Case Study 04

Benefits Enrollment

The first fully mobile healthcare benefits enrollment experience for a payroll & HR platform, turning a dense, desktop-only process into clear, guided steps employees can complete from their phones.

Industry Payroll & HR Software
Client USA-based client
Role Product Designer
Platform Mobile App
Benefits enrollment mobile app home screen with open enrollment card

The Challenge

Employees could previously only enroll in their healthcare benefits through a web flow that many found complex and difficult to complete. I redesigned the end-to-end journey for mobile, breaking a dense, overwhelming process into clear, guided steps.

Problem

A dense, desktop-only process

Employees needed to enroll in their healthcare benefits, but the only option was a web experience that users repeatedly described as complex and hard to follow, largely because it presented everything at once instead of guiding them step by step. On top of that, there was no way to enroll from the mobile app, so employees who lived on their phones were locked out of a critical, time-sensitive task.

Solution

One clear step at a time

I designed a mobile-native benefits enrollment experience that guides employees through the process one clear step at a time. Rather than presenting every decision at once, the flow breaks enrollment into focused stages: choosing a plan, adding dependents, and reviewing before confirming.

Stage 01

Discovery

Before designing anything, I needed to understand why employees were struggling with enrollment. I surveyed employees about their experience: what was hardest, what information was missing, why they delayed or abandoned the process, and where they would prefer to enroll.

1. What was the hardest part of enrolling in your benefits?

48% Understanding benefit types

27% Comparing plans

17% Estimating costs

8% Other

2. What information did you feel was missing?

52% Total cost per paycheck

24% Differences between plans

16% Coverage details

8% Enrollment deadlines

3. Why did you delay or abandon enrollment?

41% Too many options at once

31% Couldn't compare plans

19% Unclear costs

9% No time to finish

4. Where would you prefer to enroll?

57% Mobile app

28% Desktop web

15% With help from HR

Key insights

1

Employees weren't struggling to make choices. They were struggling to understand them.

2

Users couldn't see how much would come out of their paycheck, so they were making financial decisions essentially blind.

3

Without a way to compare plans side by side, people defaulted to hesitation.

Stage 02

Ideation

Storyboard

To align the team around the problem, I storyboarded the journey of Sebastian, an employee going from a frustrating, desktop-only experience that ends in a support ticket, to a guided mobile flow he completes in a single sitting.

Six-frame storyboard showing the employee journey from frustration with the web flow to completing enrollment on mobile

User flow

The flow breaks enrollment into focused decisions: select a benefit type, compare plans, choose coverage, add dependents, and then loop back for the next benefit or confirm everything in one review screen.

Sign in Verification code Homepage Ready to enroll? No Yes Enrollment process Select benefit type Compare plans Select plan Add dependents? Yes Select dependents No Enrollment benefits page Add more benefits? Yes No Confirm enrollment Benefits homepage
Stage 03

Design Solution

Helping users enroll in their healthcare benefits with confidence. Every screen answers the two questions employees kept asking: "what does this cost me per paycheck?" and "what's left to do?"

Enrollment starts on the home screen

During open enrollment, the home screen reprioritizes itself. Instead of burying a time-sensitive task behind navigation, a dedicated card surfaces progress (0 of 5 selections) and the deadline, with a single tap to continue. When enrollment ends, the card steps aside and everyday tasks take back the spotlight.

Home screen with open enrollment card showing progress and a start enrolling button
Three enrollment screens: benefit categories, medical plan comparison with pricing, and dependent coverage selection with per-paycheck costs

A guided enrollment process

Employees move through one benefit category at a time. Plan details and prices sit side by side, and every coverage tier shows its exact bi-weekly cost, so choosing between "Employee only" and "Employee + family" is a financial decision made with full visibility, not a guess.

Benefits hub screen separating enrolled benefits from those not yet enrolled

Know what's done and what's next

In the old experience, employees had no visibility into what they'd already chosen versus what was still pending, a major source of support tickets. The redesigned hub makes status legible at a glance: enrolled benefits show their plan and per-paycheck cost, while remaining categories stay one tap away.

Impact

Each design decision traced back to a research finding, and each one had a measurable outcome.

I found We shipped The result
52% missed the total cost per paycheck
Per-paycheck cost on every plan, tier, and a running total through the flow
Employees reported making plan decisions with confidence, knowing the exact deduction
72% delayed enrolling due to option overload or inability to compare
A 3-step guided flow with side-by-side plan comparison and prices upfront
Employees completed enrollment in one sitting, without HR assistance
57% preferred to enroll from the mobile app
The first fully mobile enrollment experience: 100% of the flow works on a phone
A previously desktop-only task, unblocked for every employee with the app

Before the redesign, roughly 40% of enrollments were either left incomplete or required calling support to make changes. After the mobile launch, that figure dropped to approximately 12%.

Based on product analytics and support data
Hand holding a phone showing the completed benefits summary with total per-paycheck cost
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