Product Design Intern @ Justworks:
Helping employees navigating life’s big moments with clarity and confidence
On the Benefit – Health team, I led the redesign of the legacy employee insurance update experience from problem framing and user testing to design, enabling 170k+ employees of SMBs to retain access to high-quality health benefits during life events. (aka. QLE
OUTCOMESI delivered dev-ready prototype, research results, streamlining experience across two product lines of JW’s ecosystem to improve user retention, reduce support tickets and Ops work lift.
Side project – Designed and shipped a plan selection onboarding page with an engineer peer, reducing onboarding time and support outreach.
TEAM2 PMs
Content Designer
Software Engineers
Business Operations
TIMELINEMay - Aug 2024
Most of us experience a few Qualifying Life Events (QLE) at some point. You know, life stuff.
“Significant life changes that make individuals eligible to make health insurance changes outside the annual open enrollment period.”
A few QLE examples IRL
😢 🥰 🤯
Big life moments bring lots of emotions – the happy and the tough ones, plus the responsibility of updating health insurance...
Employees
It’s another overwhelming task on an already packed to-do list—with deadlines, forms, and confusion.
Ops team
> 200k+ employees rely on Justworks to manage their health insurance during transitions. Confusing steps meant more support tickets and more time spent untangling the mess.HMW
Reimagining a guided experience to help users manage health insurance with confidence during life events?
Break down 1 long form
Match the design with the first thing come up in the user’s mind.
UI updates to reduce user’s cognitive load
User can explore new insurance options ahead of time to feel more confident with the upcoming changes.
Want to dive deeper into my design process ?
• Research •
I started by talking to internal stakeholders since the problems are not well defined (no PRD)
I pin pointed areas that have the potential to improve user experience. I involved content designer in this process since the flow is information heavy.
METHOD TWO
Interviewing internal experts (PMs, designers, Ops, etc.) to gather insights and secondary data on the benefits management flow designed for life events.
I scheduled multiple meetings with them to ask clarifying questions — past product requirements, common areas of complaint, and their vision for what employees need most.
Primary takeaways that shaped what and how I planned to test with users
The form-heavy experience lacks structure and guidance. It feels overwhelming rather than helpful when users is already navigating a complex and high-stakes process—filled with deadlines, documentation, and unfamiliar terms.
TAKEAWAY TWOThe IA may not match users’ mental model.
“I want to make changes to my insurance” vs. “”I had a QLE”. Which one comes to users’ mind first, and the entry point aligns with how they think?
TAKEAWAY THREEThe emotional context of life events is often overlooked in the UI and language used.
Not all life events are joyful. Some, like divorce or the loss of a loved one, are emotionally difficult. The language, tone, and visual design of the interface should reflect empathy and provide a sense of support.
I designed multiple versions of prototypes with an ideal experience in mind and ran a number of user testing. Here are a few things I tested...
User testing objectives:
To validate our assumptions such as user’s mental model, the overall user experience of the flow, their response to view and select new insurance plans before receive admin’s approved, and identify area of improvement for copy (including the voice and tone)
View the detailed research plan here
THE WHATWhat if managing health benefit feels like shopping...?
THE WHATEntry point
Instead of “request QLE”, the first thing came to people’s mind is to “change my insurance”
Users know the term QLE only when they have prior experience. This is an opportunity to educate users the rights they have as employee.
Because insurance change is a big thing, user want to feel more control of what’s happening next.
Adapting interaction to effectively handle different use cases while addressing user pain points
VISUALIZATION OF THE SYSTEM
For example, the flow and requirement are different when the user is updating their insurance due to birth of child vs. getting married.
VS.
VS.
• Takeaways •
A summer with lots of learnings and growths that made me love design even more
When I first joined, I got overwhelmed by the amount of feedback, and was hesitated to ask questions. I choose to hold onto them until I found the answers myself or absolutely needed to ask. However, by observing how design manager and mentor handled feedback and through my own experiences, I learned to approach it with the understanding that it is not a form of judgment. In fact, my superpower as a designer is to process and prioritize them, understand the “why” and help the team make better decisions.
#2There is no one single design process.
While I learned the “double dimond” design process from school, I realized we do not and should not always follow the path. Design process depends on the stages of the product, available resources, etc. It is important to stay flexible and adaptable.
#3Working with a matured design system in a growing org.
I gained experience using mature design systems as foundations, extending their components and patterns, and adapting them to meet the needs of rapidly evolving products.