UX/UI Case Study
Project Overview
I designed a responsive homepage pop-up modal for Optum Health to support a time-sensitive business initiative at a high-traffic entry point. The challenge was to introduce a highly visible message without causing user confusion, compromising accessibility, or undermining user trust in a healthcare setting. The solution emphasized clarity, restraint, and accessibility, ensuring the modal integrated smoothly into the existing Optum homepage experience across both desktop and mobile devices.
The Challenge
Optum's homepage served millions of users monthly, but lacked a clear way to guide visitors to the right product or service. Recognizing this gap, the business identified the need for a strategic intervention to enhance user navigation and overall experience.
Goals & Constraints
Balancing business objectives, user needs, and enterprise healthcare constraints.
User Insights
Gaining a deeper understanding of what users needed during this pivotal moment in their journey was essential to tailoring effective solutions and ensuring their needs were met effectively.
Design Process
To meet the challenges head-on, I adopted a multi-faceted approach. I began by conducting in-depth consultations with the client to understand their unique strengths, key projects, and target audience.
Accessibility & Compliance
This design follows WCAG accessibility standards by ensuring content is perceivable with sufficient color contrast. . The modal also fully supports screen readers by using role="dialog" for correct announcement, aria-labelled by to clearly communicate purpose, aria-modal="true" to trap focus and prevent background interaction.
Key Decision Points
The modal’s key decision points centered on timing, control, and cognitive load. It appears with a gentle two‑second delay on a user’s first visit to balance guidance with non‑intrusiveness.
Visual Design Decisions
The modal was intentionally designed with a restrained footprint to minimize perceived intrusion. This solution aligns with Optum’s brand system while subtly elevating focus through neutral background overlays that preserve page context, high‑contrast typography for readability.
Final Solution
Outcome & Impact
Measuring qualitative and quantitative results post-launch.
Reflection & Next Steps
The project delivered several strengths, including efficient use of Optum’s design system to accelerate development and ensure visual consistency, thoughtful timing logic that balanced guidance with user autonomy, and an accessibility‑first approach that prevented rework and guaranteed compliance from the start. There were clear opportunities to refine future iterations, such as A/B testing modal timing, exploring personalization based on user intent and the implementation of a mobile swipe‑to‑dismiss for a smoother touch experience. These insights made the team understand why users dismiss the modal.
