In 2020, I was brought in to rescue a struggling member portal redesign that had lost both original designers, the Product Owner, and multiple developers during a company restructure. With no stakeholder alignment, incomplete UX research, and a neglected application suffering from poor usability, I stabilized the initiative, re-engaged leadership, and led a complete redesign from research through launch.
Over two years, I transformed a portal with a 2.6/5 satisfaction rating into one achieving 3.2/5, increased traffic by 50%, improved engagement by 25%, and reduced customer service calls by 20% on key topics—all while building the design system and handling front-end development for accessibility compliance.
Our flagship member portal had been neglected for years, receiving only critical bug fixes. Members were frustrated, and the data told a troubling story:
User Feedback & Behavior:
The Business Cost:
When I joined, the project was in crisis:
What Happened:
My Situation:
"I was brought in to stabilize chaos, align stakeholders, and deliver a portal redesign that actually worked for members—all while establishing UX credibility in a low-maturity environment."
Lead UX Designer serving as the sole UX/UI designer for all member-facing features:
Timeline: 2+ years (January 2020 - 2022)
"I inherited years of research data from multiple methodologies. Before designing anything, I needed to understand what we actually knew — and what was missing."
Lead UX Designer serving as the sole UX/UI designer for all member-facing features:
I organized this into:
When I compared research methodologies, a striking pattern emerged:
Attitudinal Research (In-Person, Asked Opinions):
Behavioral Research (In-Product, Observed Actions):
"Members were being polite to our faces but struggling in reality. The in-product behavioral data revealed the truth: the portal wasn't working."
"No stakeholders had been involved with the project. I needed to bring leadership back in and establish a data-driven UX process."
What I Did:
Re-engaged stakeholders across:
Established Lean UX process:
Ran design critiques (not workshops):
"I had to prove UX's value through results, not process. Every recommendation was backed by data—member feedback, analytics, or testing."
"COVID hit during our IA research phase. I had to pivot to remote tools, but that didn't stop us from uncovering critical insights."
The IA Problem:
Quantitative data showed:
Card Sorting Research (Remote, COVID Pivot):
Method: Hybrid card sorting using uxtweak.com
3 Groups of 10 participants:
Key Findings:
The Stakeholder Conflict:
During alignment meetings, a stakeholder presented their own sitemap that contradicted user research data.
My response:
The Result: User-based design beat non-UX-based design by 93% in task completion.
Data won. This became a pivotal moment in establishing UX credibility—leadership saw firsthand that user research produces measurably better outcomes.
"With IA validated, I redesigned each major feature based on member needs and testing feedback."
Changes:
Impact:
The Old Problem:
In the original portal and initial wireframe redesigns, coverage information was scattered across separate pages:
"Members had to hunt across multiple pages to understand their coverage. Card sorting and user testing revealed they expected a single, cohesive journey."
The New Design:
Created one main coverage page organized as a natural health insurance progression:
Impact:
"This redesign proved that organizing information around member mental models—not insurance company structure—dramatically improves comprehension and reduces support burden."
"Beyond the major feature redesigns, the portal needed several critical improvements to launch successfully."
Registration Flow Redesign
The registration flow had a 25% completion rate—members were abandoning before even getting into the portal.
For the complete story of how I redesigned registration from 25% to 90%+ in prototype testing (achieving 45% in production due to MFA constraints), see my Analytics & Conversion Strategy case study where this work is detailed as part of the broader conversion optimization initiative.
Quick Summary: Identified drop-off points, created step-by-step guided journey, achieved 90%+ in testing, 45% in production due to MFA technology friction.
Design System Completion
I inherited a partially completed design system and finished it for production:
Accessibility Remediation
As we approached launch, accessibility audits revealed ADA compliance gaps. I stepped in as front-end developer to remediate issues screen by screen, ensuring WCAG 2.1 AA compliance before launch.
Continuous Testing Throughout
Conducted usability testing on every major feature with remote unmoderated testing, internal customer service reps, and real members. Complex multi-step forms achieved 90-100% completion rates in testing.
After two years, we launched a completely redesigned member portal that members could actually use.
"This project taught me that UX leadership means navigating chaos, building credibility through data, and delivering results under pressure."
What Worked
The "politeness gap" insight: Discovering members rated the portal 3.5/5 in-person but 2.6/5 in-product changed how we approached research—prioritizing what members do over what they say.
Evidence-based stakeholder management: The 93% IA win proved user research produces measurably better outcomes. Data, not opinions, dissolved resistance.
Pragmatic flexibility: COVID forced remote research. Timeline pressure meant wearing multiple hats (researcher, designer, developer). Rather than treat constraints as obstacles, I found solutions that kept the project moving.
Building UX Credibility
This project was a masterclass in establishing UX where it didn't exist:
"I learned that UX maturity isn't inherited — it's built, one data point at a time, by proving that user-centered design produces better business outcomes"
What I'm Proud Of
Key Lessons
Data is your best advocate: Numbers don't have politics. Every time I led with data, resistance melted.
Culture matters as much as craft: Understanding organizational dynamics and adapting methodology is as important as UX skills.
Senior UX isn't just design: It's stakeholder management, organizational change, cross-functional leadership, and knowing when to push vs. when to ship MVP and iterate.
"I proved I can build UX credibility from scratch. Now I look for organizations that already value what I bring—so we can move faster, together."