Redesigning pharmacy onboarding: from a 16-step form to immediate prescription savings.

Overview

When Elixir launched its member portal, two thirds of users abandoned onboarding. Research showed a clear disconnect: most members only registered during urgent, stressful moments, such as a denied claim, but were blocked by a 16-step administrative questionnaire.

My Role

As UX Lead, I ran the redesign across research, product design, content, and engineering alignment. We rebuilt onboarding from an administrative chore into a simple flow focused on saving members money on their prescriptions.

01. Discovery

Interviews with 12 members revealed a distinct pattern: people rarely set up an account in advance. They registered only when facing an urgent issue, such as a denied claim or an unexpected prescription cost. Forcing users through 16 administrative screens during a stressful moment created immediate frustration. Most abandoned the portal and called customer support instead.

Key usability findings

A 16-step hurdle

Demanding extensive personal and account details upfront caused 66% of members to abandon setup and call the support desk.

Complex insurance terminology

Phrases like “Tier 1 cost-sharing provider” confused members who simply wanted to know what they had to pay.

Overlooked savings

More than 20% of members were overpaying for routine medication, with no clear way to discover generic alternatives or lower-cost local pharmacies.

Premature home delivery prompts

Inviting members to sign up for home delivery before showing them the benefits caused them to bypass the service completely.

02. Alignment & Prioritization

Elixir was overhauling its backend systems as part of a multi-year programme. The design work could not happen in isolation: we needed an adaptable plan that delivered an immediate release while defining a clearer long-term vision.

Stakeholder aligment

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Journey mapping

We mapped user emotions across four phases: Attract, Enter, Onboard, and Extend. The steepest drop in user confidence occurred right after account creation, during initial setup.

Cross-Functional Technical Exploration

We held weekly sessions with lead engineers and product managers to test concepts against backend constraints. This kept the scope realistic and prevented rework as legacy systems were phased out.

Building the business case

To secure engineering time and budget, we tied onboarding improvements to support costs. Each support call cost roughly $40; reducing onboarding drop-offs by half represented significant annual savings in call-centre expenditure.

03. Design & Evaluation

We redesigned the setup flow around four straightforward principles.

Automated savings suggestions

The system checks prescriptions and identifies cheaper generic alternatives during setup, removing the need for manual searches.

Local pricing comparison

In place of static pharmacy directories, the interface displays live out-of-pocket costs and clear in-network indicators for nearby chemists.

Plain-English terminology

We replaced insurance jargon with everyday language:

Before: “Select your preferred Tier 1 cost-sharing provider.”

After: “Which of these money-saving locations suits you best?”

Pharmacist consultations

For members on multiple or complex medications, the flow offers an optional appointment for a free review with a clinical pharmacist.

Rapid Iterative Testing (RITE)

We ran 20 rapid evaluation sessions across 48-hour sprints, testing copy and interactions with users and refining screens after each round.

v2. Copy-edits only

• 1Reduced intro copy 60%
• 2Simplify step descriptions
• 3"Network pharmacy" still confuses members
• 4Purpose of card unclear
• 5Home delivery sounds compulsory rather than optional

v2.4 Benefits & gfx

• 6Focus on savings first
• 7Brand graphics to boost credibility
• 8Balanced description of pharmacy networks linked to savings
• 9Clarified link between home delivery and savings; clearly marked as optional

v4.7 Savings-led

• 10Personalised savings module active
• 11Text is duplicative of title
• 12Members hesitant to change prescription without consulting their GP or doctor
• 13Straightforward brand-to-generic switch
• 14Reinforces value of HD
• 15Not obvious that next step is further onboarding

04. Quality & Accessibility

In parallel with the onboarding redesign, we overhauled core design system components to ensure enterprise scalability and strict accessibility.

WCAG 2.1 AA Compliance

Fixed over 200 contrast, focus indicator, and structural hierarchy issues, bringing the portal into full compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA across NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver.

Inclusive Microcopy

We stripped out dense insurance phrasing in favour of direct, everyday English. This resolved comprehension issues, particularly for older members and non-native English speakers.