Standing up research
Principal UX Designer @ Naviguard from 2021 - 2022
Context
Naviguard is an out of network benefit included with United Healthcare insurance. They exist to help with egregious out of network billing by negotiating with providers to lower their bills on behalf of members. Naviguard originally launched with their member portal in 2020, with the main use case of members bringing forward bills to be negotiated.
When I joined the team a year after their member portal launched there was a big opportunity to stand up a user research practice, that they hadn’t had much user feedback or insight into how their product was doing. I set out on educating the group on the importance of user research, standing up a rapid UX research process and executing baseline usability and preference tests on key elements in the member’s experience.
Rapid UX research process
Due to budgets and resources being tight for standing up a user research practice, I thought coming up with a rapid UX process would be the best way for us to get up and running and show results quickly. Below is the process I designed outlining the phases, timelines and expected deliverables.
Kick-off & define study
1 day
Research plan
Prototype
Screener
Build & pilot study
1 day
Utilizing UserZoom Go platform
Conduct the study
1-2 days
Figma note taking template
UserZoom Go recordings and insights
Analysis & presentation
1 day
In-depth read out presentation
One page summary
Read out
1 day
Meeting for in-depth read out
Email for one page summary
RUX Templates
To make a successful rapid UX process I created templates to aid in executing high quality and rapid user tests and to democratize research throughout Naviguard for other designers to use in their product areas.
A research plan and screener template to fill out before conducting the study with commented annotations on how to fill out.
A FigJam note taking template to use during the study. The template has areas to take participant notes, quickly affinity diagram insights and an area to rate severity of trends identified in affinity diagramming.
An in-depth presentation to aid in analysis after the study that goes over background, problem statement, participant demographics and deep dives into each finding and next steps.
A one-page summary of the in-depth analysis deck to send out after the read out to provide a quick overview of what the study was trying to accomplish and the key insights and takeaways to focus on.
Piloting the process
To test out the process I partnered with our marketing team on a research idea they had. They were interested in doing a preference test around the new branding and voice on their EZ comm email and to understand what order of information is going to be the most helpful as they introduce members to Naviguard.
Overview of test
Unmoderated quantitative preference test
11 participants
Problem statement
Our members receiving the EZ Comm email for the first time are unfamiliar with Naviguard because they have not had or have not used their out of network benefits before, which might cause confusion on what happens next. If we can solve this problem, it would impact our newer members positively because they could more easily engage and form trust with Naviguard. It would also benefit our business because it would help inform how we prioritize our messaging throughout discovery touchpoints.
Key findings
54%
of participants preferred Layout A and learning to look for an email first
63%
of participants found the designs to be very trustworthy
“I think both are trustworthy just because it tells you whom it’s from and you’re a member of this plan, where it’s going to come from, and that actually is very trustworthy.”
Areas of improvement to consider
Integrate a more succinct introduction of Naviguard
Revisit key messaging to feel more human and cohesive
Educating & evangelizing
Now that there was a process stood up and a test was successfully executed using the process, I went on a roadshow across steering committees and product teams to start educating and evangelizing user research across Naviguard.
Included in the roadshow presentation was a brief overview on the importance of user research.
And then I would go over the process, deliverables and expected timelines.
I also made sure to highlight our pilot test to show the quick value and insights we gained in doing user research.
After presenting I would then run a mini workshop on gathering and prioritizing a backlog of testing needs, questions and next steps.
Member portal baseline
One of the most important tests I did after setting up the process was doing a baseline usability test of the member portal after its first year of infancy.
Overview of test
Unmoderated quantitative usability test
15 participants
Problem statement
We want to baseline and validate the key user journeys in the member portal. In the future as we make updates and enhancements, we can measure the effectiveness of changes by benchmarking against these findings.
Key findings
95
System Usability Scale (SUS) Score
92%
Average completion rate across 7 tasks
“The questions were straightforward and easy to understand. The radio button functionality was intuitive.”
Naviguard.com navigation test
Another notable test I did was partnering with the naviguard.com product team on testing how to grow their navigation as we took on more consumer types.
Overview of test
Unmoderated within-subjects usability preference test
10 participants
Problem statement
Our consumer base is coming to Naviguard.com with a variety of goals that our navigation needs to accommodate for. If we can solve this problem, it would impact our customer base positively because every user type would be able to easily navigate our site. It would also benefit our business because all user types would feel supported and satisfied in their experience with Naviguard.
Key findings
93%
Navigation C had the highest rating of being very easy to use
3
Participants mentioned finding the login button easier on navigation B because it was visually different
Recommendations
Move forward with navigation C as-is
Move forward with either navigation C or B with taking into consideration feedback we heard
Further understand priorities, KPIs and personas that could result in further testing in card sorting or specific use cases we could test