Broker Portal Redesign & Design System Expansion

Project Type

UX Research, Information Architecture, Product Design, Design System Modernization​

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Role

UX Research & Architecture Lead, Senior Product Designer​

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Background

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) offers a wide range of digital tools for its members, brokers, and internal teams. While platforms designed for members had undergone major redesign efforts, the tools intended for brokers lagged behind in terms of usability, visual cohesion, and system consistency. Legacy tools like Sketch and InVision were still in use, with outdated components and siloed experiences.

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At the same time, growing expectations from broker partners revealed the need to modernize both the tools themselves and the design infrastructure supporting them. This project focused on redesigning the broker portal, migrating to Figma, and establishing a scalable design system that could support current needs and future growth — all while laying the foundation for a unified ecosystem across BCBST’s digital properties.

Problem

The broker portal lacked modern UX standards, presented inconsistent navigation patterns, and made critical tasks — such as accessing ID cards or Rx information — unnecessarily difficult. Legacy technical systems introduced frequent performance issues, fragmented content, and visual dissonance across tools. The organization lacked a scalable content governance model, and the design system in place was too member-focused to serve brokers effectively.

The organization needed a platform that was more intuitive and cohesive, maintained easily, respected privacy concerns, simplified user journeys, and accounted for the real-world technical limitations and workflows of its broker audience.

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Approach

As a contracted UX research and architecture lead, I was embedded within the core digital team and worked alongside internal UX designers, developers, product owners, and business stakeholders. I owned the research strategy, architectural restructuring, design system expansion, and Figma-based prototyping efforts, all of which were crucial for aligning the project with its modernization goals.

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We met regularly to review evolving requirements and iterated through rounds of design, feedback, and prioritization — balancing new feature requests with system limitations, compliance constraints, and business needs.

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Research & Content Strategy

To ground the work in user needs, I led qualitative interviews with brokers across Tennessee, analyzing transcriptions for patterns in workflows, pain points, and design preferences. These insights revealed friction around document discoverability, access to key health plan features, and inconsistent user flows.

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To validate and scale our findings, I designed and administered a quantitative Qualtrics survey to a large enough segment of the broker base to ensure statistical significance. The responses helped us quantify user frustrations and prioritize features by frequency and impact.

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In parallel, I led a full content audit of the broker portal’s hundreds of documents and digital assets. Working closely with internal teams, I developed an organizational structure that could scale over time and proposed a DAM (Digital Asset Management) integration to ensure long-term governance and usability.

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Design System Transition

A major effort involved transitioning BCBST’s legacy design system from Sketch and InVision into a modern, scalable Figma-based framework. I led this migration and significantly extended the system to support broker-specific components and flows. This included:

• Auditing and cleaning legacy patterns

• Creating naming conventions and usage documentation

• Designing new patterns for complex, data-heavy UIs

• Building broker-specific components like quote summaries and status indicators

• Collaborating with dev to ensure flexibility and handoff readiness

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The new system not only supported this initiative but influenced sister brand platforms and other digital teams across the organization.

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Wireframing & Prototyping

I created detailed, high-fidelity wireframes covering key workflows: plan comparison, quoting, application tracking, account management, notifications, and communications. These designs addressed complex edge cases, error states, and layered user interactions.

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We fully prototyped our wireframes in Figma, allowing stakeholders and developers to walk through experiences, test feasibility, and align across teams before development began. These prototypes also served as hands-on Figma onboarding for internal designers, giving them real-world context while migrating work from legacy platforms.

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Collaboration & Iteration

An agile, iterative process guided the work, with recurring meetings that included product owners, compliance leads, and engineering partners. We continuously adapted to shifting requirements and evolving stakeholder priorities — regularly revisiting features that were loosely defined and making strategic compromises to fit within development constraints and legacy system limitations.

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The cross-functional feedback loops were instrumental in resolving architectural conflicts early, validating design decisions, and maintaining project momentum, even in the face of technical debt and organizational silos.

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Challenges​

• Designing around fragmented legacy architecture and significant technical debt

• Introducing new tools and design practices to teams unfamiliar with Figma

• Working within organizational silos and compliance-heavy environments

• Reducing scope and redefining priorities without compromising UX integrity

• Balancing future-state design with the reality of platform limitations and developer resourcing

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Results​

• Delivered a modernized, broker-focused design system in Figma with scalable documentation and component libraries

• Helped shift internal teams to Figma and modern design workflows

• Laid the groundwork for long-term content governance through a proposed DAM structure

• Influenced other digital teams and sister brand initiatives, aligning future platform redesigns to the new design system and process model

• Portal and system updates are still pending launch, but the internal team is now equipped to evolve the work independently and sustainably

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Impact

This work bridged a critical UX gap between member and broker experiences at BCBST. It modernized foundational systems, shifted internal capabilities, and positioned the organization to scale digital innovation across teams, platforms, and audiences — with research-led clarity, design system discipline, and a structure ready for long-term growth.