Background

Link Studio developed an new identity and Website design for DailyMed, the only online resource that offers comprehensive information on marketed drugs in the United States. The website provides health information providers and the public with a standard, comprehensive, up-to-date, look-up and download resource of medication content and labeling as found in medication package inserts. Drug labeling information is the most recent submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The site receives approximately 13.5 million requests per month and 400,000 users per month. The site has a wealth of pertinent information and functionality to support the users needs. To better support their users, Link Studio worked with NLM’s IT team to improve the user interface to allow users to easily find information and to enhance their overall experience.

Challenge / Objective

The challenge was to examine existing usability issues with the current site and to develop new site architecture, wire frames and interface to improve the user experience without changing the functionality of the site. The new site would need to be responsive to address the needs of current users.

Solutions / Results

All site organization and interface changes would be vetted through iterative usability testing designed and executed by Link Studio. Iterative usability testing provided data that was analyzed to provide recommendation that would result in the most effective method of content delivery for the intended audiences. These audiences included the general public, professionals (health care providers, researchers, educators, veterinarians, etc), and industry users (pharma, manufacturers, distributers & suppliers, facilities providers, and import & exporters). First, task-based usability testing was conducted remotely on the existing Website to provide baseline data. A better understanding of what the audiences needed was gained. The subsequent stages of usability testing included card sorting to provide meaningful naming conventions, tree testing to better understand how the audience moved through the links to complete the tasks, wire frame testing to evaluate content organization within each page, home page and logo design testing, color and photo preference evaluation, additional testing of the mobile interface and finally the testing of the prototype.

The iterative testing resulted in better naming conventions and organization of the content and the addition of helpful features such as thumbnails of the drug packaging to help the audience confirm search results. The success of the redesign was best supported by the final testing results of the prototype usability testing where completion rates, time on task and errors were all significantly improved. The audience also chose more positive words to describe the new site. The improved user experience resulted in higher customer satisfaction.

The new site follows best practices of developing a responsive and 508 compliant Website. Link Studio worked with the IT team to ensure that the HTML5 and CSS developed would be integrated accurately by the team in terms of layout, design and functionality.