Designing explainable health scoring systems in regulated financial decisions
HealthTech · FinTech
Data Visualization
Role
Lead UX Designer
Team
UX Design
Engineering
Timeline
6 months
Focus
Trust & Clarity
Overview
A system redesign, not a UI refresh
I led the end-to-end redesign of HealthGrade, a regulated health scoring system used in insurance decisions.
Users could see their score, but could not understand or verify how it was calculated — creating a critical trust gap.
I redesigned the system to make scoring transparent and explainable, improving comprehension, verification, and completion rates.
Impact
3 years in this company
Increased User base
by 10,000 X
6 months in this project:
↑
%
Monthly Active Users (MAU)
↓
x
HealthGrade-related support inquiries
↓
%
Dropout rate during HealthGrade calculation
Problem
Users could not verify or explain their HealthGrade scores — a critical risk for a system used in insurance and financial decision-making.
Opportunity
Redesign HealthGrade into a transparent and explainable system that helps users understand how their health data affects financial outcomes.
Solution
01
Make HealthGrades understandable at a glance
Redesigned the grade interface so users could understand their score instantly.
02
Make scoring logic transparent and verifiable
Made score calculations transparent so users could see what affected their grade and why.
03
Reduce uncertainty during grade calculation
Redesigned the calculation flow to reduce uncertainty and prevent drop-off.
Journey to find an answer
Design Process
Collaboration across teams
with Designers
with Designers
Co-designed flows, refined components, and enforced cross-screen consistency.
with Developers
with Developers
Synced weekly to validate scoring logic, data flow, and feasibility trade-offs.
with Legal & Security
with Legal & Security
Reviewed UX writing and visuals for privacy, compliance, and insurance regulations.
with Insurers
with Insurers
Collected feedback and resolved usability and regulation issues to align product goals.
HMW question
How might we help users understand and trust their HealthGrade without compromising its credibility as a financial signal?
Research & Problem
Through UI diagnostic testing with 30 participants..
Through UI diagnostic testing with 30 participants..
I found that users dropped off due to complex terms, unclear scores, and slow processing.
1. Complex terms
'Medical terms are too complex. I can't understand my health status.'
2. Unclear scores
'I don't understand how this score was calculated. Can I really trust it?'
3. Slow processing
'Why does grade calculation take so long? I left the app while waiting.'
Design Priorities
These findings led me to focus on three design priorities:
Make health scores understandable at a glance
Make scoring logic transparent and verifiable
Reduce anxiety during the calculation process
Given engineering constraints, we phased the redesign and prioritized the features that most directly improved comprehension and completion rates.
UX Strategy
1. Making Health Grades Clear
Hypothesis
Strategy
Medical jargon and unclear scoring methods → Eroded trust in HealthGrades
Simplify medical terms and visualize score calculations → Enhance transparency and user understanding
2. Transparent HealthGrade System
Hypothesis
Strategy
Users couldn’t understand how their HealthGrade was calculated, leading to mistrust and disengagement.
Build a clear, visual breakdown of HealthGrade calculations to enhance transparency and trust.
3. Pleasant HealthGrade Calculation
Hypothesis
Strategy
The progress bar and lack of engaging feedback during grade calculation caused user drop off.
Introduce animations and interactive content to create a pleasant and engaging calculation experience.
Design Accessibility
Accessibility as a system constraint
Accessibility was treated as a core system constraint — not a post-design checklist — given the financial and medical implications of misinterpretation
Takeaway
Designing for regulated products means balancing clarity, risk, and timing.
During this project, we had to carefully decide what information could be shown, how it should be explained, and when it was safe to release it.
This required balancing user trust, legal constraints, and development timelines — and taught me to design systems that can evolve through phased releases rather than trying to solve everything at once.
Next Project
Role
Lead UX Designer
Team
UX Design
Engineering
Focus
Trust & Clarity
Timeline
6 Months
Overview
A system redesign, not a UI refresh
A system redesign, not a UI refresh
I led the end-to-end redesign of HealthGrade, a regulated health scoring system used in insurance decisions.
Users could see their score, but could not understand or verify how it was calculated — creating a critical trust gap.
I redesigned the system to make scoring transparent and explainable, improving comprehension, verification, and completion rates.
Problem
Users could not verify or explain their HealthGrade scores — a critical risk for a system used in insurance and financial decision-making.
Opportunity
Redesign HealthGrade into a transparent and explainable system that helps users understand how their health data affects financial outcomes.
Solution
Impact
3 years in this company
Increased User base
by 10,000 X
6 months in this project:
↑
%
Monthly Active Users (MAU)
↓
x
HealthGrade-related support inquiries
↓
%
Dropout rate during HealthGrade calculation
01
Make HealthGrades understandable at a glance
Redesigned the grade interface so users could understand their score instantly.
02
Make scoring logic transparent and verifiable
Made score calculations transparent so users could see what affected their grade and why.
03
Reduce uncertainty during grade calculation
Redesigned the calculation flow to reduce uncertainty and prevent drop-off.
Journey to find an answer
Research & Problem
Through UI diagnostic testing with 30 participants..
I found that users dropped off due to complex terms, unclear scores, and slow processing.
1. Complex terms
'Medical terms are too complex. I can't understand my health status.'
2. Unclear scores
'I don't understand how this score was calculated. Can I really trust it?'
3. Slow processing
'Why does grade calculation take so long? I left the app while waiting.'
UX Strategy
1. Making Health Grades Clear
Hypothesis
Strategy
Medical jargon and unclear scoring methods → Eroded trust in HealthGrades
Simplify medical terms and visualize score calculations → Enhance transparency and user understanding
2. Transparent HealthGrade System
Hypothesis
Strategy
Users couldn’t understand how their HealthGrade was calculated, leading to mistrust and disengagement.
Build a clear, visual breakdown of HealthGrade calculations to enhance transparency and trust.
3. Pleasant HealthGrade Calculation
Hypothesis
Strategy
The progress bar and lack of engaging feedback during grade calculation caused user drop off.
Introduce animations and interactive content to create a pleasant and engaging calculation experience.
Next Project
Design Process
A system redesign, not a UI refresh
Collaboration across teams
with Designers
Co-designed flows, refined components, and balanced visual consistency across screens.
with Developers
Synced weekly to verify logic, data flow, and prototype feasibility.
with Legal & Security
Checked UX writing and visuals for compliance with privacy and insurance regulations.
with Insurers
Collected feedback and resolved usability and regulation issues to align product goals.
HMW question
How might we help users understand and trust their HealthGrade without compromising its credibility as a financial signal?
Design Accessibility
Accessibility as a system constraint
Accessibility was treated as a core system constraint — not a post-design checklist — given the financial and medical implications of misinterpretation
Design Priorities
These findings led me to focus on three design priorities:
Given engineering constraints, we phased the redesign and prioritized the features that most directly improved comprehension and completion rates.
Make health scores understandable at a glance
Make calculation logic transparent and verifiable
Reduce anxiety during the calculation process
Takeaway
Designing for regulated products means balancing clarity, risk, and timing.
During this project, we had to carefully decide what information could be shown, how it should be explained, and when it was safe to release it.
This required balancing user trust, legal constraints, and development timelines — and taught me to design systems that can evolve through phased releases rather than trying to solve everything at once.
