The impact
Positive impacts were made in both patient conversion and engagement
25%
increase in appointments booked through provider profiles
increase in appointments booked through provider profiles
20%
increase in provider profile views
increase in provider profile views
63%
of users engaged with filters during search
of users engaged with filters during search
18%
increase in mobile conversion rates
increase in mobile conversion rates
The challenge
Finding a doctor and establishing care is often the very first step in a patient’s healthcare journey and one of the most daunting. Patients are trying to answer deeply personal questions related to who can help them, who is trustworthy, insurance acceptance, and overall whether this is the right choice for them.
As part of Sharp's migration from our old CMS Commonspot to Contentful, we took the opportunity to completely rethink the experience as a strategic rebuild of a critical patient acquisition and care-navigation tool.
The new experience should introduce:
As part of Sharp's migration from our old CMS Commonspot to Contentful, we took the opportunity to completely rethink the experience as a strategic rebuild of a critical patient acquisition and care-navigation tool.
The new experience should introduce:
• A new provider search landing page
• Intelligent search powered by Algolia
• Robust filtering and sorting functionality
• Redesigned search results and provider profile pages
• Appointment-booking integrations directly within provider profiles
• Sorting by distance and first available appointment
• Persistent filters throughout the search journey
• Improved visibility of key provider information at the top of profiles
The goal was simple:
• Intelligent search powered by Algolia
• Robust filtering and sorting functionality
• Redesigned search results and provider profile pages
• Appointment-booking integrations directly within provider profiles
• Sorting by distance and first available appointment
• Persistent filters throughout the search journey
• Improved visibility of key provider information at the top of profiles
The goal was simple:
Help patients find the right provider faster with greater clarity, confidence, and trust.
Rehauling a complex ecosystem
As we dug deeper into the existing ecosystem, it became clear the legacy doctor directory experience had evolved over many years and had become a disconnected system, resulting in fragmented experiences and operational complexities. Several core challenges quickly surfaced:
• An outdated and unintuitive interface that made searching feel overwhelming
• Legacy technical infrastructure that introduced maintenance challenges and inconsistent behavior
• Multiple codebases used for different parts of the journey
• Inconsistent interaction patterns and design language
• No filtering and sorting capabilities
• Provider profiles that varied significantly in quality and structure
• Medical terminology and provider data that were difficult for patients to interpret
The experience lacked cohesion at nearly every step. Patients were often forced to do unnecessary work just to evaluate whether a provider was a good fit.
• An outdated and unintuitive interface that made searching feel overwhelming
• Legacy technical infrastructure that introduced maintenance challenges and inconsistent behavior
• Multiple codebases used for different parts of the journey
• Inconsistent interaction patterns and design language
• No filtering and sorting capabilities
• Provider profiles that varied significantly in quality and structure
• Medical terminology and provider data that were difficult for patients to interpret
The experience lacked cohesion at nearly every step. Patients were often forced to do unnecessary work just to evaluate whether a provider was a good fit.
.png)
A collaborative, systems-driven redesign
This work required deep cross-functional collaboration across analytics, engineering, content strategy, clinical stakeholders, and QA teams.
To guide the redesign, I partnered closely with analytics teams to better understand real user behavior within the legacy experience including:
• How patients searched
• Which filters they attempted to use
• Where drop-off occurred
• What content drove engagement and conversion
These insights helped prioritize the features and workflows most valuable to patients.
At the same time, I worked closely with content, stakeholders, and product management to:
• Validate provider and specialty terminology
• Translate complex medical information into layperson-friendly language
• Align technical feasibility with UX goals
• Ensure provider data could scale consistently across templates
To guide the redesign, I partnered closely with analytics teams to better understand real user behavior within the legacy experience including:
• How patients searched
• Which filters they attempted to use
• Where drop-off occurred
• What content drove engagement and conversion
These insights helped prioritize the features and workflows most valuable to patients.
At the same time, I worked closely with content, stakeholders, and product management to:
• Validate provider and specialty terminology
• Translate complex medical information into layperson-friendly language
• Align technical feasibility with UX goals
• Ensure provider data could scale consistently across templates
Validating the experience through usability testing
We conducted multiple rounds of usability testing throughout the redesign process to evaluate:
• Search behavior and filter discoverability
• Provider comparison workflows
• Appointment-booking interactions
• Profile comprehension and trust signals
The iterative testing process was critical in shaping a search experience that felt intuitive across both desktop and mobile environments.
• Search behavior and filter discoverability
• Provider comparison workflows
• Appointment-booking interactions
• Profile comprehension and trust signals
The iterative testing process was critical in shaping a search experience that felt intuitive across both desktop and mobile environments.
Building for scalability through systems thinking
A major focus throughout the project was reducing long-term complexity. Rather than designing isolated pages, I approached the experience through a modular, system-first lens by using reusable search and profile components and flexible strutures leveraging our new design system. This would insure consistent interaction patterns and shared visual hiearchy across providers.
This not only improved usability for patients, but also made the experience significantly easier to scale and maintain internally. The implementation strategy combined CMS-driven content with hard-coded templates, allowing developers to maintain the more evergreen functionalities while also giving our content teams the flexibility to update provider information more efficiently on the backend without code deployment.
This balance between flexibility and governance became especially important given the scale of Sharp’s provider network.
This not only improved usability for patients, but also made the experience significantly easier to scale and maintain internally. The implementation strategy combined CMS-driven content with hard-coded templates, allowing developers to maintain the more evergreen functionalities while also giving our content teams the flexibility to update provider information more efficiently on the backend without code deployment.
This balance between flexibility and governance became especially important given the scale of Sharp’s provider network.
Outcomes
The new Find a Doctor experience launched as part of the broader sharp.com modernization initiative.
Within the first quarter post-launch, the experience delivered measurable improvements across both engagement and conversion metrics:
• 25% increase in appointments booked through provider profiles
• 26% reduction in bounce rate
• 20% increase in provider profile views
• 63% of users engaged with filters during search
• 18% increase in mobile conversion rates
These outcomes validated a core hypothesis established early in the project:
Within the first quarter post-launch, the experience delivered measurable improvements across both engagement and conversion metrics:
• 25% increase in appointments booked through provider profiles
• 26% reduction in bounce rate
• 20% increase in provider profile views
• 63% of users engaged with filters during search
• 18% increase in mobile conversion rates
These outcomes validated a core hypothesis established early in the project:
When patients feel more confident navigating care decisions, they are more likely to take action.
Reflection
This project reinforced how deeply UX impacts trust in healthcare. Patients are often navigating care decisions during stressful or uncertain moments. Confusing terminology, inconsistent layouts, and hidden actions can result in hesitation or abandonment from our users.
By simplifying the search experience, improving consistency, and designing around patient decision-making behaviors, we transformed Find a Doctor from a fragmented provider directory into a more intuitive and supportive entry point into care.
Next project:
Clinical decision support platform for cardiovascular analysis
Turning complex health data into clear, actionable insights for clinicians.