Presenting the Discovery Summary & Key Strategies

We used our discovery findings summary as a way to brief any new stakeholders that joined the team on the problems we were looking to solve and highlight the user data that led to the decision.

Building a Consolidated System-Wide Website Hierarchy

To aid the LifeBridge Health team in updating their content as we go through the process of redesigning their website, we drafted documentation around how to implement a holistic content strategy around content structure, governance, and workflows, with special consideration for ongoing maintenance in preparation for re-platforming to a more flexible enterprise content management system. We created the following templates to get the team started on content gathering in parallel with the website redesign: Sitemap Framework We built a main sitemap that housed the entire range of hospital-system-wide content and prepared a reusable, scalable framework for each service line within to organize content in a consistent structure that fits within brand guidelines for style, voice, and tone. In preparation for a sitemapping workshop with the client team and better understand the current state of the site's content, we built a prior state sitemap of each set of folders we could identify and organized it to create an intuitive hierarchy as close to the current organization as we could. With this information, we noticed themes/patterns emerge around content organization for a large number of the service lines and locations that just kept basic content, while others ignored that structure entirely and presented their content in a flat structure with no hierarchy or intuitive groupings. Content Inventory & Briefs Using the list of pages identified during the site crawl, we created a document to facilitate auditing the website content and keep track of each page from initial ideation to publishing within the CMS. Each page should have an associated content brief, outlining the specific content for the page, the relevant tags and metadata, the page template, components needed, and any other information needed by the development team as they populate the content into the content management system. Component Library & Component Authoring Guide For each component we've designed, we created guidelines that educate the authoring team on the necessary info and content restrictions to ensure consistent standards are being applied across the website, regardless of the author. This allowed the LifeBridge marketing team to scale their team of content authors without sacrificing quality.

Planning for Design System: this site requires a design system due to its size and disparate ownership, so all of the work done to date is intended to get their team started on formalizing a design system as the site plans for migration to Drupal.

Validation through Usability Testing

Once we had a proposed sitemap and wireframes, we conducted usability testing to assess findability and usability of the new website experience. Our testing process included multiple smaller tests targeted around prior website pain points, running unmoderated testing in a mixed between-within subjects study design using Maze to collect data quickly.

1. Can users find information using the navigation? (tree testing)
2. Can users understand the page layouts and content? (wireframe usability testing)
3. Do users feel the new visual design reflects the desired brand reputation? (5-second, first-click, and A/B testing)

Website Designs

A Refreshed Website

We redesigned the website with a focus on scannability and navigation. Our new designs made the content more scannable by strategically incorporated whitespace to guide user attention throughout the page, reducing visual clutter and enhancing readability. We also utilized scrolling to create a more immersive and engaging experience, allowing users to discover content at their own pace, instead of being overwhelmed by all of the content at once. This resulted in adopting a modular, component-based format for content displays. This approach enhanced reusability across the site, streamlined future updates, and ensured consistency in design and functionality across the entire website. We enhanced content navigation by chunking longer lists into more digestible sections and implementing fewer, more focused calls to action. Additionally, we visualized the various options for medical care—emergency, urgent care, telemedicine, GP visits, and specialist visits—empowering users to easily select the right service based on their specific needs. This thoughtful approach not only streamlined the user experience but also facilitated informed decision-making in a critical area of healthcare. Initially, stakeholders were hesitant to approve our new designs, as they were accustomed to the traditional approach of cramming content above-the-fold. To address their concerns, we presented documentation of current design best practices and shared current site heatmaps as well as insights from our user interviews. This evidence demonstrated that users are more likely to scroll than previously thought, and that our new approach would encourage deeper engagement with the site's content.