Design Refresh for Innovation Center

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

A screenshot showing the layout of the Radiation Oncology Model page
As a Product Designer at Fearless, I spent 1 month leading a design effort for a refresh of the CMS Innovation Center website.

timeline

1 months

TEAM

Product Manager
Lead Designer (me!)
Product Designers (2)
Front-end Engineer

PARTNER

CivicActions

Context

The CMS Innovation Center was established by Congress in 2010 to identify ways to improve healthcare quality and reduce costs in the Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) programs.

Problem

The CMS Innovation Center needed to improve comprehension of their content and increase enrollment in their programs. The site design had not been updated since 2014.

Goal

Ideate solutions to improve user experience and deliver high-fidelity wireframes for the Division of Research’s user testing.

Scope and Constraints

Prior to this effort, we had a 2 month discovery phase to uncover issues and make recommendations.

Recommended a phased approach:
  • Focused on the needs of one targeted user group with the areas that have the most traffic and impact on users
  • As the only designer working on this initiative in a short time frame, I identified areas for incremental improvement

Users

  • 80,000 monthly users
  • Health providers and organizations who want to participate in CMS payment models

Process

With a limited timeline and as the only designer actively working on this initiative, I worked quickly to identify the milestones and process for design.

Milestones

  • Identify the ideal scope for a 2.0 redesign
  • Use discovery work to formulate hypothesis statements
  • Review the CMS design system to familiarize with existing patterns and components
  • Ideate on design solutions

Deliverables

  • Wireframes
  • High-fidelity mockups
  • Presentations
  • Readout for the Division of Research

Improving Search

Through our discovery work, we found problems during the search process that could be solved through design solutions

Problems

  • Users prefer to search for specific models they know about
  • Categories and site search parameters can be easily missed
  • Browsing is visually overwhelming due to the number of models (80+)
  • Information on cards is revealed upon hover interaction

Solutions

  • Encourage search: remove all cards from the default state
  • Simplify page: remove accordions by linking to pages for additional context
  • Easier filtered search: added sidebar
  • Provide visual feedback: use tags to show user search parameters
  • New features: suggested and popular terms
Search screen for Innovation Models on old website
OLD SEARCH
The Innovation site had ineffective cards which were difficult to parse
Search screen for Innovation Models in a new concept mockup
NEW SEARCH
The new concept included robust search features

Improving Model Pages

Through our discovery work, we found problems facing users who needed to gather information about payment models

Problems

  • Pages vary greatly in length
  • Users have difficulty locating the information they need
  • Users are frustrated by portal access and rely on email communication, burdening staff
  • Staff face overwhelm when managing content and often duplicate efforts

Solutions

  • Standardize: Ease the burden on staff by standardizing content layout
  • Improve scannability: Used accordions and visual hierarchy
  • Sidebar: Stakeholders wanted to retain a sidebar adjusted the design for visual hierarchy
  • Quick Links: Placed all contact, email, and portal links in one spot
  • Mobile Experience: Ensured that the new design worked well on mobile
Model page which shows the way the site used to look
OLD MODEL PAGE
The existing site had a lot of content stuffed into the page; the page was actually 3x the length shown here
Model page which shows a new concept organized into sections
NEW SEARCH
The new concept organized the content so it is easier to visually digest

Outcomes

In just 4 weeks I achieved rapid design iterations, delivering value to the design initiative before handing it off to research

Results

  • All deliverables were given to stakeholders on time, including wireframes, mockups, readouts, and a tentative research plan
  • User testing was delayed due to bandwidth of the Division of Research
  • The follow-up work was scoped with a roadmap

Want more details?

let's connect
linkedinRESUME