A compilation of UX research for BCBST

Position Held
UX Researcher
Accessibility Analyst

Tools
UserZoom
Fable
Aurelius
VoiceOver
Invision

Duration
15 month contract with projects spanning 4 weeks - 4 months

Skills
Benchmarking
Competitor analysis
User interviews
Usability testing
Preference testing
Accessibility testing
Accessibility audits

 

In compliance with the company’s confidentiality under an NDA, specific project details cannot be disclosed. This case study will focus broadly on the impact made, methodologies used, and skills developed during my time with BCBST.

 

Overview

Health insurance. We all (hopefully) have it but don’t like dealing with it, let alone trying to understand it. My goal at BCBST was to uncomplicate the complicated by focusing on the user experience of our products. Whether a current member, a business partner, or a perspective member, I advocated for the user by better understanding mental models, simplifying user flows, and improving accessibility for all.

Key Impacts of my work

Integrated Accessibility Testing

  • Seamlessly integrated accessibility testing into research activities to ensure inclusive and accessible products.

Established a Research Repository

  • Developed and maintained a comprehensive research repository to facilitate knowledge sharing and enhance departmental collaboration.

Produced Data-Driven Recommendations

  • Generated actionable, data-driven insights that empowered product teams to make informed and confident design decisions swiftly.

Shaped Business Requirements through Generative Research

  • Informed and refined business requirements through in-depth generative research, ensuring alignment with user needs and market trends.

Provided UX Best Practices

  • Offered expert UX recommendations grounded in user behavior analysis to drive product iterations, including:

    • Optimized information architecture

    • Inclusive and accessible web design

    • Enhanced feature functionality

    • Validation of future state designs

 

Methodologies

  • Surveys

  • Preference testing

  • Accessibility audits

  • Competitor analysis

  • Benchmarking studies

  • Moderated user interviews

  • Unmoderated usability studies

  • Testing with users of assistive technology (screen reader, screen magnification, keyboard-only, and alternative navigation)

Skills Developed

  • Critical thinking

  • Problem-solving

  • Project management

  • Stakeholder management

  • Cross-team collaboration

  • Communication and presentation to product teams and executive leadership

 

Products Touched

I worked on research efforts across various lines of business and for different stakeholders: members, non-members, and brokers. This afforded me the opportunity to better understand business goals, weave accessibility into different lines of business, and create a cohesive user experience across all product touch points.

Due to an NDA, details are limited on the projects listed below.

HEALTH EQUITY PAGE

APPROACH

  • Accessibility audit using keyboard navigation and VoiceOver screen reader to test the interactive elements on a page

FINDINGS

  • Titles of graphs were ill-located at bottom of the graph image (screen readers would come to an image and not know what it was referencing due to graph title location on page)

  • Semantic headings were being used as a design element and not for accessibility

OUTCOMES

  • Partnered with design to relocate graph title to top of graph image, tagged interactive elements with logical reading order for screen readers, and improved keyboard navigation (see video below)

  • Worked with product and development to implement semantic headings per WCAG guidelines

 
 

Video of redesigned Health Equity page showing updated graphs with titles above images, and demonstration of successful keyboard navigation

 

MEDICARE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

APPROACH

  • Benchmarking and 6 competitor analyses

  • 25 moderated usability tests of shopping experience on BCBST and competitor sites

FINDINGS

  • Understood the various shopping mental models of the Medicare population

  • Discovered competitor features and commonalities that users liked and our site lacked

  • Identified areas of accessibility to address

OUTCOMES

  • Redesigned the location-based shopping feature for a better user experience

  • Validated the need for a future-state site redesign

  • Updated page layout based on newly discovered user journey and how different types of MA shoppers shop for Medicare

Redesigned location-based shopping feature

“I’m in a meeting where the PM and Brand team are referencing repeatedly how [your] Medicare benchmarking study was an invaluable resource for their 2024 website and advertising strategy. Go UX on doing work that matters! ”
— BCBST UX Manager
 

MOBILE APP NOTIFICATIONS + COACH MARKS

APPROACH

  • 15 unmoderated preference tests of two design prototypes

FINDINGS

  • Validated assumptions on user mental models and preferences for in-app notifications

  • Learned how users interact with, and more significantly, ignore coach marks within a user flow

OUTCOMES

  • Design iterated on the preferred prototype to incorporate all user feedback and preferences discovered in testing

  • Product and design moved forward with coach marks based on best UX practices and test findings reported from research

image: bcbst.com

 

MEMBER PORTAL ACCESSIBILITY + NAVIGATION

APPROACH

  • 4 moderated usability tests with users of assistive technology

  • Tested current design against proposed future states to see which design is most accessible

FINDINGS

  • Discovered which design was overwhelmingly preferred by users of assistive technology

  • Identified and ruled out design patterns that are inaccessible

OUTCOMES

  • Accessible design recommendations were incorporated by design team, with collaborative discussion on how to still maintain design system standards

  • Implemented the design changes to track the usability and functionality of the improved design

 
 

Ongoing Initiatives

file cabinet with open drawer of files

Research Repository

Built and maintained a comprehensive research repository with cross-project taxonomy system, to facilitate research knowledge sharing and enhance departmental collaboration.

handicap parking sign on asphalt ground

Accessibility testing integration

Seamlessly integrated and ran end-to-end testing with users of assistive technologies into research activities to ensure inclusive and accessible products, ensuring all types of users are accounted for in testing.

open laptop with hand typing on keyboard

PDF 508c Compliance

Processed, documented and troubleshooted all 508C requests for PDF files across websites in order to meet and maintain digital accessibility compliance.

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