Wil Noel

Mayo Clinic - Redesigning the International Patient Services Experience

 

Redesigning the International Patient Services Experience

 

Timeline

March - December 2025 (10-months)

Role

Digital Product Designer

Tools

Figma, Aha!, Words, excel

 

Overview

Unclear service offerings and fragmented care pathways made it difficult for international patients to confidently navigate Mayo Clinic’s digital experience. This lack of clarity limited patients’ ability to act and created downstream inefficiencies for operational teams responsible for intake, routing, and support, highlighting the need for a more cohesive, patient-centered system.

Problem

Mayo Clinic’s International Patient Services digital experience was not aligned with how global patients research, evaluate, and access complex care. Low discoverability, fragmented pathways, and inconsistent content created confusion for non-native English speakers, increased drop-off across critical appointment flows, and limited the organization’s ability to scale international patient growth safely and sustainably.

Key challenges included:

  • Low discoverability: International pages received less than 5% of traffic from organic search

  • Misaligned information architecture: Navigation and content structure did not reflect patient mental models or care-seeking behaviors

  • Fragmented appointment journeys: Redundant steps and unclear terminology caused friction and abandonment

  • High drop-off at qualification steps: Travel readiness and medical records screens introduced unnecessary cognitive load

  • Accessibility & compliance risk: Inconsistent standards, particularly across UK pages and forms

  • Content fragmentation: A separate UK site with thin content weakened clarity, trust, and search authority

 

I am so confused

〰️

Where do I start

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I am so confused 〰️ Where do I start 〰️

 

Constraints

This initiative operated within several structural and organizational constraints typical of a large, regulated healthcare environment:

  • Regulatory & compliance requirements: All designs had to meet strict healthcare, accessibility, and regional compliance standards (including UK-specific requirements).

  • Platform limitations: Work was constrained by existing CMS (AEM) architecture, form frameworks, and shared global components.

  • Parallel business priorities: Redesign efforts needed to align with ongoing marketing, SEO, and operational initiatives already in flight.

  • Global audience complexity: Content had to support diverse cultural contexts, languages, and care expectations without fragmenting the experience.

  • Incremental delivery model: Improvements were shipped iteratively to minimize risk and avoid disruption to live appointment services.

Solution

Key design changes I implemented included:

  • A new Accepted Insurance tile that replaced the vague “Insurance & Self-Pay” option—using iconography and clearer copy

  • Reorganized layout on the /billing-insurance page to surface the most critical action paths

  • Redesigned next-step prompts on both /accepted-insurance and /contracted-health-plans pages to guide users seamlessly into appointment-related content

  • Added visual consistency and spacing that supported scannability and readability on mobile

Research & Insights

The UX Researcher and Optimization Strategist identified key friction points through a mix of analytics, usability testing, and A/B experiments. Once I joined, I worked closely with them to ensure design decisions aligned with user behavior and test goals.

Research Overview:

  • Participants: 8 users participated in unmoderated remote usability testing across desktop and mobile devices.

  • Method: Unmoderated scenario-based tasks were used to assess clarity, navigation, and confidence in finding insurance information.

  • Duration: Each test session lasted approximately 10–12 minutes.

  • Supplemental Data: Web analytics and click-path data were analyzed to identify drop-off points and engagement trends.