Insurance card OCR: designing for every way a scan can fail

Adding insurance is the first real task many members face, and a failed card scan used to send them back to the start with no explanation.

When a scan fails, the member blames themselves and the team can’t tell why it failed. Both problems cost us enrollments.

I designed the full insurance card flow on mobile and desktop, partnering closely with engineering.

• Photo and upload paths, plan matching, confirming details and coverage confirmation.
• A continue-without-insurance path so no one gets stuck.
• Eight failure states, each mapped to an analytics reason code.
• An accessibility pass for iOS Largest Text, and a spec mode that copies exact component names for engineering.

• Tell the truth about what failed. A file problem, an unreadable photo and an engine error each get their own message. When the engine fails, we say so, instead of asking the member to retake a photo that was never the problem.
• Give a way out after two tries. After a second unreadable photo, “More ways to add coverage” moves from a text link to a button.
• Measure every failure. Each state logs a reason code, so the team can see where scans break and fix the right thing.

• Every failure path now ends with a clear next step instead of a dead end.
• Engineering builds from exact component names and token values instead of guessing from screenshots.
• Packaged as its own repo so the team can copy the demo and keep building.

Designing for failure made the happy path stronger.