Integrating SmartSelect MD into Alight Worklife
Alight Solutions faced the challenge of integrating a newly acquired product, Consumer Medical, into the Alight Worklife platform. I led the redesign, transforming it into SmartSelect MD, a streamlined tool that helps employees find and compare medical providers efficiently, improving user satisfaction and creating new business opportunities.
Overview
Alight Solutions and Consumer Medical (SmartSelect MD)
Role: Senior UX Researcher
Research Methods: Concept Testing, Usability Testing, Analytics
Tools: Figma, Miro, Jira, Tableau
Sector: Healthcare, Human Resources, SaaS
Context
Alight Worklife is an employee benefits platform used by Fortune 100 clients and their employees. Alight acquired Consumer Medical, a tool for users to find and evaluate medical providers, to be added as a product to compliment their base experience supporting health needs of employees.
I took charge of the redesign, rebranding it as SmartSelect MD and optimizing it for desktop and mobile, while adhering to Alight Worklife’s design system. Newly introduced features like “item comparison” were implemented across Alight’s portfolio of over 80 products.
The Problem
The original Consumer Medical product required users to navigate through a complex, four-step process to find a medical provider, with most users dropping off at steps two and three. The search experience was cumbersome and yielded ambiguous results, prompting users to leave the site and seek alternative platforms for provider evaluation. Business stakeholders also aimed to introduce monetization opportunities by integrating “My Medical Ally,” a feature allowing users to ask medical experts questions before meeting their provider.
Goals
Simplify the search process to reduce user drop-off rates.
Enable users to find and compare medical providers quickly.
Integrate monetization opportunities with minimal disruption to the user experience.
Enhance the product’s value through a comparison feature.
Ensure the redesign supports future revenue growth through tools like “My Medical Ally.”
Limit the number of net new components introduced to the Alight Worklife Design System.
Final Solution
Introducing SmartSelect MD, a tool that helps employees find doctors more efficiently based on their personal preferences. Now fully integrated into the Alight Worklife platform, SmartSelect MD allows users to easily search for, compare, and communicate with medical providers—all within a single, unified platform.
Research Approach
I developed a research and testing plan that combined stakeholder insights and user research to ensure the redesign aligned with business strategy and user expectations.
Analytics Analysis: Studied user drop-off rates across different search paths to identify friction points. This analysis informed design decisions by revealing which parts of the search flow were causing users to abandon their searches, leading to targeted improvements in the search experience.
Concept Testing: Tested mid-fidelity desktop wireframes to evaluate the core layout, focusing on the streamlined search flow, a reduced map view, and the integration of the Medical Ally feature.
Usability Testing: To refine the experience, I conducted rounds of usability testing using a clickable desktop prototype with participants who had searched for a new healthcare provider within the past year. This helped identify pain points and areas for improvement, specifically with user guidance, comparison features, and third-party entry points like “My Medical Ally.”
Concept Testing Insights
In the initial concept testing, I assessed how users interacted with the SmartSelect MD tool, concentrating on the redesigned search flow and newly introduced features, such as the integration of the Medical Ally service.
Findings:
Nearly all participants preferred to use the search box to begin their search, highlighting its importance as the main interaction point.
In-network status, distance, and availability were ranked as the most critical factors when choosing a provider, underscoring the need to prioritize these in the results.
Participants expressed concerns about how ratings and costs were sourced and presented, leading to a need for greater transparency in these areas.
Confusion arose around the “My Medical Ally” and “Hinge Health” recommended cards, prompting the need for clearer messaging and integration of these features.
Mid-fidelity mockup of SmartSelect MD landing page.
Usability Testing Insights
Through rounds of usability testing, I evaluated the SmartSelect MD search flow, comparison feature, and third-party integrations to identify usability challenges and refine key features for both mobile and desktop experiences.
Findings:
No significant usability issues were found when participants interacted with the simplified 2-step search redesign, indicating that the core functionality met user expectations.
Nearly all participants found it easy to search for a provider, view detailed information, and compare providers side by side, validating the simplicity of the new design.
The search results page and provider profile page provided all the necessary information for most participants to make a confident decision in selecting a provider.
A few participants noted that while the “My Medical Ally” feature was useful, it wasn’t immediately clear how or when to use it, signaling a need for improved guidance and messaging through additional content testing.
These insights helped refine the SmartSelect MD experience, enabling the team to focus on continuous testing and design iterations to improve the user journey and better targert monetization entry points.
Hi-fidelity mockup of SmartSelect MD search results page.
Stakeholder Management
Throughout the SmartSelect MD integration, my personal goal was to build strong relationships with the newly acquired business stakeholders from Consumer Medical. This was achieved through clear communication and transparency regarding the research process.
I guided the team in crafting focused research objectives that aligned with business strategy
I offered opportunities for stakeholders to provide input and I thoroughly explained why specific research methods were chosen over others, ensuring they were informed and engaged throughout each stage of the project.
I educated stakeholders on the limitations of qualitative research, highlighting the importance of context and depth in user feedback and explaining why quantitative questions aren't suited for qualitative studies.
This collaborative approach fostered trust, ensured that the research aligned with both user needs and business goals, and ultimately resulted in a more strategic, user-centered product integration.
Hi-fidelity mockup of SmartSelect MD within Alight Worklife.
Business Impact
Claims Savings: SmartSelect MD delivers an average of $441 in claims-based savings per provider recommendation, offering clear business value.
Cost Reduction: Cases supported by SmartSelect MD were 26% less costly compared to cases without its involvement.
NPS Score: The tool achieved an impressive +80 NPS score, demonstrating high user satisfaction.
Increased Revenue Opportunities: The integration of “My Medical Ally” created new revenue channels without disrupting the user experience.
Outcome
The successful redesign of SmartSelect MD enabled users to find high-quality medical providers with ease, compare options side-by-side, and access valuable features like cost estimates and detailed provider insights. This tool now serves as a critical component within Alight Worklife’s product portfolio, helping both employers and employees make better healthcare decisions, while contributing to significant revenue growth for Alight.