The Game Plan: Designing a Friendly Health Insurance Comparison Tool

Picking a health insurance plan is hard for anyone. For seniors facing Medicare Parts A, B, C and D, it feels like being handed a 300-page playbook the night before the big game. When we set out to build a site that helps seniors compare complex health plans, we knew that making the site easy to use would be a fan favorite.

Here are some things we’ve done to help:

Calling the Plays in Plain English with Tooltips

Medicare benefits are packed with jargon. Hovering or tapping on a term like "Deductible" or "Out-of-Pocket Maximum" brings up a short, plain-language definition.

CMS Resources

Also, we provide weblinks to Medicare.gov which contain more detailed descriptions of Medicare benefits. In the example above, clicking the link will take the user directly to https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/durable-medical-equipment-dme-coverage .

Big, Bold Print Fans Can Read

By default, we use a large, easy to read font. Furthermore, we provide an easy-to-use text-size control right in the header, like a jumbotron zoom. Users can make the text as large as they need without breaking the layout. We also provide generous line spacing so lines of text don't run together.

May users prefer “dark mode” where the page is dark and the text is light. Every color pairing provides a comfortable, easy-to-read contrast.

One-Click Share

Nobody wins a championship alone, and seniors rarely make insurance decisions alone either. They often huddle with adult children, spouses or trusted advisors. So we built a lightweight, easy-to-spot "Share This Comparison" button. With one click, users can create a clean, readable summary link.

Closing

Building an insurance tool for seniors taught us that accessibility isn't a checklist you run through on game day. It's the foundation that success is built on.