Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBSKS)
Medicare Shopping Experience
Conducted user research, mapped journeys, and designed flows to improve Medicare shopping experience.
Challenge
Simplify a complex Medicare shopping and enrollment experience by addressing user confusion, reducing cognitive load, and improving navigation across critical decision points.
Role
UX/UI Designer
UX Strategist
UX Researcher
Governance & Compliance (UX)
Tools
Figma
Figma Make
UserTesting
Silktide
Background
Context of BCBCKS' Needs
BCBSKS needed to improve a Medicare experience that felt complex and difficult to navigate. Users struggled to understand plan differences, compare options, and find key information, which often led to confusion and drop-off.
The experience also had unclear navigation and heavy content, making it harder for users to move forward confidently. Because of regulatory requirements and system dependencies, any improvements had to work within real business and technical constraints.
BCBSKS needed a clearer, more user-friendly experience that better supports decision-making and reduces friction throughout the journey.
Core Needs:
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Simplify plan understanding and decision-making
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Improve navigation and clarity
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Reduce friction and drop-off
Research
Objective
Understand how Medicare shoppers navigate plan selection and identify the biggest barriers preventing confident decision-making.
Methods:
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Reviewed existing Medicare research, UserTesting studies, and Maze testing
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Conducted synthesis using:
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Priority matrix
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Competitive analysis
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SWOT analysis
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Empathy mapping
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Affinity diagramming
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Current Experience (SWOT Analysis)
As we established the type of user in this scenario, it allowed us to outline a user flow where we could indicate the pathways that address our core needs.
Weaknesses
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Dense, overwhelming content
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Difficult to compare plans
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Hard to verify doctor and prescription coverage
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Confusing terminology
Strengths
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Strong trust in BCBSKS brand
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Comprehensive plan information available
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Detailed pages to learn about Medicare
Threats
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Users leaving to seek help elsewhere
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Decision fatigue leading to abandonment
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Low confidence reducing conversions
Opportunities
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Simplify comparison and highlight key differences
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Introduce guided experiences
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Improve visibility of coverage verification
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Add clearer explanations and tooltips
Empathy Mapping
Mapped what users think, feel, say, and do during plan selection
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Users feel overwhelmed and unsure
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Fear of making the wrong choice
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Need reassurance before continuing
Affinity Diagram
Key themes:
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Overload
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Comparison
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Verification
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Terminology
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Navigation
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Accessibility
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Support
Patterns identified:
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Users struggle to compare plans effectively
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Doctor and prescription verification is a top priority
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Dense content increases cognitive fatigue
Priority Matrix
Prioritized insights based on:
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user impact
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frequency of occurrence
Top priorities identified:
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Verification (doctor + prescription coverage)
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Comparison clarity
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Information overload
Key Insights
Users struggle to make decisions
Users hesitate, delay, or abandon instead of confidently selecting a plan
Information overload causes disengagement
Users become mentally fatigued and begin skipping content
Plans feel too similar
Lack of clear differentiation makes comparison frustrating
Users won’t proceed without verification
Users will not move forward without confirming:
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their doctor is covered
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their prescriptions are included
Users want guidance, not just information
Even with detailed content, users still look for:
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direction
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reassurance
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human support
Observed User Behaviors (UserTesting + Maze)
Across testing, users consistently:
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Re-read and slow down when unsure
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Click between plans repeatedly
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Skip sections when overwhelmed
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Search for provider and prescription info immediately
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Leave and return later instead of deciding
Key Takeaway
This is not just a usability issue — it’s a decision-confidence problem.
The current experience assumes users can:
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interpret complex information
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compare plans independently
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feel confident making a high-stakes decision
But in reality, users:
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feel overwhelmed
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struggle to verify critical information
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need guidance to move forward
These findings informed how the experience was restructured, prioritizing decision clarity, early verification, and guided navigation.
Design
User Flows
To better understand how users navigate plan selection, I mapped end-to-end user flows across multiple plan types offered by BCBSKS, including:
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Under 65
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Medicare
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Dental
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Ancillary
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Life Insurance
Exploring these flows allowed me to identify common patterns and friction points across the broader experience, particularly around navigation, comparison, and information clarity.
For this case study, I focused specifically on the Medicare shopping experience, where complexity, high-stakes decision-making, and user uncertainty were most pronounced.
Wireframes
Based on these findings, I restructured key parts of the Medicare shopping experience to simplify decision-making, surface verification earlier, and reduce cognitive load.
Plan Selection
Organizes plans into a clearer, more structured view with filters to help users quickly narrow options and compare more effectively.
Guided Enrollment
This screen reduces uncertainty before enrollment by showing the selected plan, outlining the process, and making support easy to access.
Coverage Verification
Surfaces provider and prescription information earlier in the process so users can confirm coverage before continuing.
States
Figma Make
I used Figma Make to explore alternative ways of structuring and presenting the redesigned experience, testing how different flows and layouts could further simplify decision-making and surface key information earlier.
These explorations focused on refining comparison, reducing steps, and improving how users navigate key decisions.
Home Page
Plan Details Page
Plan Options
Coverage Check
Tabs at the top allow for dynamic plan selection options, quickly reducing decisions to prevent decision fatigue.
Ability to compare plans.
Enrollment process box prepares users and allows for informed and quicker enrollment.
Provider selection assures enrollees that their plan covers their lifestyle choices.
Lessons Learned
This project helped me realize the problem wasn’t just usability — it was really about decision confidence.
Users weren’t just overwhelmed, they were unsure if they were making the right choice, especially around verifying coverage and comparing plans. Because of that, my focus shifted from just simplifying the interface to supporting users through the decision itself by surfacing key information earlier and adding clearer guidance.
It also pushed me to be more intentional about connecting research to design decisions instead of treating them as separate steps.