Oscar Health is known for streamlined digital technology and elegant design to simplify the purchase and use of insurance and, even more broadly, “to fix health care.” The company has now completely restructured the UX of its mobile apps based on several years of gathering experience about the needs of patients. The designers from Oscar who worked on the project are Adam Karnas, Regy Perlera, and Gabe Schindler, teaming with outside agency Output. 
A recent newspost on the Oscar site explains: “Since we launched in 2013, we’ve learned that to build the best experience, you also have to build the smartest one. Developing a product that addresses our diverse member base and uses the latest technology standards requires constant iteration and evolution. This week, we rolled out a substantial app redesign for our iOS and Android mobile app. The updated app makes it easier to access messaging, plan information, and other key features.”
Among the many issues the creative team focused on:
Minimizing Time Spent In App: The faster someone gets the care they need, the more they’ll trust Oscar the next time they need help. The goal is teach users the faster ways to get care.
Incentivizing Preventive Health: The app uses design to incentivize positive behavior. For example, a“Get an annual physical” prompt was added to one of the main screens since it’s a piece of preventive care that so many people forget to take advantage of.
No Time to Explore: The restructure guides users very tightly throughout the app, eschewing the paradigm of promoting exploration that is common on social, consumer, and e-commerce apps. The theory is that health care is too confusing and has too many disparate data points for exploration to be useful.
