SHI integration on ZAVA app
Allowing Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) patients from Germany to use ZAVA App free of charge
TLDR
I led the UX/UI integration of SHI consultations into ZAVA’s app, enabling 89% of the German population to access free video consultations. By streamlining workflows, improving information architecture, and aligning with engineering, we delivered the feature with zero critical issues and improved patient satisfaction. Post-launch insights highlighted the need to balance user demand with doctor availability, shaping future iterations.
Role
UX Designer
Timeline
Jan - March 2022
Skills
Research, process mapping, prototyping, user testing, ways of working
The problem
ZAVA, an online healthcare provider, allowed privately insured (PHI) patients in Germany to book video consultations via its app. However, 89% of the population is covered by Statutory Health Insurance (SHI), meaning most patients couldn’t use the service. While a separate microsite supported SHI consultations, ZAVA wanted to integrate SHI into the app — allowing these patients to book free video consultations, receive prescriptions, and obtain sick notes.
Once the legal and technical groundwork was in place, I joined the team to lead the UX/UI implementation of SHI consultations within the app.
The Goal
Enable both SHI and PHI consultations in the app while clearly differentiating them.
Allow users to seamlessly register and add their insurance details.
Improve the overall app experience, reducing friction in booking and prescription flows.
The discovery
Understanding the German healthcare system
Since the healthcare system in German is significantly different from the one in the UK, I started by:
Researching insurance models (SHI, PHI and self-payer) and relevant legal considerations.
Consulting internal German doctors, CS teams, and stakeholders to gather insights.
Mapping out capabilities and limitations for each insurance type.
Assessing technical constraints
Partnered with iOS and Android developers to understand system's limitations.
Identifying user pain points and needs
Side-by-side with Customer support team to understand most common complaints and analysed negative app reviews.
Set up asynchronous interviews with SHI patients via UserTesting.com to get qualitative insights about their expectations and needs.
Mapping existing user journeys
Compared app and microsite experiences to ensure a consistent experience for returning users, while also identifying areas for usability improvements.
Improving Product-Engineering collaboration
Retro insights
During a team retro, I uncovered major UX documentation gaps that caused confusion for engineers on previous projects.
Key issues included:
Scattered files: Discovery and final screens were in the same Figma page, making it unclear what was approved for development and what wasn't.
Fragmented documentation: Designs were in Figma, user flows were in Miro, and UI review notes were on Slack, requiring engineers to jump between tools to have a full picture of the project.
Outdated content in Jira: Broken links or outdated screenshots caused confusion to devs and required them to message designers to confirm details, which was inneficient.
Language barriers: Copy in the Figma designs were in German, but engineers primarily spoke English, making it hard to interpret UI states.
Translation inconsistencies: Using Phrase (our localization tool), we automated translations, but some translations were missing or outdated.
Improving ways of working
To address these gaps, I proposed and facilitated a Ways of Working workshop with UX, Engineering, Content, and PMs. Together, we mapped a new workflow that included:
Revised Figma structure: Clear separation of discovery, exploratory, and ‘Ready for devs’ screens.
Centralized design and user flows: Consolidated designs and flows in Figma to eliminate context-switching.
Ticket review process: Ensured correct links and updated designs were attached to Jira tickets.
Content collaboration: Regularly aligned with the German content designer to ensure accurate translations were available before development started.
Following these changes, the next retro showed significantly improved team alignment, with fewer engineering queries and positive feedback on documentation consistency.
FigJam screenshots from the team retro and the new ways of working mapping
The solution
Visual differentiation: SHI vs. PHI
Since the appointments were displayed in a long list, I worked on a quick way for users to recognise SHI vs. PHI consultations. The printed prescriptions in Germany were blue (SHI) or pink (PHI), so I decided to test using similar color scheme in the app for quick identification. I setup 5 asyncronous tests via UserTesting.com to get participants' feedback.
Reviewing the recordings I understood that, although users were able to identify the different types of consultations on the list, the UI solution still wasn't optimal. Users saw 'Statuatory' as 'Default' and therefore mentioned not needing to see it indicated on each card. They only wanted to see which ones were Private / Self-payer only, mentioning they would only resort to that option if SHI consultations were not available.
To reduce cognitive load, I simplified the solution by only displaying a ‘Private & Self-payer’ tag for PHI doctors' consultations and, using the Progressive Disclosure pattern, I left the details about cost to the Appointment review screen only.
Examples of printed prescriptions in Germany | Consultation cards UI before and after user testing
Adding to the scope
The first user testing round also revealed that patients wanted to easily choose doctors with specific specialties and availability. After discussion with the PM and hearing similar feedback from the CS team, we decided to expand the project's scope and add advanced filtering options.
Although this feature was not directly related to SHI consultations, we believed it would help users to find their preferred consultation since now there was going to be so many more doctors to choose on the list.
Other pages updates
Allowing SHI consultations meant we had to work on other key pages and flows as well.
Patient side
Appointment preview page: When we only had PHI consultations, the payment details were displayed in a modal between onboarding and appointment selection. Now with SHI as well, there were differences in the payment process, so we added a billing section in the appointment preview page to make it extra clear for users.
Registration flow: A new 'Health insurance' page had to be added to the registration flow to collect SHI patients' insurance details.
Doctor side
Ability to invoice insurance provider: The health insurance information collected in the patient's registration flow was displayed in the doctor platform inside the patient infomation section. Together with the Doctor platform team, we worked on a feature that allowed doctors to generate and submit an invoice after the consultation was finished, in just a few clicks.
iOS and Android alignment
Certain elements, like the appointment time selection, relied on system UI. I paired with both iOS and Android developers to understand platform constraints and designed a unified option that worked seamlessly across devices.
Final alignment & Bug Bash
Once development was completed, I helped organize a Bug Bash to catch final issues before release. The entire squad met in the office and together we tested the full SHI flow across multiple iOS and Android devices.
All the bugs were categorized by flow area, severity, and device type. Devs then split the work and fixed all important issues within one sprint.
The final release went live with zero critical issues on the expected date.
The impact
Technically, the feature performed flawlessly at launch, with zero critical issues. However, on the product side, a supply-demand imbalance emerged.
Despite high patient demand for SHI consultations, insufficient SHI doctor availability led to increased drop-offs post-registration. Our initial assumption that a marketing campaign would attract enough SHI doctors did not materialize, highlighting a need for stronger coordination between marketing, product, and operations.
Key learnings
User Validation Matters: Early user feedback helped us simplify and refine the consultation identification system.
Process alignment improves efficiency: Clearer documentation and improved collaboration reduced engineering confusion and accelerated development.
Anticipating ecosystem challenges: A successful technical rollout isn’t enough if supply and demand dynamics aren’t accounted for, highlighting the need for tighter coordination between product, marketing, and operations.