Link to site: Network.nmdp.org
NMDP is the official manager of the nation’s registry for blood stem cell donors. With an international network of transplant centers, Apheresis and collection centers, and cord blood banks, the network site manages processes, best practices, and resources.
Problem
The site had not been properly updated despite 2 company rebrands. Partners had varying levels of buy-in, resulting in outdated sections of the site and difficulty in finding relevant resources. Being brought in mid-project, the site audit was only partially completed and inaccurate.
Solution
Despite being several weeks behind project completion when I joined, we completed the project on time, patched portions of the site design as a temporary fix during development, created a Forms & Policies hub to provide a streamlined process, and built out user journeys to determine what landing pages were cluttering the site.
TOOLS
- Miro
- Figma
- Asana
TEAM
- 1 UX designer
- 8 developers
- 1 digital marketing strategist
- 9 subject matter expert
- 3 project managers
- 1 scrum master
MY ROLE
- Content Design
- Content strategy
- Content research
TIMELINE
- Overall: 17+ weeks
- Discovery & Research: 6+ weeks
- Design & testing: 11+ weeks
My Design Process
Interviews
After having discussed with SMEs their business goals and reviewed content, we were able to retire or consolidate landing pages to avoid clutter and ensure users had a seamless journey to resources, announcements, and processes.
We also discovered 4 main user journeys based on role within the donor journey – Transplant Centers, Apheresis & Collection Centers, Donor Centers, and Cord Blood Banks. Each role had more overlap then we realized, which allowed us to combine pages and create a filtering system for important documents instead of linking to the documents using anchor text.
User Journey
After having discussed with SMEs their business goals and reviewed content, we were able to retire or consolidate landing pages to avoid clutter and ensure users had a seamless journey to resources, announcements, and processes.
We also discovered 4 main user journeys based on role within the donor journey – Transplant Centers, Apheresis & Collection Centers, Donor Centers, and Cord Blood Banks. Each role had more overlap then we realized, which allowed us to combine pages and create a filtering system for important documents instead of linking to the documents using anchor text.
Content Audit
I compiled findings into a content audit for visibility. Audience, content owner, relevant changes to copy, content performance, audience, and new urls were included. This assisted in redirects, rewriting, and outlining the new sitemap later in the project.
Rebrand & Edit
Because the project was already a few weeks behind and we as a team knew we wanted to pursue a content-first approach to the site, we opted to develop a set number of page templates and components and reference these components in a copy doc instead of building out wireframes. This allowed the written portion of the design to finish in only 3-4 weeks and get the project back on track.
UAT
Completed UAT for the site as an initial round. The findings that came out of UAT was a recognition that our team needed to map out the URLs more clearly than we had. This allowed me to complete the mapping exercise and ensure the rest of UAT went smoothly.
UX Patch
Despite efforts to expedite our processes to meet project deadlines, team developers were not going to be able to build out the filtering feature to make accessing policy and protocol documentation in time for launch. I partnered with our UX designer over a weekend to build wireframes to present to stakeholders as an alternative solution while developers completed the feature. The design patch was approved and the site launched on time.
I don’t know how I could do the work I do without the help of Lucas Eckerley. He has been instrumental in the Network site project by providing us with his well crafted copy for pages we are editing. He’s always stepping up when asked to do any task – plus, he’s just a really nice guy and great to work with.
Kevin Bishop, Developer at NMDP