Site rearchitecture
Distilling 400 pages, across multiple sites, into one cohesive, member-focused site.
Who: Health insurance company
What: Site architecture and foundational structure
Role: Experience Design Lead
Part I: The situation
Disparate content without focus
A leading health insurance company came to us seeking a site redesign. They were about to do some rebranding, and also wanted to increase member engagement and streamline their web content.
But they didn’t just have one website—they had eight separate sites for different audience needs. All that content had become unwieldy over time, made messier by the lack of articulated purpose for each site.
My role
Experience Design Lead
Provided day-to-day direction for creative team and kept all disciplines aligned to a common goal
Defined the project focus and scope based on changing client asks
Interacted with client partners daily, ran working sessions, and presented work to the client’s C-suite and other stakeholders
Orchestrated all facets of online user research, from goal definition and survey design to synthesis and analysis
Helped determine appropriate site content by working closely with content strategy team
Designed multiple site architecture iterations in collaboration with the team
Our mission
Even though the surface ask was a redesign, it was clear that the actual starting need was a site map to create a more meaningful and intentional organization to the roughly 400 pages.
Our end goal was to bring together content from the two member-oriented sites (one for individual members and another for Medicare members) into one seamless experience.
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While the ask was a redesign, the actual need was a defined site map.
Site purpose statement, crafted in the previous phase of the engagement.
Part II: The approach
Laying the foundation
An important truth guided our site redesign: most members visit the site for transactional reasons (to find a doctor or review claims). To uncover that valuable insight we mined the site’s analytics, as well as researched consumer behavior and competitor websites.
Members’ second reason to visit the site was to learn about their plan. It wasn’t surprising that members feel unsure and unconfident about what their plan covers.
To give users a clear and direct path to transactions and plan info, we aligned the navigation (both its structure and wording) to those key tasks, and reduced the number of steps to get there.
First, the post-it approach
To get our heads around how the site could work, we created and repositioned dozens of post-its mapping out possible ways of organizing the site content. We used the post-its for informal testing with our coworkers, too.
Then, a conceptual approach
After all the post-it research, we diagramed the key member needs into a conceptual representation of the site architecture, forming a framework to used for the site map and navigation.
Turning 400 pages into a streamlined site
Our content strategist combed through the multiple, unwieldy sites to determine which content to keep, edit and eliminate.
From the experience end, we knew we had to begin at a higher level due to the content’s complexity. So we approached the initial site architecture conceptually, defining the fundamental member needs the site content had to address, and using that as a framework.
From there, multiple site architecture hypotheses and iterations ensued. Informal user testing in the office, then multiple rounds of online tree jack testing, helped us refine the site architecture to be clear and user-centered.
Task comparison
We measured the success rates and paths for a consistent set of tasks, across multiple rounds of treejack testing, to gauge the most effective content organization.
Treejack results
Pie trees for each task allowed as to see the paths users took—both correct and meandering—to assess the strength of our different IA variations.
Creating order, and a system
We built a strong site map out of the framework defined in the conceptual site architecture.
Then, we created a series of modular templates to make implementing new pages and content easy and efficient. Each page in the site map fit one of the templates.
Finally, navigation wireframes translated the site map into meaningful wayfinding for users.
A complex, but streamlined, site map
Our final site map is a hefty 160 pages—but an efficient, breezy setup compared to the 400 pages we started with. We managed to merge content from the existing member and Medicare sites and make sure that member needs and priorities guided the design.
Templates to tie it all together
We created a series of gestural thumbnail templates that would cover every page of the site. This let us streamline content creation and give the site a uniform structure.
A main menu for all
The main menu was built around universal member and non-member needs, from finding whether a doctor is covered to understanding how insurance works.
A quick-hit menu for members
A secondary navigation treatment called out member-specific content in an easily accessible menu.
Part III: The result
A cohesive, member-focused site
Our slimmer, easy-to-navigate site reflects the needs, and mental model, of members. Moreover, it also gave the client’s internal teams a strong framework for creating new content going forward.
Most important, our work established a strong foundation for the subsequent site redesign. This was proven when a new team picked up where we left off, leveraging our thinking to build out the design and content for the new site.
My takeaway
This was among the most involved information architecture tasks I’ve faced. But more demanding was the ever-changing direction and asks from our client.
Luckily, these challenges helped me embrace uncertainty and figure out how to steer a team through it. Whatever complexities or changes my next project might contain, I’m equipped to handle them.