Patient Portal Redesign
Patients were abandoning onboarding at a 34% rate because the flow asked for insurance details before showing any value.
The Problem
Meridian Health's patient portal had a critical onboarding bottleneck. After creating an account, patients were immediately asked to enter insurance information, upload documents, and verify their identity — all before they could see their appointment history or message their doctor.
- • 34% of new users abandoned the onboarding flow before completion
- • Average time to complete onboarding was 12 minutes
- • Support team received 200+ calls weekly from patients stuck in the flow
- • Patient satisfaction scores for the portal were 2.3/5
The Process
I started by shadowing 8 patients as they attempted to onboard, then mapped the emotional journey and identified the exact moment where frustration peaked. The insight: patients needed to see value before investing effort.
Contextual inquiry & journey mapping
Observed 8 patients attempting onboarding. Mapped emotional journey and identified the "value gap" — the 4-minute stretch where users invested effort but saw no benefit.
Reframing the flow
Workshopped with engineering and product to restructure the flow: let patients explore their dashboard first, then prompt for insurance info only when they tried to book an appointment.
Progressive disclosure
Designed a 3-screen onboarding that asked only for name and email upfront, then progressively requested more information as patients engaged with features that required it.
Usability testing & iteration
Ran 2 rounds of moderated testing with 12 participants. Cut the flow from 12 minutes to 4 minutes. Iterated on error states and help text based on confusion points.
The Solution
We restructured onboarding as a progressive journey rather than a gate. Patients could explore their dashboard, see upcoming appointments, and message their care team before providing insurance details.
- ✓ Onboarding drop-off decreased from 34% to 11%
- ✓ Average onboarding time reduced from 12 minutes to 4 minutes
- ✓ Support tickets related to onboarding dropped by 41%
- ✓ Patient satisfaction score increased from 2.3/5 to 4.1/5
- ✓ The progressive disclosure pattern was adopted across 3 other Meridian products