A health insurance marketplace built for people, not brokers
In 2013, the Affordable Care Act upended the US health insurance market. Millions of Americans had to shop for plans on their own for the first time, and the experience waiting for them was confusing, complex, and built for insurance brokers, not people.
The opportunity was to build a solid UX that felt like a consumer fintech product rather than a government portal. Evaluating the existing UX and architecture to create the most easy to use marketplace application.
I spearheaded the design of Healthnook, leading all aspects from brand identity to the full marketplace application. The brand was built around the idea of modern health, family values, and genuine trustworthiness: approachable without being frivolous, clear without being cold.
The marketplace app was the real UX challenge. Turning health insurance; a product category notorious for complexity; into something a non-expert could compare, evaluate, and understand.
Healthnook generated $6M in revenue during its operating year and demonstrated that consumer-friendly design could meaningfully differentiate in a category that had historically ignored the end user. The platform worked! Clear, functional, and trusted by the people navigating one of the most important financial decisions of their year.
After a year of operation, we made the decision to shift focus when a compelling opportunity opened up with eTags.com. The Healthnook platform remained a proof of concept for what thoughtful product design can do in a high-friction, high-stakes market.
In 2013 we already had a seasoned team of marketeers, legal, developers and myself to create a much more useful tool for people to navigate the complex Affordable health care act, that had just launched. Healthnook was a seriously good build. However, dealing with insurances and a market that is very resource heavy, when another opportunity became available to create etags.com. Healthnook was put to rest.
