BCBS medicare

I led the redesign of the Medicare Plan Finder tool for Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBS NC), helping the organization address a critical retention gap as members aged into Medicare. Only 27% of members were continuing with BCBS once eligible—largely due to poor UX and a lack of personalized engagement. My role was to reframe the entire experience around the user’s journey and emotional context, while aligning internal teams around a shared design strategy. The result was a more human, accessible, and trustworthy experience that has since influenced the broader BCBS digital ecosystem.

• Increase retention of members transitioning to Medicare at age 65 • Deliver a personalized plan recommendation based on existing member data • Make the process accessible, trustworthy, and emotionally supportive • Improve internal alignment across design, engineering, and business teams

• Members aged 65 were treated like new users—asked to re-enter data, and shown generic plan options • The digital experience lacked visual warmth and emotional intelligence • Accessibility and usability were misaligned with older users’ expectations • Internal team silos created friction in scaling research-backed design approaches

User Research I conducted both in-person and remote usability testing with Medicare-eligible members between ages 60-68, gathering insights on pain points, expectations, and emotional responses throughout the enrollment journey. Experience Design • Introduced strategic pauses in the UX flow (such as thoughtfully designed loading and thank you pages) to build trust and confidence • Developed low-stress comparison tools and plan cards that prominently featured preferred providers and pharmacies • Created a clean, high-accessibility visual system with simplified content through improved typography, layout, and navigation • Shifted tone from clinical to conversational, making the experience feel more human and familiar Cross-Team Collaboration I synthesized research insights to guide agile iteration and foster stakeholder alignment, breaking down silos between design, development, and business teams to create a unified approach.