Surfacing healthcare through search
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Healthcare benefits are hidden
Amazon recently acquired One Medical, but awareness of its healthcare offerings remains low, especially among new and expecting parents.
The ecosystem now spans One Medical for primary care, Amazon Pharmacy for prescriptions, and the Health Benefits Connector, which links families to partner services such as fertility, maternity, and postpartum support.
Our challenge:
Seamlessly integrate maternity and postpartum health support into the everyday Amazon experience so parents can naturally access what they need, without extra effort
Who are our users?
We began by surveying 32 new and expecting parents, aged 18-50+, to uncover how they discovered and engaged with healthcare services during pregnancy or early parenthood.
Distilling our interviews
After synthesizing the survey results and interviews, here’s what I found interesting from my research:
Healthcare feels fragmented and overwhelming
Trust is built through approachability, not branding
Pregnant and postpartum parents are tasked with making future decisions for their family
Users rely on retail platforms, but care isn’t in this picture.
Only 27% of surveyed parents had heard of Amazon Health Services, and none had used it.
Is this a lack of awareness? Or something else?
Introducing our personas
We chose to focus on Gen Z and millennial parents (aged 25-44, pregnant or postpartum) because they are already Amazon users and are actively seeking convenient, trusted support–making them a high-impact segment where Amazon can add real value to their lives.
They are comfortable with digital platforms (already Amazon users), overwhelmed with decisions and balancing time, and seeking both convenience and clarity
Meet Expecting Emma
Emma is pregnant with her second child, and she feels prepared with reliable doctors and routines but struggles to balance work, parenting, and pregnancy.
She prefers in-person care, supplements it with occasional online messaging, and adores Amazon ordering and curbside pickup.
Meet New Mom Noa
Noa just had her first child. She is four weeks postpartum and adjusting to new routines while caring for her newborn.
She uses Amazon for registries and baby products but relies on friends and family for most health advice.
Reduce confusion and stress for parents navigating pregnancy and parenthood
Provide a targeted, convenient health service experience across early stages of parenthood
Boost trust by surfacing clear, reliable evidence of quality and coverage
From personas to product vision
Despite being frequent Amazon shoppers, parents like Emma and Noa had never heard of Amazon Health Services. Awareness was low–but trust in the services themselves was also missing.
Parents didn’t just need to know Amazon offered care; they needed proof it was credible, transparent, and worth relying on during one of the most overwhelming times of their lives.
So, why search?
Search is Amazon’s front door to parent decisions. When parents type “prenatal vitamins” or “infant formula,” health and care is already top of mind–yet services remain hidden away.
By embedding care directly into search, we could make healthcare both visible and contextual. But visibility alone wasn’t enough; the design had to signal trust at every step.
Designing the flow
We embedded health prompts directly into search results, giving parents two paths: continue shopping for products or go to a Healthcare Landing Page to explore care options like booking an appointment.
Through iteration, we refined the execution: moving CTAs so they felt noticeable but not promotional, balancing clear and approachable language with privacy of user activity, and adding trust signals like insurance compatibility and doctor credentials within the flow.
Testing confirmed that the idea of leveraging search was strong–the challenge was not whether to use search, but how to design it so that health felt like a natural extension of the Amazon experience.
Iterate, iterate, iterate!!!
Through iteration, we refined the execution: moving CTAs so they didn’t feel like ads, determining clear and approachable language to describe health services, and adding evidence of trust like insurance compatibility and doctor transparency to the Healthcare Landing Page.
One interesting insight: the existing Amazon appointment booking process became the main stopping point–parents were confused and hesitant to move forward.
An unexpected twist: booking UX insights
Not only did booking need to feel simple and trustworthy, it needed to feel simpler than today’s standard experience. Parents told us the existing booking flow lacked transparency and clarity–insurance compatibility was unclear, appointment types weren’t obvious, and the lack of provider details tanked trust in the services.
They wanted the essentials upfront: appointment type, insurance compatibility, and provider credentials. Subtle tweaks and additional information gave parents the confidence to move forward without second-guessing (trust increased 88% in testing).
Our solution: intercepting search
The final prototype leverages Amazon’s most powerful entry point, search, to meet users where they are. When a user enters a pregnancy or postpartum related condition, a contextual prompt appears.
In search results, a lightweight CTA also appears–gently nudging parents toward care.
Once parents enter into the Healthcare Landing Page, they choose what kind of care they want–including booking an appointment online or in person. They can book with confidence knowing that their insurance is accepted and that their doctor has trustworthy credentials.
We presented to the head of Amazon Registry…?
This project was a 10-week sprint of continuous learning and challenge. A few things I took away from iteration after iteration and a presentation to our clients (including the head of Amazon registry!!!):
User trust is everything: users need evidence–real reviews, insurance compatibility, transparency
The "when" matters as much as the "what": new options must show up when users are still exploring, not when they’re done deciding
It doesn't always have to be a shiny, new feature. Meeting users where they are (in search) provides the most value.