roles & responsibilities
UI
Design
UX
Design
the problem
In Fall 2021, the CRNA needed to provide better access to information about nurses and healthcare for Albertans. Additionally, they needed to make their members experience as simple as possible to help combat rising burnout.
With COVID-19 still looming large, hospital visits were up across the province, and the average hospital visit was more frustrating than in previous years. This meant the public were more likely to look up information about nursing regulations or nurses themselves, and that those nurses were more likely to experience burnout from the additional stress.
The CRNA's Director of Technology wanted to take advantage of their recent rebrand to redesign their website and make finding information about nursing and nurses easier. They also targeted improving the experience of nurses when they need to use their registrant portal.
the approach
Building to spec while improving what I could.
Timelines were tight. Fortunately, the client brought some wireframes with them. They had an idea about how they wanted to organize their information, and I was happy to let those ideas mostly lie while I focused on creating the visual artefacts they needed to get the project funded.
I spent Day 1 doing research: understanding similar sites from other governing bodies, creating mood boards, and speaking to whomever I could about their experiences with the healthcare system, the CRNA, and its website. By EOD, I had developed some informed user personas to help guide the work ahead.
Putting the rapid in rapid prototyping.
While the client supplied wireframes, there was a lot of visual design work to flesh out. The information architecture was mostly settled, so the focus was on pixel-perfection, especially when trying to sell a project like this to the board.
As a result, there was a lot of back and forth to ensure that the design not only mirrored the client's vision, but improved upon it. They were very receptive to the small enhancements I proposed, and understood that there were many more I'd have explored were we given more time.
By the end of Day 2, I had most of the major pages or features laid out in medium-resolution desktop screens.
By the end of Day 3, I had high-res, pixel-perfect desktop and mobile views the client was comfortable presenting to the board.
The board approved the redesign project. Work started right away, and a few months later, the new-look CRNA website went live.
The CRNA's new-look website went live in February, 2022. Monthly traffic in January, 2022 was around 33,000 unique visitors per month. Traffic saw slight a dip to about 24,000 visitors in May 2022 before steadily increasing over the past year until peaking June 2023, with the website now seeing over 53,000 unique visitors per month.
After we got approval, I cleaned up my design files, created a lightweight design system to help guide their in-house development team, and handed everything off so their developers could start building.