CALOPTIMA | Public Sector, Healthcare UX

Transforming a legacy healthcare platform into a mobile-first, multilingual experience

Role: UX Strategy Lead (Principal Level)

Scope: End-to-end redesign of CalOptima.org, a public sector healthcare site serving 800K+ users

Team: UX, Engineering, PMs, Legal, Cultural & Linguistics

KEY OUTCOMES: –90% web-related support calls · +240% mobile traffic in 4 wks (<10% → 33%)
Improved equity and digital access for underserved populations

The Challenge

CalOptima.org served hundreds of thousands of Members, Providers, and Community Stakeholders across Orange County, but its outdated, desktop-centric architecture made it nearly unusable for mobile-first and low-digital-literacy users. Customer Service calls increased as users struggled to access basic health plan information, especially those in underserved communities.

Internally, the redesign had to meet a complex web of requirements: accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA), regulatory compliance (Medi-Cal, Medicare, Section 508), language accessibility (7 threshold languages), and a modern content model that could support future evolution.

Disjointed content architecture

Poor mobile usability

High call center volume

Regulatory constraints and language compliance

Rapid Decision & Validation

Mobile-First Nav Test → 70 % Faster Tasks, 45 % CTA Lift

During UAT we pitted two menu layouts against each other and used the Gutenberg Principle to form our hypothesis.

Outcome: Right-side menu improved task-success for “Find Plans” and “Change Language” by 70% and lifted home-page CTA engagement 45% in a two-week test (≈10k sessions).

→ Guided product, dev, and content leads through a Gutenberg walk-through, aligning on hypothesis in one 30-min session.

→ Owned the test plan, launched in UAT, and read out results to exec steering committee; decision approved same day.

→ Codified the winning layout into our design-system tokens and QA checklist, supporting both LTR and RTL languages and the upcoming 25ᵗʰ-anniversary rebrand.

→ Ensured WCAG 2.1 AA compliance.

My Leadership Role

As Principal Product Designer, I led the UX strategy, design execution, and cross-functional collaboration to modernize the platform. I oversaw a team of 7 UX contractors and worked directly with legal, compliance, dev, comms, and vendor teams to ensure that our solution delivered both regulatory alignment and human-centered design outcomes.

Key Responsibilities:

Managed full redesign scope from roadmap to deployment

Partnered with PMs and compliance teams to translate legal mandates into usable UX

Led workshops and cross-team alignment sessions across IT, Communications, and Regulatory Affairs & Compliance

Defined information architecture, navigation, and mobile-first flows

Created reusable page templates and modular components for scalable implementation

Authored testing plans across devices, browsers, and language variants

Designing for Equity at Scale

Design Process

This wasn’t just a website redesign, it was a chance to remove barriers for people who rely on public healthcare. Our goal wasn’t to impress stakeholders with new templates; it was to ensure low-income, multilingual users could find the care they needed, regardless of device, language, or literacy level. I guided the team with that clarity of purpose, while still meeting the technical, regulatory, and political realities of a large public agency.

Key Outcomes & Leadership Impact:

Reframed the design brief around digital equity, shifting success metrics from visual polish to reduced support calls and improved self-service

Advocated for underserved users by embedding accessibility, multilingual usability testing, and WCAG 2.1 AA checkpoints throughout the process

Redesigned information architecture and navigation to prioritize mobile users and those with limited digital literacy

Partnered across legal, compliance, and dev teams to ensure regulatory clarity didn’t compromise usability or user dignity

Created reusable content and page templates that supported consistent access across 7 threshold languages and future content scaling

Before & After: A Clearer Path to Care

We reimagined what clarity and access should feel like for the users who depend on it most. Here’s how the experience changed:

Before: Fixed layout, inaccessible navigation, buried high-demand tasks

After: Mobile-optimized architecture, clear content hierarchy, and inclusive, WCAG-compliant interaction patterns

This redesign reduced user confusion, made mobile the default experience, and helped members access their health info in seconds, not minutes.

Why It Matters

Designing for access is designing for impact, especially in public health. A modern, mobile-first platform wasn’t just a UX win; it was an equity intervention for low-income and multilingual users. Mobile traffic ↑ ≈240% in the first month post-launch, rising from <10% of visits to nearly one-third (33%) once members could use the site on their phones.

It helped users find healthcare information without needing a desktop

It reduced dependency on support staff, lowering org overhead

It translated legal constraints into intuitive design decisions

It laid groundwork for long-term operational scalability