Overview
As UF Health continued its evolution into a statewide academic health system, I recognized an opportunity to rethink how employees communicate, connect and engage across an increasingly diverse and geographically dispersed organization. While email and the existing intranet remained essential communication tools, I saw the potential to create a more connected, mobile-first employee experience that better reflected the way today's workforce consumes information and collaborates.
I developed a strategic concept for UF Health Bridge: a unified digital experience that brought together enterprise communications, community engagement, organizational culture, recognition and everyday employee resources into a single intuitive platform. More than a mobile app, the concept explored how technology could strengthen connection across regions while supporting organizational initiatives through timely communication, personalization and interactive engagement.
Although this concept ultimately served as a vision rather than a production application, it helped inform broader conversations about the future evolution of The Bridge and demonstrated how AI-assisted design and rapid prototyping can transform complex strategic ideas into tangible experiences that accelerate discussion, alignment and innovation.
The Challenge
UF Health's internal communications ecosystem relied primarily on email and The Bridge, a longstanding desktop-focused intranet that serves as the organization's central hub for internal resources and information. While The Bridge is responsive for mobile devices, access is limited to employees connected to the UF Health network, either on-site or through a VPN. Its branding, user experience and functionality also reflected an earlier generation of intranet design, leaving opportunities to better support today's increasingly mobile, geographically dispersed workforce.
As UF Health continued to grow across multiple hospitals, regions and practice locations, I saw an opportunity to proactively rethink how employees connect with one another and with the organization. Rather than waiting for communication challenges to become larger organizational problems, I began exploring what a modern, mobile-first employee experience could look like.
This existing environment created several challenges:
• Critical announcements often failed to reach frontline staff who had limited or infrequent
access to email during their workday.
• Employees across newly integrated regions had few opportunities to connect, collaborate
and build community beyond their local teams.
• Communications teams leading enterprise initiatives, campaigns and organizational change
efforts relied heavily on email, limiting their ability to deliver timely notifications, drive
engagement or reinforce key messages through more interactive experiences.
• Organizational initiatives lacked engaging ways to encourage ongoing participation, learning,
recognition and culture-building.
• Resources and tools were spread across multiple systems, making it difficult for employees
to quickly find the information they needed, particularly from a mobile device.
access to email during their workday.
• Employees across newly integrated regions had few opportunities to connect, collaborate
and build community beyond their local teams.
• Communications teams leading enterprise initiatives, campaigns and organizational change
efforts relied heavily on email, limiting their ability to deliver timely notifications, drive
engagement or reinforce key messages through more interactive experiences.
• Organizational initiatives lacked engaging ways to encourage ongoing participation, learning,
recognition and culture-building.
• Resources and tools were spread across multiple systems, making it difficult for employees
to quickly find the information they needed, particularly from a mobile device.
I wasn't simply trying to redesign an intranet. I wanted to reimagine the employee experience through a modern, mobile-first lens. The vision was to create a unified platform that strengthened communication, culture and collaboration while meeting employees where they already are: on their phones.
Strategic Opportunity
Rather than creating another communications tool, I envisioned a unified employee experience that would serve as the digital front door for every UF Health team member. The concept was built around five interconnected pillars designed to strengthen communication, engagement and organizational culture across the enterprise.
Inform
Deliver timely enterprise news, emergency alerts and executive communications through mobile-first notifications and personalized content, ensuring important information reaches employees wherever they work.
Connect
Foster collaboration and build community by connecting employees across departments, professions, regions and shared interests. By breaking down geographic and organizational silos, the platform would encourage knowledge sharing, relationship building and a stronger sense of one UF Health.
Transform
Support organizational priorities through interactive learning, gamification, recognition and engagement. From enterprise initiatives like Together We Transform to leadership videos, culture-building activities and professional development, the platform would encourage employees to actively participate rather than passively consume information.
Resources
Provide a centralized gateway to the tools employees use every day, including The Bridge, HR resources, policies, training, directories, schedules and other enterprise applications, reducing friction and making information easier to find.
Personalize
Create an experience tailored to each employee by surfacing relevant content based on their role, location, interests and organizational affiliations, helping ensure communications remain meaningful rather than one-size-fits-all.
From Strategy to Prototype
This project began not with interface design, but with a question:
How might we create a more connected, engaging and accessible employee experience for a rapidly growing health system?
Rather than immediately sketching screens, I began by exploring the opportunity strategically—identifying communication gaps, understanding user needs and envisioning how a mobile-first experience could strengthen communication, culture and collaboration across UF Health.
With that strategic foundation in place, I leveraged AI as a creative partner to accelerate ideation, explore interface concepts, rapidly iterate on design directions and visualize the experience. This allowed me to move quickly from abstract ideas to tangible screens while remaining firmly in control of the product vision, user experience and creative direction.
Working iteratively, I developed:
• A strategic framework centered around five core experience pillars
• Information architecture and navigation designed for a diverse healthcare workforce
• User journeys and interaction models focused on simplicity and accessibility
• High-fidelity interface concepts that balanced enterprise functionality with an approachable experience
• A fully clickable prototype in Figma to simulate an employee journey through the app
• Information architecture and navigation designed for a diverse healthcare workforce
• User journeys and interaction models focused on simplicity and accessibility
• High-fidelity interface concepts that balanced enterprise functionality with an approachable experience
• A fully clickable prototype in Figma to simulate an employee journey through the app
By combining strategic thinking, AI-assisted exploration and rapid prototyping, I was able to transform a complex organizational vision into an interactive experience in a matter of days rather than weeks. The prototype gave leadership something tangible to explore, discuss and react to, helping move the conversation from abstract possibilities toward actionable ideas that could help shape the future evolution of the employee experience at UF Health.
Project Outcome & Impact
The resulting prototype was shared with executive leadership and received enthusiastic support as a compelling vision for the future employee experience at UF Health. While the organization ultimately chose not to pursue a standalone mobile application at the time, many of the concepts helped inform broader conversations around modernizing The Bridge intranet and improving the way employees connect with communication, culture and organizational resources across the system.
Just as importantly, the project demonstrated a new way of approaching strategic concept development. By combining strategic design thinking with AI-assisted exploration and rapid prototyping, I was able to transform a complex organizational vision into a tangible, interactive experience in a matter of days. Rather than asking leadership to imagine an idea, I was able to place that vision directly into their hands, creating a shared understanding that accelerated discussion, generated enthusiasm and helped move the conversation from possibility to practical application.
For me, the greatest takeaway wasn't the prototype itself, but the process. It reinforced how emerging AI tools can amplify the work of creative leaders, not by replacing strategic thinking or design expertise, but by accelerating exploration, improving visualization and creating more meaningful conversations around innovation.
Explore the App Below!