AptiaOne

A benefits portal and Benefits Coach, designed in a working React and Firebase prototype.

My role: Senior Product Designer
Team: Sole in-house designer, leading two agency designers in New York
When: 2026 · Oct 2025 to present
Platforms: Web and mobile

Sales uses the working prototype: Every pitch

The 30-second version

Problem: Benefits information is scattered across PDFs, portals and emails. Picking a plan is mostly a guess.
What I did: Designed the employee portal, mobile app and Benefits Coach, and built a working React and Firebase prototype.
Result: Sales uses the prototype in every pitch. Production is an earlier version and has not caught up to this design.

Context and constraints

AptiaOne is a white-label benefits portal. Each employer runs it with its own branding, plans and settings. Command Center feeds data into the portal. Production went live on June 1, 2026; the design shown here lives in the working prototype.

My role and the team

I'm Aptia's only in-house designer, and I lead two designers at an agency in New York. I worked out what the employee portal should be and designed it, design system included. Then I built a working prototype of it in React and Firebase. I also designed the benefits assistant and the mobile app, which I scoped, and helped guide Command Center, the HR admin tool that feeds data into the portal. It's white-label, so every decision had to work for a lot of different employers at once. When a call had to hold up in front of a client, it was mine. The assistant is Benefits Coach. The VP of Product AI decided what it should answer. I designed the conversation, how it surfaces answers, and when it hands off to a live representative.

The problem

Benefits are a big part of what people get paid, and most people don't understand theirs. The information is spread across carrier PDFs, separate portals, open enrollment emails, and a benefits guide nobody reads. So picking a plan is mostly a guess, and when you go to use it, you're digging for the right phone number at the doctor's front desk.

HR has its own version of this. They answer the same questions every year and move data between systems by hand.

Key decisions

01 / 02

A working prototype

The call: Build the design in React and Firebase so people can click through it together.
Why: Sales uses it in every pitch, and engineering is building toward it. When we disagree about how something should work, we sit down and use the prototype.

02 / 02

Benefits Coach and the handoff

The call: Design the conversation, how answers surface, and when a conversation moves to a live representative.
Why: Benefits questions need an answer and a next step. The VP of Product AI decided what the assistant should answer.

The work

AptiaOne mobile Home with Benefits Coach, an open enrollment reminder and current elections. — Prototype/design. The mobile home brings Benefits Coach, enrollment and current elections together.

Benefits Coach conversation about dental coverage and retirement contributions. — Prototype/design. Benefits Coach answers a dental coverage question and points to the plan documents.

The current employee portal with a welcome banner, Benefits Coach and tasks. — Prototype/design. The employee experience in Meridian Health Systems branding, with Benefits Coach and tasks on the dashboard.

Find Care asks for a specialty, location and optional doctor name. — Prototype/design. Find Care starts with a provider type and location. A doctor’s name is optional.

Privacy and data settings show activity, inferred interests and recommendation signals. — Prototype/design. People can review the activity and signals used to personalize their recommendations.

Command Center shows benefits engagement and enrollment figures in the prototype. — Prototype/design. The current Command Center dashboard, with engagement and enrollment views. The figures shown are prototype data, not product outcomes.

How it scaled

It's one platform that each employer runs with its own branding, plans and settings. Command Center feeds data into the employee portal.

Results

AptiaOne went live on June 1, 2026, and four employers run it today, about 20,000 employees. Production is an earlier version, though, and far behind what I have designed. The design lives in a working React and Firebase prototype that Sales uses in every pitch. Engineering is building toward the prototype. The screens here show my design for the website and mobile app.

Sales uses the working prototype: Every pitch

Reflection

On a small team I couldn't be in every conversation, so I let the prototype do a lot of the talking for me, and I'd work that way again.