Optum Patient App
Enterprise System Consolidation
Timeline
10 months
Role
Engagement lead, managed 4 other designers
Collaborators
Product, Engineering, Business Strategy, Clinical, Legal, Accessibility, Analytics
01 · Situation
The Systemic Challenge.
The enterprise ecosystem was highly fragmented. Nine distinct business units operated proprietary applications, forcing patients to navigate disparate UI patterns, disjointed functionality, and siloed brand experiences. Concurrently, a responsive web patient portal was nearing completion, and the business required a tandem mobile application launch to drive adoption.
The initial strategy assumed a simple responsive translation of the web portal. However, the existing proprietary DPL was strictly desktop-centric. Forcing mobile compatibility required bespoke design and proportional development effort for every component, which threatened the MVP timeline and exposed a lack of dedicated mobile funding.
02 · Complication
Strategic Pivot & Architecture.
Initially brought in to manage mobile styling overflow, our team audited the proposed trajectory and identified the escalating technical debt. By quantifying the engineering effort required to build and maintain bespoke mobile web components, we successfully advocated for a complete pivot to branded native OS design patterns (iOS and Android).
This architectural shift bypassed custom component development entirely. By leveraging native frameworks, the strategy secured stakeholder funding for the UX team and eliminated an estimated 4 to 6 months of development and QA effort from the roadmap.
Prior to interaction design, the operational framework was secured using ADKAR funnels, behavioral OKRs, and patient value stories to measure capability alignment against baseline user intent.
System Consolidation: 9 to 1
03 · Resolution
Execution & Integration.
The core structural task was the convergence of 23 distinct capabilities from 9 separate applications into a single, unified native environment.
The primary point of friction was the Scheduling and Appointment capability, which required supporting six distinct appointment types and a cascading compliance decision tree (COVID exposure, 3-year PCP history, telehealth hardware capabilities, emergency triage).
The architectural conflict was driven by backend limitations: the scheduling system required provider selection before querying schedule availability. This inverted the standard user mental model, where patients often prioritize date availability, and forced a high-friction loop of dead ends and backtracking if a selected provider lacked matching dates. Over a dozen distinct flow architectures were modeled to absorb this cognitive burden, reconciling the rigid backend sequence with an intuitive frontend user flow.
04 · Outcomes
Unified
Foundation.
The execution established the foundational mobile architecture for Optum's consumer engagement. By consolidating 9 siloed applications and 23 capabilities into a single systemic channel, the project delivered a unified patient experience. The navigation schema and native pattern strategy established during this phase remain in active use by engineering and product teams today.
Measurable business impact included an estimated 47% increase in patient self-service operations and a proportional 18% reduction in support calls.
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