. There are some important aspects my design team and I learned about employee benefits app:
Branding configuration An employee benefits app should be anything but generic. It should have the same look and feel as the employer website and other branded materials. Configured to match each client's branding. Mobile experience should definitely embrace this.
Help users learn their benefits
Benefits policies are complex. The mobile product should empower individuals to have control and convenience over their benefits offerings. Whether it’s learning more about benefit plans, adding a life event or accessing ID cards, mobile app is a convenient resource for the moments where healthcare matters most. There are many important deadlines associated with employee benefits such as with annual enrollment or life event changes and keeping track of them doesn’t have to be a challenge, by pushing notifications that appear for employees based on specific events or actions required. Not only will this help improve enrollment participation and avoid missed deadlines, providing employees easy, on-the-go access to all their benefits information could also reduce the amount of questions and calls fielded by call center teams.
Design for consistency
When designing for cross-platform mobile apps, being consistent is one of the most important part of building the brand, the design elements and experiences that speak your core brand that should preserve on both platform. but also, don't reinvent the wheels, leveraging the existing resources like Material design and human interface guidelines and build your design based on it, this will make your mobile experience more consistent and platform specific/native.
