FADDY AL-HASAN
2021
Vhi Health
Transforming Ireland's Leading Health Insurer into a Digital Healthcare Platform 🇮🇪
User Experience (UX)
Digital Strategy
Data Analysis
User Interface (UI)
Design Systems
User Research
Interaction Design
Client /
Vhi Health
Working with Vhi, Ireland’s leading healthcare and insurance provider, I helped lead the redesign and evolution of their core customer-facing app used by 100k+ monthly users. Over a 3-year partnership, we established stronger research operations, user-centered design practices, and agile ways of working within the product team, helping drive more evidence-based product decisions and continuous experimentation.
Focused on wellness, healthy lifestyle incentives, and telehealth services, the work aimed to improve engagement, accessibility, and overall user satisfaction, while balancing customer needs with ambitious product and business KPIs.
Vhi Health
🤖
MVP Transformation
Reduced booking response times by 35% and support calls by 11%
🎨
Design
System
Reduced booking response times by 35% and support calls by 11%
🚙
Journey Simplification
Reduced booking response times by 35% and support calls by 11%
✨
AI
Foundations
Reduced booking response times by 35% and support calls by 11%
The Opportunity
Healthcare expectations were rapidly changing. Members increasingly expected healthcare services to be available digitally, while Vhi needed to modernise its products, simplify complex insurance journeys and increase engagement with emerging healthcare services.
At the same time, the organisation was scaling its digital ambitions and required stronger product design practices, research capability and cross-functional collaboration. The challenge was not simply to redesign an app - it was to create a foundation that could support the future of digital healthcare at Vhi.
My Role
As Product Design Lead, I worked across strategy, discovery and delivery. My responsibilities included:
Establishing research operations and user-centered design practices
Leading product strategy workshops and design sprints
Facilitating stakeholder alignment and roadmap planning
Driving UX research and usability testing
Creating and evolving a native mobile design system
Designing new healthcare and insurance experiences
Supporting agile delivery teams across multiple initiatives
Coaching teams in evidence-based product development
This work helped embed design more deeply within product decision-making and accelerated the organisation's ability to deliver customer-centered solutions.
Building a Research-Led Product Culture
One of the most impactful aspects of the engagement was helping establish stronger product and research practices. We introduced structured discovery processes, regular customer research, usability testing, experimentation and design workshops that allowed teams to make decisions with greater confidence.
This shifted conversations away from assumptions and towards evidence, creating a stronger connection between customer needs and business priorities. The result was a more mature product organisation capable of continuously learning and improving.
We reimagined key areas of the Vhi app to make healthcare services, insurance information and wellbeing tools easier to discover and use.
This included improvements to:
Information architecture
Dashboard experiences
Health and wellness services
Insurance and cover information
Claims and support journeys
Service discovery and engagement
The goal was to create a more connected experience that felt less like an insurance product and more like a healthcare companion.
Designing the Next Generation of Healthcare Services
Telehealth during the pandemic
One of the most significant initiatives was the transformation of Vhi's Telehealth experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. As access to in-person healthcare became increasingly difficult, members needed a safe and reliable way to connect with healthcare professionals from home.
Working closely with users across a wide range of ages and digital abilities, we redesigned and relaunched the telehealth experience, integrating healthcare services directly into the Vhi app and simplifying the end-to-end journey from booking to consultation.
Outcomes
407% increase in service engagement
4× increase in completed appointments
Improved access to healthcare services during a critical period
Increased confidence and adoption across diverse user groups
These results demonstrated the value of combining customer research, lean product strategy and rapid delivery to solve a real-world healthcare challenge.
Creating a Scalable Design System
To support long-term product growth, we developed and evolved a native design system for iOS and Android. The system improved consistency across products, accelerated delivery, reduced design debt and created a shared language between design and engineering teams. This enabled teams to spend less time solving repeat problems and more time focusing on innovation and customer value.
To support long-term product growth, we developed and evolved a native design system for iOS and Android. The system improved consistency across products, accelerated delivery, reduced design debt and created a shared language between design and engineering teams. This enabled teams to spend less time solving repeat problems and more time focusing on innovation and customer value.
Impact
Over the course of the engagement, Vhi significantly strengthened its digital healthcare offering while improving organisational design maturity.
Key Outcomes
3-year strategic design partnership
Established research operations and design practices
Introduced product strategy and innovation frameworks
Delivered a new generation of healthcare services
407% increase in telehealth engagement
4× increase in completed telehealth appointments
4.5 App Store rating
2 Lovie Awards
Improved customer satisfaction and service adoption across multiple digital products
Over the course of the engagement, Vhi significantly strengthened its digital healthcare offering while improving organisational design maturity.
Key Outcomes
3-year strategic design partnership
Established research operations and design practices
Introduced product strategy and innovation frameworks
Delivered a new generation of healthcare services
407% increase in telehealth engagement
4× increase in completed telehealth appointments
4.5 App Store rating
2 Lovie Awards
Improved customer satisfaction and service adoption across multiple digital products
Final Reflection
This project demonstrated that successful healthcare products are built through more than great interfaces. Lasting impact comes from creating the right combination of research, strategy, systems and culture.
By embedding customer-centered design throughout the organisation, we helped Vhi move beyond incremental improvements and establish a foundation for the future of digital healthcare in Ireland.