Overview
Intermountain Health is a healthcare organization dedicated to promoting optimal health and well-being through the provision of high-quality, sustainable, and accessible care services.
Intermountain Healthcare underwent a rebranding effort to bridge the gap between the personal core of health and the healthcare industry, aiming for a friendlier identity to ease the process of making appointments and seeing a doctor. They merged four domains: Intermountain Healthcare, Intermountain Healthcare Nevada, Saltzer Health, and SCL Health.
Problem Statement
As part of Intermountain Health’s rebrand toward a more patient-first, human-centered care model, it became evident that their existing website no longer aligned with their evolving mission. The site’s outdated structure and disconnected user experience highlighted the need for a more comprehensive, user-centered digital transformation to better support patient needs and reflect the organization’s renewed focus on personalized care. These were some of our main objectives.
Merge their four domains into one concise and straightforward journey to access their portals
Improve the readability and accessibility on all content by improving layout consistencies and more user-friendly language
Reduce bounce rate and help guide users to easily finding care on IH's website, to be their first provider of choice
Research
We conducted a content audit of over 3,000 pages and interviewed users to identify gaps between user needs and their current content. This research uncovered opportunities to improve both content governance and key user journeys, particularly around billing functionality and accessing MyHealth+ and many other sectors.
User Analysis & Findings
Before moving into ideation, we facilitated a collaborative brainstorming session to develop user personas and map out key journeys. This helped us identify gaps in the current experience and uncover opportunities to improve.
User Testing
We then conducted four stages of user tests as follows:
We began with card sorting to gain insights into how users group certain medical terms together. This gives us insight into user expectations and how they understand the organization and labeling of terms within a given experience.
The second stage involved tree testing, conducting A/B tests where we compared two potential site structures: Hypothesis A, which featured a task-oriented hierarchical structure, against Hypothesis B, a journey-based matrix and linear structure. Through three task scenarios conducted, we observed which route users most seamlessly completed.
In the third stage, we tested two prototypes: 'One Screen' versus 'Above the Fold,' focusing primarily on mobile-first designs due to the increased likelihood of users engaging with the website via mobile devices. With the 'one screen' approach, users could immediately see everything, enabling them to complete critical tasks promptly. Conversely, the 'above the fold' approach prioritized critical calls-to-action first, allowing for quick user actions while also allowing the user to explore their own journeys.
Results from this test revealed that users preferred the directness of the 'one screen' approach, appreciating the quick and direct access to tasks and necessary content. They also expressed a liking for personalized and curated content suggestions.
In the final stage, we conducted impression testing, beginning with interviews via Zoom with six patients of Intermountain Health within a one-hour timeframe. Initially, we explored four creative directions, which were then narrowed down to two final options: 'Expanding Heritage,' focusing on Intermountain Health's leadership in innovation and high-quality care and 'Urgency,' envisioning a new era in healthcare where industry collaboration with patients ensures maximum accessibility to promote overall wellness.
After 44 survey tests comparing the two routes, we were able to finalize the creative approach.
Final Deliverables
With the overhaul of Intermountain Health’s new identity, we created a robust design system to support the rebranding, a centralized source of truth built for scalability, modularity, and consistency. Designed with React Material UI in mind, the system follows a layered file structure including foundational styles, core components used across the digital ecosystem, and Sitecore-specific templates.
Early in development, we transitioned from the Figma Tokens plugin to Figma’s new design variables, enabling seamless theming and improved collaboration between design and development. To ensure long-term success, we made sure to hand off a well-documented and scalable design system that can be adapted to the needs of various business units even after our collaboration.
Metrics
The impact of the redesign was immediately clear. By streamlining key user flows, simplifying navigation, standardizing labels and consolidating redundant content, we aligned the experience more closely with user intent. As a result, we saw significant improvements in conversion across high-priority actions. “Make an Appointment” conversions increased by 25%, “Get Care Now” rose by 35%, and “Sign in to MyHealth+” was up by +15%.
drag left or right to see the before and after ↓
Reflections
This project proved to be highly rewarding despite its challenges. Working on Intermountain Health, a project of such large scale, provided me with the opportunity to experience an in-house environment while working at an agency, constantly refining the design system and core templates for migration.
Throughout the project, I gained valuable insights and collaborated closely with a very big and diverse team, learning to navigate various working styles and communication preferences. Balancing constant deadlines and ongoing sprints to address previous launches with developers while simultaneously preparing for upcoming launches required me to develop effective time management skills. Overall, the experience was very fulfilling, especially considering my journey from an intern to UX designer on this project. I was also able to learn a lot about myself as I witnessed the evolution of my own working style and skills using Figma.