Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas City
Stakeholder Interviews | Usability Testing | Information Architecture | Experience Design | Interaction Design
Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas City Marketing Website Redesign
Blue Cross Blue Shield Kanas City (Blue KC) is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and a not-for-profit health insurance provider with more than one million members. Founded in 1938, Blue KC offers healthcare, dental, life insurance and Medicare coverage. Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, the company serves 30 counties in northwest Missouri, and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas.
The Challenge
Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas City (Blue KC) needed a new consumer facing website to boost sales for medium and small employer plans, highlight additional products for individuals, and better compete in the Kansas City Medicare market. The new site also had to serve the existing clients of Blue KC. Blue KC has 4 distinct audiences with variety of needs; existing clients, new individual clients, human resources managers and their employees, and medicare eligible individuals.
Healthcare websites are also frequently written in industry specific jargon that is hard for the average user to understand.
The Research
Stakeholders were interviewed to understand their needs and requirements. Competitors were researched to understand their business as well as their consumer facing websites.
Remote user observation was conducted using UserTesting and the existing site’s analytics were analyzed to see where issues with users arise.
After compiling and analyzing interview responses, competitor’s website’s, and observation and analytics results, trends were defined.
The Findings
Write content so users can understand, not just for industry regulators
Define audiences early for users to self identify
Provide access to definitions for hard to simplify terms
Clearly display contact information for products
The Work
New Information Architecture
The information architecture was reorganized around audience type rather than products and services. Section titles and pages were renamed using active language rather than passive language to encourage exploration. FAQ and glossary sections were included prominently in site structure.
The IA was then tree tested using Optimal Workshop and adjustments were made based on the results.
Wireframing & Prototyping
To reinforce audience types, a conditional kind of navigation was created. Users self-selected audience type, enter that section of the site, and website navigation changes to reflect the needs of that audience type and the pages within that section.
Desktop Homepage
Mobile Homepage
In mobile, an adaptive homepage layout was used to drive existing customer to their destinations while helping new users define their audience type. A low fidelity prototype was made using InVision, and remote user observation conducted using UserTesting for both desktop and mobile formats. Adjustments were made based on the results.
The Results
In addition to establishing a strong relationship with Blue KC, the redesigned site generated double the inquiries for additional products from existing customers. Medicare enrollment with Blue KC also rose.
Surveys of HR managers showed an increased awareness of diverse employer health plans where there wasn’t before. Existing Blue KC clients noted how much they liked the new site and how helpful the glossary and frequently asked questions sections were.
After the launch of the site, Blue KC also hired the agency to work on projects like their member portal. Part my responsibilities for the member portal was creating the security processes like username recovery and password reset.
