UCLA Health Care Access
The Problem
Unclear options to determine the right type of care and how to access it.
Pathways were fragmented and not always easy to navigate. Users had to work through competing links and unclear options to determine the right type of care and how to access it.
The challenge was to simplify these pathways and help patients quickly understand their options, find nearby care, and take the appropriate next step.
Opportunity
Quickly identify the right type of care.
Create a clearer, more connected care experience that helps patients quickly identify the right type of care, find nearby locations, and take action, while bringing UCLA Health’s digital care pathways into a more consistent and intuitive experience.
My Role
Combine research and design thinking into a strategy to help with online scheduling
I used analytics, competitive research, and user behavior to identify friction across UCLA Health’s care pathways. I collaborated with stakeholders to translate those insights into clearer navigation, prioritized actions, and responsive experiences across desktop and mobile.
Analytics Optimization
Improving Immediate Care Access
Analytics and heatmap data revealed that Immediate Care was a high-priority user need. Visitors frequently selected location-related links and scrolled through pages looking for the nearest care options.
The existing experience included redundant scheduling links and competing pathways, making it harder for users to know where to go next. Their was opportunity to simplify the experience and bring location-based care access closer to the user's immediate needs.
Exposing drop-off and friction
The data revealed strong interest in finding and scheduling care, but also exposed drop-off and friction between discovery and action, helping identify where clearer pathways and stronger calls to action could improve the experience.
Team Alignment
Research findings helped the team align on a focused set of improvements to make accessing care faster and more intuitive.
Prioritized Key Actions: Elevated high-value actions like Book by Phone and Virtual Care instead of giving every option equal weight.
Clarified Patient Pathways: Distinguished actions for new vs. existing patients, helping users quickly find the right next step.
Embedded Location Access: Brought the interactive map directly into the experience, reducing steps to find nearby care.
Reduced Decision Friction: Defaulted results to Immediate Care to give users a useful starting point.
Personalized by Location: Used ZIP code access to surface nearby care options with minimal input.
Competitive Analysis: Positioning UCLA in the Healthcare Landscape
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I compared UCLA Health with Cedars-Sinai, Johns Hopkins, Penn Medicine, and Massachusetts General to understand how leading healthcare systems guide users to care
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The analysis revealed key patterns in navigation, care pathways, and CTA hierarchy, helping identify opportunities for UCLA to differentiate its experience while making access to care clearer and more intuitive.
Heuristic Analysis:
Key Takeaways: prioritize location discovery, wait-time visibility, and clearer care options
The analysis revealed opportunities to make Immediate Care faster and more task-focused, prioritizing location discovery, wait-time visibility, and clearer care options to reduce effort for patients seeking care.
Designing Within an Established System
“Establish and maintain consistency across the entire website.”
UCLA Health maintained a rigorous design system built around Drupal components, standardized patterns, and brand guidelines. I designed wireframes and page architectures within these constraints, balancing new UX improvements with consistency across the broader UCLA Health ecosystem.
Scheduling Appointments Through Care Access Pages
I designed the Primary Care landing page to guide patients toward the right scheduling option based on their needs and familiarity with UCLA Health. Rather than relying on a single pathway, the experience supported multiple ways to access care:
MyChart scheduling for returning patients
Direct phone support for patients who need assistance
Online scheduling through provider profiles and available appointment times
This approach created clearer pathways for both new and existing patients, allowing users to choose the scheduling method that worked best for them.
With a few design iterations, I discovered the previous Care Access page was managed by a third party, creating an experience that felt disconnected from the broader UCLA Health brand and lacked responsive support.
Bringing Care Access Into the UCLA Health Experience
Bring a third-party approach to a more in-house look and feel
Cohesive Design
Visual direction, information architecture, and mobile-first experience.
With analytics showing the importance of mobile access, I iterated closely with Marketing on the visual direction, information architecture, and mobile-first experience to create a more cohesive path to care.
Mapping the Experience
Capturing Pathways to Find Care
The journey mapped how patients move across Primary, Immediate, and Virtual Care, revealing opportunities to discover the care they patients are searching for.
Improving the Primary Care Experience
A clearer path for both new and returning patients.
The Primary Care experience needed to support patients with different levels of familiarity and different ways of accessing care. I reorganized the page tasks such as understanding primary care, finding a provider, locating nearby care, and scheduling an appointment, this creating clearer path for both new and returning patients.
