Author by Humana Digital Experience Strategy

Humana, Inc.

Author by Humana Digital Experience Strategy

In January 2021, Humana launched Author by Humana—a bold new branded experience designed to reimagine how members engage with their healthcare. Focused on select Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO plans in South Carolina, this initiative set out to do more than improve service—it aimed to remove barriers to better health outcomes by putting people at the center of every decision.

Our mission was clear: make healthcare feel less confusing, more compassionate, and genuinely helpful. We wanted members to feel supported, understood, and empowered. What follows is a behind-the-scenes look at how strategy, design, and governance aligned to create a service experience that was not only operationally sound, but deeply human.

My team led the charge on member-facing digital experiences, serving a population of 65+ seniors with diverse levels of digital confidence—but a shared desire for self-service access to their health information. These members weren’t just looking for convenience; they wanted control, clarity, and digital tools that respected their independence while simplifying their interactions with their health insurer.

We grounded every decision in evidence and empathy. Member input wasn’t just welcomed—it was foundational. From strategy to execution, we focused on meeting people where they are, delivering intuitive solutions tailored to their needs, preferences, and capabilities. Our goal was simple but powerful: to make healthcare feel more accessible, less overwhelming, and genuinely supportive.

The Challenge

When Author by Humana launched in 2021, we weren’t just introducing a new brand—we were building an entire business operation and digital product suite from the ground up to meet CMS-mandated timelines for active Medicare Advantage plans. With no legacy assets inherited from our parent company, every element of the digital experience—from interface design to system architecture—was created net-new. It was a rare opportunity to start fresh, and we embraced it fully.

Our experience team faced a dual challenge: establish a comprehensive digital Design System while simultaneously designing and launching our first MVP product. To ensure we were solving real problems for real people, we partnered closely with our Consumer Insights team, conducting months of research and resonance testing. Using Jobs-to-Be-Done as our framework, we uncovered key pain points in existing insurance experiences and identified what members truly needed to feel confident and supported.

Ease of use, simplicity, findability, and task confidence emerged as top priorities. Our members—primarily 65+ seniors—wanted digital tools that respected their time and effort, worked seamlessly across devices, and offered clear guidance. They were comfortable with mobile basics like email and texting, and expected our experiences to meet them there. We knew this expectation would only grow as more digital natives aged into Medicare.

Our interface strategy had to balance two distinct demands: marketing-driven, engagement-focused content and complex, personalized health data. To meet both, we developed repeatable interaction patterns, functional behaviors, and UI styles that could scale efficiently across the product lifecycle.

Through member surveys and usability testing, we heard consistent themes:

• Reduce information overload: Members felt overwhelmed by cluttered interfaces and struggled to find what they needed quickly and easily.

• Optimize for mobile: While not all were tech-savvy, many used mobile tools daily and expected responsive, intuitive design across modalities.

• Clarify instructions: Ambiguous guidance led to uncertainty and reduced confidence in completing tasks correctly.

• Deliver personalized, dynamic content: Members wanted experiences tailored to their health journey, not generic information that missed the mark.

These insights shaped every decision we made—from system design to content strategy—ensuring that Author wasn’t just a new product, but a meaningful shift toward member-first digital healthcare.

my role

As the leader of experience strategy and design management for the Member Experience team, I guided a multidisciplinary group of designers—spanning experience, product, interaction, and visual design—to deliver thoughtful, member-centered digital solutions. Our work was deeply collaborative, partnering closely with Product, Technology, Engineering, Consumer Insights, Marketing, and Compliance to ensure every touchpoint reflected both strategic intent and operational excellence.

I shaped the experience strategy for member-facing digital products, facilitated design thinking workshops, and oversaw the full arc of design execution—from early concepting to delivery and handoff. I also played a hands-on role in user testing, ensuring our solutions were grounded in real member feedback.

One of my core responsibilities was managing the Author Product Language (APL), our comprehensive design system. This included everything from accessibility and inclusion guidelines to content standards, UI toolkits, visual language, and reusable UX patterns. I worked directly with executive leadership to recruit and onboard top design talent, establish scalable workflows, and embed design operations into agile development processes—ensuring that design wasn’t just a phase, but a strategic driver of product delivery.

The Design process

Our experience discipline worked within a design thinking methodology—a typical divergence/convergence process that gave us room to ideate and helped us define and prioritize execution strategies.

Once features were defined, my team participated in the SAFe agile program lifecycle, with myself as lead experience enabler. The workflow involved engaging in grooming ceremonies, sprint planning, design execution, and QA/SIT/UAT testing. I worked very closely with our Product Managers, Product Owners, Business Owners and SMEs to coordinate design efforts and make sure we delivered true user-centric experiences. As user stories, acceptance criteria and technical requirements were defined, the experience team worked in an iterative flow. I provided oversight and guidance as we developed concepts and refined our recommended design solutions.

The experience team established high standards for accessibility and inclusion, with a “shift-left” approach to go beyond standard WCAG guidelines and CMS compliance requirements. Considerations for vision, hearing, mobility, neurodivergence, socio-economic factors, and digital technology constraints were incorporated into our strategy.

The designers presented work-in-progress in a weekly design review, as well as any needed daily reviews. Design demos often consisted of review of user flows, sketches, low-fidelity prototypes or high-fidelity visual renderings. Stakeholders in Product, Technology and Architecture participated in each review. Feedback was gathered and prioritized, and refinements created as needed. These were reviewed with Engineering to validate technical feasibility. Once a solution was approved and validated, the design team prepared final, high-fidelity design assets and delivered those for handoff. As assets were finalized and delivered, the digital Design System documentation was updated to reflect any new or modified usage and display rules. 

Once features were released, I worked with our Product, Data and Analytics teams to monitor engagement and understand areas of improvement or enhancement. 

the result

Eighteen months after launch, Author by Humana evolved into a trusted digital experience—serving both members and internal teams with clarity, confidence, and purpose. Our flagship product, authorbyhumana.com, included a public-facing site and a secure member portal, both of which were well-received for their intuitive interface design, thoughtful information architecture, and seamless navigation.

Beyond member engagement, our digital tools were valuable resources for internal associates, helping them locate key information and facilitate meaningful conversations across channels like telephony and email. The experience is not just outward-facing—it was woven into the operational fabric of our organization.

We continued to evolve the Author Product Language—a comprehensive design system developed in close partnership with engineering. Together, we maintained a shared code base, robust documentation, and governance practices that ensured consistency, scalability, and accessibility.