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Beacon Health Portal
Appointments, lab results and messages, redesigned for patients reading on hard days. Plain language, honest states and no medical surprising anyone at midnight.
01 — Overview
Designed for bad-news days
Most portal design is tested on calm people in quiet rooms. We tested with patients waiting on results — anxious, on phones, half-reading.
That changed everything: bigger type, results that never appear without context, and messaging that says what happens next, always.
02 — Approach
What the engagement covered
- Research with patients, nurses and front-desk staff across two clinics.
- A results pattern with context first, numbers second, next steps always.
- Plain-language rewrite of 200+ system messages with clinical sign-off.
- Appointment flows that handle rescheduling gracefully instead of punishing it.
- Full WCAG 2.2 AA pass, including focus management and reduced-motion modes.
03 — Outcome
Calmer inboxes, fuller schedules
“What does this mean?” messages to clinics dropped by two thirds. Online appointment booking rose 41%, and no-show rates fell as reminders finally made sense.
Beacon published the results pattern as an open resource — it now runs in three other portals.
04 — Related work
Keep exploring
Pulse Finance — high-trust design for a different kind of anxiety.
Northwind Scheduler — complex scheduling, made humane.
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