Tissue fibrosis is a pathological scarring process triggered by chronic inflammatory processes resulting from repeated damage such as viral infection, chemical insult, or injury to the tissue. Although fibrosis causes nearly half of the deaths in the developed world, there are a lack of disease models that can accurately mimic extracellular matrix characteristics to understand relevant cell behavior during disease progression, hindering the testing of therapeutics. The purpose of this project was to create a model for tissue fibrosis that more accurately mimics the natural microenvironment by developing a three-dimensional (3D) hydrogel system with heterogeneous mechanical properties. Both elastic and viscoelastic hydrogels were fabricated using hyaluronic acid as a polymer backbone due to its biocompatibility, high chemical tunability, and involvement in disease processes such as wound healing. Human lung fibroblasts (HLFs) were encapsulated in hydrogels by incorporating them into the hydrogel precursor solution prior to gelation. Cells were successfully encapsulated in hydrogels with uniform mechanics (soft/stiff, elastic/viscoelastic) with 76% viability on day 1 of encapsulation, determined by live/dead viability assays. It was observed that cells encapsulated in soft elastic hydrogel groups had increased spread area and more protrusions while those encapsulated in soft viscoelastic groups remained fairly rounded, comparable to how cells behave in normal tissue. By successfully creating a 3D hydrogel system with tunable mechanics that affords high cell viability, hydrogel patterning can be incorporated to better mimic the heterogeneous properties found in native healthy and diseased tissues.