Path to Appointment Scheduling
For Primary Care, I mapped the end-to-end scheduling flow to understand how patients move from finding a provider through eligibility, appointment selection, review, and confirmation, highlighting key decision points and potential barriers along the way.
Find Immediate Care Near You
The Immediate Care page was designed to help patients with urgent, non-emergency needs quickly find the right location and take action. The experience prioritizes location-based access, using an embedded map, nearby care options, and clear scheduling pathways to reduce the effort required to find and access care.
The mobile view needed to have the map and cards in view with minimal scrolling I wanted the map to display a time slot, but for technical reasons we couldn’t do that. The next best thing … a to link to the locations landing page with locations pre-filtered for immediate care locations. From there, users can book appointments.
From location branding to an interactive map
Landing Page Iterations
I iterated on the Immediate Care experience to reduce informational clutter, prioritize actionable CTAs, and bring location details closer to the point of decision.
And most of all, a Map that displayed better location details compared to the static branding map that was previously displayed.
From Care Discovery to Action
Prioritizing Call to Action
From Care Discovery to Action
I simplified the experience around the decisions that matter most, where to go, current wait times, location, and care options. This a clearer path from discovery to finding the right Immediate
Bring availability to the surface
Care Location Selection
I iterated on the Immediate Care experience to reduce informational clutter, prioritize actionable CTAs, and bring location details closer to the point of decision.
And most of all, a Map that displayed better location details compared to the static branding map that was previously displayed.
I originally wanted to embed turn-by-turn directions and live wait times directly into the map, allowing patients to compare nearby care options and act without leaving the experience. However, technical constraints and the planned release schedule made that approach impractical for this phase.
Personalize Search and Filtering
Nearest Hospital / Immediate Care Streamline
The next-best solution was to link users directly to the Locations experience with Immediate Care already preselected. This removed an extra decision step and immediately surfaced the nearest relevant locations, helping patients move from “I need care” to “where should I go?” more quickly.
Expanding Access Through Virtual Care
Virtual care options were previously scattered across the UCLA Health site, making them difficult to discover. I created a dedicated Virtual Care experience that brought these services into one clear destination and made their benefits easier to understand.
Optimized Iterations
Understanding Virtual Care
The Virtual Care page lacked a clear discovery path. Too many competing links and dense information made it difficult for patients to quickly understand what virtual care offered or where to begin.
I explored several design approaches that brought the most important information forward, including how virtual visits work, accessing MyChart, available types of virtual care, e-consults, remote monitoring, and conditions that can be treated virtually.
Establishing Hierarchy
Structuring Virtual Care Around Patient Decisions
The goal was to turn the page from a collection of links into a guided introduction to virtual care, helping patients understand their options before asking them to take action.
For a shorter header, I also like Making Virtual Care Easier to Discover or From Competing Links to Guided Discovery.
The wireflow mapped how those choices extended into MyChart, from eligibility and visit reason to scheduling, pre-check-in, and joining the visit this helps create a more continuous experience across systems.
Analytics showed that the virtual care explainer video attracted significant traffic, but the previous experience sent users away from the page to watch it. I embedded the video directly into the redesigned experience so patients could learn about virtual care without interrupting their decision-making journey.
Focus on the Funnel
Keeping Virtual Care Decisions in One Place
Making Virtual Care Easier to Navigate
The page brings key options forward, including video visits, second opinions, remote monitoring, and eConsults, while the explainer video and MyChart guidance help patients understand what to expect. Clear scheduling pathways connect directly to MyChart, making it easier to move from learning about virtual care to accessing it from home.
Conclusion
Through a series of targeted redesigns, from Primary and Immediate Care to Video Visit access, I helped streamline UCLA Health’s digital experience with a strong emphasis on clarity, accessibility, and user empowerment. Each design decision was grounded in research, competitive analysis, and collaboration with stakeholders to ensure alignment with both user needs and organizational goals. By bringing consistency to care pathways and surfacing overlooked options like virtual visits, the redesign supports UCLA Health’s broader mission to deliver high-quality, patient-centered care—whether online or in person
Team 2: Designers, Marketing, Webeditor
Tools: FIgma, Drupal, Siteimprove2
Method: Agile
