Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)
Healing begins with discovery
Project goals
OHSU strives for excellence in education, research and scholarship, clinical practice, and community service. With such a vast list of services, OHSU’s primary goal was to get users directed towards the type of content they are looking for quickly and efficiently.
Our role
Support for the OHSU marketing team, user interface design concepts, user testing, and recommendations for ongoing improvements.
Focus on understanding and wayfinding
OHSU has a singular focus on improving health for all Oregonians. They are nationally distinct as the only academic health center in Oregon dedicated solely to advancing health sciences. The audience types that OHSU serves are diverse. Their audience consists of patients, students, research scientists, and potential employees who all have different needs for using the website.
With such an expansive website the main goal for the newest home page was understanding and wayfinding. We wanted users to easily understand what OHSU offers and get to the information they need quickly. With these goals in mind Turn designed multiple concepts for the home page in which to test on users.
Testing on prospective patients
In collaboration with OHSU Digital Strategy, Turn Agency conducted two different user testing sessions on the new home page designs. The testing focused on 3 areas: brand recognition, task completion, and imagery. The first session took place in Bend, Oregon and was focused on prospective patients. We asked them a series of task-based questions to ensure the users understood what OHSU was all about and could complete the tasks given to them.
Testing on existing patients
Session two took place in Portland, Oregon. We conducted tests with current OHSU patients from Portland and Salem who are members of the Patient and Family Advisors (PFA) group. We tested both designs on this group and gained valuable feedback on the terminology that patients were looking for as well as input on structure, imagery, and content.