CASE STUDY
WebMD ONE Homepage Redesign
Evolving a Flagship Surface Across Three Iterations as Our Research Practice Matured
The homepage is the surface that sets the tone for whether a site or platform feels useful or not. Clients told us that ours was overwhelming. Members couldn't find what they needed and didn't know where to start.
This case study walks through three versions of that homepage, redesigned as our understanding (and our research practice) grew. The first redesign was built on the information we had. The second was built on the information we finally went out and got. What we learned is the story.
The Challenge
Early on, we didn't have a formal research process. What we knew came secondhand, through client account teams and sales feedback, and it pointed at three consistent problems:
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Overwhelming experience: The page presented dozens of cards, programs, and links with little hierarchy. Everything competed for attention, so nothing stood out.
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Hard to navigate: Members couldn't reliably find the thing they came for. Related content was scattered, and the structure didn't match how people actually thought about their health.
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No starting point: Even members who wanted to engage didn't know what to do first. The page showed everything at once and recommended nothing.
The critical constraint: at this stage the feedback was real but indirect. We were hearing that users struggled, not watching how they struggled. That gap informed the first redesign and eventually forced the second.
← And, yes, this page keeps scrolling for a while.
V1: Organizing What We Had
What we knew:
Members felt overwhelmed and couldn't orient themselves, but our only signal was secondhand.
What I changed:
I focused on the two problems I could address with the information available: structure and status.
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I grouped and reordered content into clearer sections so the page had a hierarchy instead of a wall of cards
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I introduced V1 version of a dashboard-style stats up top so members could see their status at a glance.
Note that some sections had to be developed in phases to deliver incremental improvements. For example, the "Things I'm working on" section would be phased out once all its pieces could be pulled into the dashboard. The Dashboard itself was a v1 as we evolved each product to provide more compact, concise, and dynamic information.
What we heard back:
It was better. Clients noticed the improvement, the page felt calmer, and user engagement went up. But the core complaint didn't go away: members still didn't know what to do.
The turning point:
A status readout tells you where you are, it doesn't tell you where to go next. We'd made the page more organized without making it more directive. Reducing clutter and surfacing status treated the symptoms of "overwhelming," but "where do I start" is a different problem, and you can't solve it by rearranging what's already there. Solving it meant understanding what members were actually trying to accomplish — which meant we needed real research.
And, yes, this page is still too long →
The Shift: Building the Research Practice
We knew we needed a true UX research program and the v1 result made the case that better organization wasn't enough. So before touching the design again, I helped establish the research practice we'd been missing: real user testing, defined personas, and close collaboration across the UX team rather than design working from relayed feedback. That work became its own story.
V2: Designing Where to Start
Once we were watching real members use the page, the problem sharpened. They didn't need more content or cleaner status. They needed the page to guide them — to answer "what should I focus on, and what's my next step?" That reframing drove the second redesign.
Our Goal:
Turn the homepage from a place that shows members everything into one that tells them where to begin and moves them forward.
Grounded in the new research and personas, v2 reorganized the entire experience around a member's journey rather than a catalog of programs. The annotated screen below marks the major changes; the sections after it go deeper on the pieces that do the most work.
The Well-Being Journey: Answering "where do I start"
Instead of asking members to self-organize, the dashboard now frames their experience as a guided journey through clear stages (KNOW, FOCUS, ACT) with key activities that unlock the next step and a variety of "power-ups" the user can mix-and-match to maximize motivation & engagement in their well-being goals. It gives every member a single, obvious next action and a sense of forward motion, which is exactly what the earlier versions couldn't do.
The design here draws directly on behavior-change and gamification principles, both of which became their own deeper case studies.
The Navigation:
Answering "I can't find things"
The old information architecture buried related content and didn't match how members thought about their health. The team and I restructured the navigation around member intent, consolidating scattered destinations into a clearer, more predictable model.
Desktop
App
The Dashboard:
Answering "it's overwhelming"
The dashboard organizes today's actions, habits, trackers, and interests into distinct, scannable modules — so the page carries real depth of functionality without returning to the wall-of-cards feeling that started it all.
Additionally, we gave the user the power to edit their dashboard because no matter how well you think you are offering up a valuable experience to the user, there will always be an exception. A little user autonomy goes a long ways.
Supporting refinements
Several surfaces were refined as the design matured, each adding essential utility without competing with the main journey for attention.
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Spark Assistant - located in the main header. Small, easy to find. There when you need it.
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Profile, Device Connection Status & Calendar - Also in the header, small, and easy to find.
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Spotlight Slider - Highlights information on key activities and communications from clients. Also is removed when in empty state.
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Promotional Banner - At the very top of the site. Important for critical communications. The green makes it easy to see.
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Rewards Banner - a main driver of engagement and top searched product, Rewards is compact but available on every page, expands for more information, and links to the product for full details.
The Outcome:
This work is moving into production starting Spring 2026 and will be developed incrementally. What's already clear is the shift in approach: a homepage that answers the question the first two versions couldn't — where do I start? — grounded in real research instead of relayed feedback.
INTENDED IMPACT
A clear, single starting point for every member
Content organized around member intent, not program inventory
A guided journey that creates momentum, not decision fatigue
A platform that matches how members actually think about their health
Key Takeaways
A right direction isn't always a solution
The first redesign improved the page but still failed the core need. Better organization was necessary but not sufficient, only real research revealed the reason why.
Status is not guidance.
Showing members where they stand felt like progress, but people didn't need a readout — they needed a next step. Designing for action, not information, was the key.
Solid research changes the question
Watching users reframed the problem from "reduce clutter" to "show me where to start." The result of UX research wasn't a better solution, it was a better question.
Role & Contributions
My Role
UX DESIGN LEAD
Research direction
Information Architecture
Concept design
Gamification strategy
Prototyping
Partners
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UX Team
Product Management
Research Team
Engineering
Client/Sales Teams