Health Advocacy
Background
Government agencies often have good intentions. They have lots of data and stacks of research-driven reports. They have well-thought-out objectives and plans and models for evidence-based decision-making at the ready. And yet, their boots on the ground, staff, and even program directors didn’t know much of this information existed. Even worse– couldn’t find it. The Good & Healthy SD website overhaul was born out of this left-hand-not-knowing-what-the-right-hand was doing frustration.
Challenges
The initial site was built in 2013. (#ancient)
The site purpose was fuzzy at best. The client wanted it to be a consumer resource but most of the content was technical, academic, and geared for those in the public health field.
The main navigation featured overlapping general audience segments (schools, workplaces, healthcare, childcare, communities, tribes) that did not align very well with the content.
Functionality was either missing entirely or there only to emphasize shortcomings (ie. a calendar that was never updated).
My Contributions
We started with a massive content audit followed by user experience research and testing including:
Analysis of website analytics
Heatmapping
User interviews & user journies
My team led a series of stakeholder review sessions to present research findings, identify the pain points involved with the existing infrastructure
We helped them develop their wish list in terms of information, organization, and functionality.
We developed a content strategy based on SMART goals and objectives.
We created a new information architecture that better reflected the site’s new purpose and content.
I categorized, synthesized, edited, and created content for every section.
Ideation: my team provided numerous rounds of low-fidelity comps and supervised collaborative feedback and updates.
Prototypes: my team created high-fidelity works-like models in Adobe XD
User Insights
The vast majority of traffic was coming from people in the public health field (DOH staff, partners, vendors, and the occasional provider).
Some of the information on the site was helpful (but often incomplete or inconvenient) for those in public health. They were hoping for easier access to information, better/newer/more interactive tools, and wanted to be able to search quickly because the alternative of searching the maze of state-managed archives, websites, and systems was frustrating.
The general public was confused by the highly specialized content.
Approach
We started by rethinking, redesigning, and retooling the website to provide Department of Health staff and partners with a site that reflected their key programs and events, current data, toolkits, and most-used resources.
We wanted to give them a place to house their success stories as a reminder of the good they are doing at the community level and examples they could use in the field.
We did away with the confusing sector navigation that was all the rage in 2013 and rebuilt from the ground up.
Results
This is not a site that gets promoted very often– but it does get used.
Upon launch in November 2021, traffic to the site surpassed lifetime visits to the old in less than 3 months through word of mouth via DOH staff and partner networks. When we promoted the Partner’s Meeting (with a tiny budget for 2 weeks) pageviews increased by 30%. It’s not glamorous, but it is progress!
This process was not without challenges. The learning curve was high. Most stakeholders were unfamiliar with the website rebuild process, content best practices, design thinking, and functionality options. The layers of bureaucratic garbadly-gook within the content were thick. Plain(ish) language was a daily battle. Old academic habits were deeply entrenched. Simplifying was a major challenge. Buy-in was a grind. But the effort was rewarded. At the 6-month mark:
Website visits nearly doubled
The top 10 most-visited pages aligned perfectly with pre-build objectives
Organic search traffic increased by 20%
New Project Development
Better Choices Better Health: A site within a site.
One of the key programs the Department wanted to feature, Better Choices Better Health, essentially required its own site. This program grows, evolves, changes (and then changes back), constantly. The web of interconnected partners and platforms behind the scenes is extensive.
We were tasked with creating a “section” that could be used by various agencies, volunteer workshop leaders, and partners, and at the same time make sense for the general public. Some of our accessibility requirements were literally thrown out the window. Our pleas to consider mobile fell upon glazed eyes and were overruled. You can’t win every battle but we were able to reign in a few of the Kraken’s tentacles and deliver a much more user-friendly experience.
Workplace Wellness: toolkit challenge accepted.
The Workplace Wellness Toolkit was recently overhauled. A very dated 78-page PDF was updated and transformed into an accessible, searchable, functioning, user-friendly plain-language live text section. Key features designed to make it easier for employers to implement wellness policies include:
What workplace wellness is & why it matters
Sample worksite policies & environmental strategies
Steps employers can take to build sustainable wellness programs
Strategies & resources for addressing various chronic diseases & health challenges in the workplace