Delta Dental Member Portal

Project overview

My contribution

As a Product Designer, I led the design work from early discovery through MVP delivery. I facilitated cross-functional workshops, translated research into product direction, explored and tested potential solutions, and partnered with product, research, content, engineering, and other designers throughout delivery.

The Problem

Members could not answer basic coverage questions without contacting support

Members visited the portal to understand what their dental plans covered. However, important benefit details were difficult to locate, required multiple steps to access, and were not well optimized for mobile.

Research showed:

• 67% could not find the information they needed online

• 45% were specifically searching for benefit information

• 22% wanted more information about coverage details

When members could not find clear answers, they often contacted the call center for information the portal should have provided.

Question: How might we help members understand their benefits without needing to contact customer support?

Research and direction

Benefits were technically available, but not truly accessible

We began with a five-day design sprint involving up to 18 cross-functional collaborators, followed by a two-week research sprint. We combined member interviews, conversations with call-center managers, heuristic analysis, competitive research, affinity mapping, and stakeholder workshops.

The research produced three important findings.

We mapped the ideal user flow from the homepage to procedure details.

Goal: Make benefits findable, understandable, and accessible from the homepage, especially on mobile.

Decision 1: Make benefits searchable

Let members search for the procedure they already had in mind

Members previously had to navigate insurance categories and terminology before finding coverage information. We explored adding Benefits Search directly to the homepage so members could look up a procedure using familiar language.

What we explored

We tested several approaches to search placement and results presentation. Testing revealed that:

• Some placements were overlooked

• Inline results disrupted the reading flow

• Search needed clearer separation from static homepage content

What we decided

We created a dedicated search experience that prioritized:

• Whether a procedure was covered

• Estimated out-of-pocket costs

• Related results

• Searching by either procedure code or procedure name

• A layout that worked across desktop and mobile

Evidence

The final search experience achieved 100% task completion in usability testing.

Decision 2: Reorganize the homepage around member priorities

Give the most important tasks the strongest hierarchy

The existing homepage gave similar visual weight to actions with very different levels of importance. Members struggled to locate basic tools and understand where to begin.

We tested different content hierarchies and homepage structures. The final direction elevated the tasks members came to accomplish most often:

• Access an ID card

• Find a dentist

• Review plan information

• Search for coverage

• Estimate procedure costs

The redesigned homepage elevated high-priority actions and introduced Benefits Search directly within the benefits experience.

Decision 3: Treat mobile as a primary use case

Make benefit information accessible when members are away from a desktop

Members may need insurance information while visiting a provider or discussing care. That made mobile access an important use case, not simply a responsive adaptation.

We designed the experience around:

• Earlier access to ID cards and search

• Less information density

• Reduced scrolling

• Thumb-friendly actions

• Clearer presentation of coverage details

MVP tradeoffs

Final MVP and impact

The redesigned experience helped members find answers independently

Validation and projected impact

We tested the final experience with 15 participants. Each used a sample procedure code to find the corresponding procedure details.

Reflection

What I would improve next

• Test clearer coverage labels such as “Covered” and “Out of Network”

• Invest earlier in the Benefit Details experience

• Revisit tooth-specific search if user demand and technical feasibility support it

• Connect portal analytics to specific call-center contact categories

This project strengthened my ability to turn a broad business goal into a focused product direction. Improving self-service was not simply about putting more information online. It required organizing complex insurance information around the questions members were already trying to answer.