Setting the stage
2022 was a year of change for Beam. To start, we changed our name to Beam Benefits to signal our growth into a one-stop shop for employee benefits. We also updated our brand guidelines, marking the new chapter with an aesthetic and tonal change. The mobile app needs a transformation to match the new Beam. My mission: make that transformation happen.
Previous state
The previous version of the app was split into 5 tabs: Brush, Awards, Shop, Insurance, and Profile.
What we knew
67% of long-term app users were not syncing a Beam Brush.
As we move into more coverages, we expect that number to increase. Brush users’ home page was the brush tab, which isn't convenient if they’re looking for insurance cards, offers, or notifications about their coverage. Insurance users’ home page was the insurance page. The experience isn't as considered as the brush page, even though it's for the majority of our user-base. Finally, there isn't a place to promote new offers to users. Example: partnership with GLO for discounts on whitening kits.
Information architecture
I reorganized tab structure by eliminating the Awards (now renamed Brushing Achievements for clarity) tab and adding a Home tab. The Home tab will provide more recent activity and deep links into other areas of the app, such as recent claims.
Low fidelity
Final MVP designs
Early research
Early UX research showed that we were going in the right direction. In February 2022, a small study was conducted to ask for participants' priorities for a home page and for a reaction to a prototype of the new design.
From the study:
Participants had a positive reaction upon seeing the Beam mobile App homepage. Even if the prototype did not match the one they had created during the designing activity, participants liked the way the prototype looked and how the features were organized. Insurance App users (those who used the app just for insurance purposes) had a greater positive reaction upon seeing the App homepage prototype. The insurance card placement was heavily favored by participants. Having notifications about claims/estimates at the top of the screen was also well liked.
Impact
The new Home tab approach increased discoverability of previously hard-to-reach features. We saw a 72% increase in monthly active users after the 4.0.0 release in August 2022. In addition, there was a 77% increase in access to the insurance card, access to plan info details increased by over 20%. This change shows the app becoming more of a tool for the users outside of brush tracking, propping Beam Benefits up to serve all of its benefits users.
