BENEFITS PORTAL
Improving employee education through better access to information
An EVP-sponsored benefits initiative began with a gamification concept. Research showed employees primarily needed clearer paths to find, understand, and use benefits information when it mattered.
⎯ ROLE
Senior UX Designer
⎯ COMPANY
The Heritage Group
⎯ AUDIENCE
7000+ employees
⎯ FOCUS
Research, IA, Self-service
⎯ CONTEXT
Leadership wanted employees to better understand and use the benefits available to them, especially during important life events and moments of need.
A gamified experience was being explored as a way to support employee education. Inspiration boards and examples had already been gathered, and I was asked to begin exploring concepts.
Before moving into design, I requested time to understand how employees currently learned about, searched for, and accessed benefits information.
Understanding How Employees Access Benefits Information
I conducted employee research to understand how people discovered, navigated, and consumed benefits information.
The goal was to learn:
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How employees searched for information
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What questions were they trying to answer
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How they navigated the existing experience
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Where they encountered friction
⎯ WHAT RESEARCH SHOWED
Employee benefits journeys were highly variable. People often arrived with a specific question, benefit, or life event in mind and wanted direct access to relevant information.
Search and findability surfaced as recurring needs. The research pointed toward an information-access problem more than a motivation problem.
OBSERVED NEED
Employees wanted to locate benefits information quickly, often around a specific situation.
DESIGN IMPLICATION
The experience needed stronger search, navigation, and content structure.
⎯ PIVOT
Evaluating the Gamification Direction
I evaluated how a game-board style experience would support the information needs employees described.
The concept introduced a structured progression model. Research showed employees needed more self-directed access because their paths depended on individual circumstances, questions, and life events.
This helped clarify where gamification did not align well with the way employees looked for benefits information.
The evaluation highlighted opportunities to improve information access through findability, navigation, content organization, and self-service resources.
Aligning on a New Direction
Findings were first reviewed with the Total Rewards team. The discussion focused on how employees accessed information, where they experienced friction, and which improvements would create the most value.
The recommendation was later presented to the EVP, who approved shifting the initiative away from gamification and toward improving findability, navigation, and self-service access.
⎯ THE REFRAME
The work moved from encouraging employees through a game-board experience toward helping employees find and understand benefits information when they needed it.
How might we help employees find & understand benefits when they need them?
⎯ WHAT CHANGED IN PRODUCT
The portal evolved around helping employees quickly locate relevant information and resources. Key improvements included:
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Search capabilities
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Improved navigation
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Structured content categories
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Self-service resource pages
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Content templates designed to support consistent information access
The resulting experience was designed to support a wide range of employee questions and needs without requiring users to follow a predefined journey.
⎯ REFLECTIONS
This project reinforced the value of understanding how people approach information before investing in solutions.
The work began with a proposed experience and evolved into a broader effort to improve information access, self-service, and usability across the portal.
The portal remained an active platform and later became the subject of a retrospective assessment focused on governance, ownership, audience needs, and long-term sustainability.