Overview
To redesign the current Optum EAP product, Live and Work Well, to focus on an online experience over a telephonic experience through Rally Health technology and product design. Educate employees as to what EAP is, and to increase the use and timeliness of product and value to companies whose employees have access to EAP.
This product would be cross functional across both Rally teams and Optum teams.
Challenge
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a 30 year old free product that was built around providing addiction services through confidential telephonic help. Through the decades the product has expanded into many services surrounding Mental Health help but has remained highly underutilized, unknown, and completely telephonic. Our goal was to bring many of the services through Live and Work Well on to the Rally platform while contextualizing, educating, and increasing use of this free Mental Health service.
Role
As the main Product designer, I was involved in all phases of the project, from mapping out the problem to delivering final designs. I worked with with many different product teams on both Optum and Rally sides, marketing, content, and copy to create a cross product MVP.
Rally Health, Optum
Roles: UX/UI Lead Designer
Project Type: Collaborative
Live: Client Only
Research / Testing
To begin with I researched competition and current Live and Work well product. Testing it myself and noting pain points as well as working with our Research team to create tests and surveys to get more knowledge around how EAP can be helpful to users or how it has helped in the past. In our initial test after learning about user needs in a previous test, we displayed some rough pages to understand more what the users gravitated towards and their needs for mental health services
Through user interviews, done through talk aloud test, and surveys as well as former research I built a better understanding as to how this Mental Health service may be able to be used. Through these interviews I found important remarks that helped the team empathize with users throughout the design and development process.
“We had a talk at work about when you have a bad situation with a patient and you’re trying to figure out how to handle that - they offered services for you to talk to, like a counselor, a therapist to help you work through the problem you were having or the emotional strain it was having on your job...I think it was more like a hotline you could call into, they would provide guidance or refer you to a therapist if you needed”
“I had heard of employee assistance programs, but had never considered taking advantage of them, because it just felt too close to my work and I wouldn’t want my work to know I was going to counseling. But I could see...I don’t know if they help if you have issues at work, but I do remember she [friend] was having issues in her marriage and was able to get help through her EAP. I never really looked into it, I always had insurance, and I wouldn’t want to go within the company with any mental illness issues or emotional situations”
“I’ve had a time in my life when I was physically sick and I was having a hard time dealing with that mentally, because it can get kind of depressing to go through a physical ailment, so I can see how something like this would be helpful, to talk to / to reach out in this way to find a therapist, perhaps. So I do think there’s benefits for certain people”
“Quite a few times I would say I could use this...when I had issues with my parents I needed to deal with, I could’ve used it after I had my children, for support, I could’ve used it when my daughter was having issues and she needed services”
User Needs
Alongside my Product Manager we created user stories and flows to better illustrate how a user may utilize the product and move through the experience. While also contextualizing the product and creating tools to help the user not get stuck in flows. We created three user types that may need to use this product and made sure the product flows supported each type. These types were created around the idea of timeliness and need of service.
User who learned about EAP and is exploring the product with no immediate need.
User who is looking for help but does not feel urgency in need, will take more time to find the right help.
User in crisis and needs to speak to someone immediately.
Sketches / Flows
Design
UnAuthenticated Experience
This experience is for those users who have yet to create a login and is used to educate on what EAP is and a broad look at the services available to the user.
Authenticated Experience
The importance of the overview page is creating a framework that will allow for further iterations and customizations, these being more personalized experiences for the user and for the employer. As well as allowing for education of new products and services and general understanding of full product.
Find Care
Find Mental Health care was a vital aspect of the EAP product, because this was the main service. Free mental health sessions. The challenge was that the current EAP product was not upfront about the needs of a code to receive services and the search was hard on the user. We simplified the search using Rally search frameworks and spent a lot of space on designing education around the “coupon code” to receive free therapist visits. We also weighted virtual care heavier so that the user had more options to receive care, even not under stay at home.
Former Find Care Flow vs New Flow with pain points listed
Authorization Code
Although its not a very forward facing aspect of EAP, the Authorization code was one of the most important designs in the experience. In the former experience, the user would have to fill out a form and mail it in, or call a 1-800 number to get an authorization code so they could have free therapy sessions. This wasn’t explained on the website, and allowed users to schedule appointments only to have them canceled because they were missing the code, the authorization code was a major falling off point for users.
Using our backend system we were able to allow the user to request a code online and instantaneously receive a code back. This code is then saved into the experience and auto populated on the virtual care appointment flow. We also added sections on “how to use the code” and renamed it as a “coupon code” which was easier for users to understand it’s purpose.
Services and Issue Pages
EAP services were split into three categories to really express the breadth of services and help that EAP can offer the user. I split them into three categories
Emotional Health: This page focuses on internal struggles the user might have and help surrounding those mental health issues.
Work & Life Support: This page focuses on the external struggles of family, relationships, and work that may affect the user’s mental health.
Financial & Legal Support: These services focus on helping the user with issues in finances or legal aid which can also affect an individual’s mental health.
Common Components
To ensure consistency throughout the product no matter the screen size, I created content components that were independent of breakpoints and fluid in the page width
