Navigating Wellness and Well Mama UX Research and Design

Navigating Wellness/ Well Mama

Project for Northwestern University Center for Health Equity Transformation

The Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET) at Northwestern University’s Feinberg Medical School has been a wonderful client of mine for nearly a year. One of my many projects for the center were two sites for Navigating Wellness (a health information tool to work in tandem with the USPSTF (US Preventative Services Task Force) website, which is not the most user friendly interface.

This project was intended to provide users who may struggle with finding accessible, reliable health information and preventative services resources a reliable, one stop shop. This was a very research intensive project with most of the copy editing being completed by CHET’s team and organized, designed, and placed into a WordPress site by myself.

Project Details

  • Purpose: Fulfilling Grant Obligation
  • Timeframe: 60 days
  • Role: Visual Designer, Interaction Designer, Project Manager, Graphic Designer, Front End Developer
  • Deliverables: UX Research Synthesis and Presentation, Two complete WordPress Sites

Project Goals

  • Accomplishment of project goals and grant obligations
  • Improve User Experience compared to USPSTF site
  • Use minimalist approach
  • Easily navigable backend
  • Delivery of two sites
  • Design cohesion between both projects

Project Outcomes

  • Accomplishment of project goals and grant obligations
  • Achieved "EXCELLENT" and "GREAT" SUS scores compared to USPSTF, which was rated "POOR"
  • Site is not overloaded or clunky
  • Team can easily update site without help
  • Users felt "represented" in imagery
  • More user friendly than USPSTF
Methods (Click to see insights and process):
  • User Interviews
  • Affinity Mapping
  • Contextual Interviews
  • SUS Scoring
Via Zoom, I had users complete the following tasks and got their feedback on the USPSTF website
  • How would you discover recommended preventative services?
  • Do you understand the information that you're reading?
  • Do you find this website to be easy to navigate?
  • Do you find the information on this website easy to understand?
  • What are your thoughts on the design's visuals?


The insights from these users were used to inform the design of Navigating Wellness and Well Mama. Represented users were Black, White, Latino, and Asian, most having come from low income neighborhoods, with varying levels of education from high school drop out to master degree. This ensures that the collected data that informs the design includes marginalized users, whom are often under represented in user research.

User Insights

I compiled feedback data into bullet points on sticky notes, and, worked to affinity map the points using Miro. After I identified trends in the user data, I further compiled the user points to one motivation/desire statement per grouping.

uspstf feedback
 
Grouping and insight
 
Insights From Users Translated to Design
user insights 1

What are users communicating?

What the users are communicating is that they want an interface that is inviting, intuitive, well organized, and they want the organization of the site to be clear and consistent. We incorporated this feedback into the site by using a “blog” format that feels colloquial, using “sticky” menus to made navigation available without scrolling, and organizing the site using categories and tags.
user insights 2

What are users communicating?

What the users are communicating is that they want to feel like the site is “for them”, meaning that they are represented via authentic, diverse imagery, and that the language of the site is not filled with jargon, but rather language that they can understand. We incorporated this feedback into the site by using warmer, more diverse imagery that doesn’t look as “stocky”. The copy uses language at a 5th grade reading level. The “blog” formatting makes it more accessible.
user insights 3

What are users communicating?

What the users are communicating is that they feel like the site is for providers, is full of jargon, and that they do not find any meaningful, informative information on this site for their needs. Users want the recommendations to be CLEAR and to understand WHY they’re needed. We incorporated this feedback by making sure that the site clearly explains its purpose in accessible language, geared the site towards patients instead of providers, and being thorough explaining each of the target areas.

Users were observed as they navigated each site and were asked to give suggestions. Some user input was incorporated into the site and then retested. As a result, we were able to achieve preferable scoring to the USPSTF

 

SUS Scoring
When tested as a standalone tool, the USPSTF website did not perform very well in the opinions of users, who rated the tool very poorly at a 47.
uspstf
When tested as a standalone tools, Navigating Wellness and Well Mama performed very well in the opinions of users, who rated the tools very good and excellent at 79 and 87 scores.
well mama
Screen Shot 2021-09-30 at 10.45.13 AM
Click pictures below to see sites!

Results

As validated by testing, the designs were successful with users.

  • The designs were more engaging than USPSTF
  • Users were able to intuitively find information in desired categories using current information architecture
  • Designs were ranked much more acceptable to users. 

 

Well-Mama Memorable Feedback
“This site held my interest the best as someone who has a short attention span. The brevity of the text and design maintained my attention.”

Nav-Well Memorable Feedback
“The third site is by far the best one. That one had the best layout and performance in my opinion.“

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