Key Strategic Goal
Restructure and simplify the hospital’s Information Hierarchy to make resources easier to find for users by:
Documenting the existing information architecture using Site Maps.
Altering the structure based off of insights gained from Card Sorting.
Information Architecture
Site Map
The revised Site Map below features changes designed to streamline and simplify the User Flow and User Experience for a first time visitor of the website. In some instances, Labels and Titles of subpages were renamed. Also, the content in some pages were either combined or separated to create new pages and levels of hierarchy.
Heuristics Analysis
Based off of the Heuristics Analysis below, the website of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has room for improvement.
There were certain pages that did not comply to Americans with Disabilities (ADA) regulations. For example, the Donations Page used the colors red and gray - hues that are undecipherable to the color blind.
There were also inconsistencies in UI in that colors and themes were not present on all of the pages.
In addition, there were instances of missing navigation bars, making it difficult to navigate away from a page.
All of these issues can result in a poor User Experience.
Competitive/Comparative Analysis
The Competitive and Comparative Analysis below highlights the shared and also unique features of similar websites. This design tool allows for important and also extraneous features to be identified. For example, it should be noted that the three other websites implemented Accessibility Features to help the disabled better navigate the sites, while St. Jude’s did not. This must be addressed to better serve the User.
User Flow Example
The User Flow below highlights the roundabout process of simply applying to be a Volunteer at the hospital.
Card Sorting
Six participants were used for this card sorting exercise. Three were used for the open sort and three were used for the closed sort.
Open
2/3 open sorting participants sorted cancer related topics in its own category.
2/3 participants were confused with the titles such as “Medical Students”, “Postdoctoral Fellows” and were unsure if those titles were connected to Careers or another category.
Closed
3/3 participants sorted at least one item that was supposed to be in “Ways to Give” in “Get Involved” and vice versa.
2/3 participants noted that “Ways to Give” sounded similar to “Get Involved” and couldn’t note a difference between the two categories.
Next Steps
Below are recommendations for the St. Jude’s website. The main points are to simplify the User Navigation, implement Americans with Disabilities (ADA) standards and clarify the titles and names of Pages.
There should be a whole new primary level for cancer specific items because there are many cancer-related items on the website. In addition, cancer carries such weight in the medical field and is prevalent enough that it could have its own category.
In addition, “Ways to Give” could be renamed “Ways to Donate” so that users explicitly know what the category entails monetary donations. “Ways to Give” could be misunderstood as ways to volunteer or give toys to the children - among other things.
The colors used throughout the website should be compliant with ADA standards. It is understandable that red is prevalent, since it is part of the primary color scheme. However, it should be used sparingly to cater to the visually-impaired.