DLRI WEBSITE REDESIGN

In Need of Funding and Growth

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Distributed Learning and Rural Initiatives (DLRI) is the rural department within the Cumming School of Medicine. DLRI provides quality healthcare services to rural and remote parts of Alberta by training and deploying medical doctors to rural communities through its Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship program (UCLIC).

Every three years, DLRI applies for funding from the Alberta government and hopes to receive increased funding for the 2024-2027 period.

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Business Problem:

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DLRI’s 2023 performance reports showed a decline in UCLIC enrolment and student interest in rural health and a stall in the expansion of DLRI's rural preceptor network.

To successfully secure funding from the government, DLRI had to improve its KPIs.

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User Problem:

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DLRI's target audience struggles with a disjointed user experience due to inconsistent branding. Students and preceptors also experience confusing navigation through the website and are given irrelevant or insufficient information to influence their enrolment decisions.

Creating A Cohesive User-Friendly Experience

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For this project, I led and collaborated with a cross-functional team consisting of research associates, product designers, product managers, subject matter experts, and more.

We used the Design Thinking framework to successfully overhaul DLRI’s end-to-end experience – designing a website that provides streamlined navigation, cohesive branding, and adequate resources for preceptors, faculty, and students.

Research Process

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Our research process consisted of both primary and secondary research methods.

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We used Qualtrics to conduct user research on 65 people. This pool consisted of 20 DLRI preceptors, 25 current Cumming School of Medicine students, and 20 pre-med students - both groups consisted of students who had an interest in pursuing rural medicine.

With the survey, we set out to find out user pain points with the navigation, layout, and content on the DLRI site and what ultimately dissuades them from enrolling in DLRI's student or preceptor communities.

Here's where we faced our first hurdle - an obvious one - doctors and med students are busy and helping us with a website redesign fell low on their list of priorities. To capture their attention, we offered valuable incentives in exchange for their participation. We offered preceptors a free subscription to teachingphysican.org, and participating students received bookstore credits.

I then supplemented user feedback with quantitative data. I used Google Analytics to collect historical platform data - analyzing bounce rates, conversion rates, content drill down and page event reports  to gain a better understanding of user behaviours, and analyze content effectiveness throughout the DLRI site.

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Key Insights:

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• Students and preceptors use DLRI's website as the primary point of contact with the department - above all other digital platforms.
• Enrolments into UCLIC and DLRIs preceptor network are made largely via desktop sessions.
• Inconsistent branding on the DLRI site negatively impacts user perception of the department and hampers their user experience.
• Program and department information, relevant resources, and department culture and impact are factors that influence enrolment.
• In addition to program information,  content that interests end users include - student and preceptor stories, research papers and publications, and secondary resources.
• Website analytics show that the site has a- lower engagement rate (25%) than the educational industry standard of 57% according to Databox.

Wireframes

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I started the design by incorporating key features into the new site layout to address user pain points. Wireframes played a crucial role in usability testing, allowing us to test and iterate on navigation solutions before progressing to design mock-ups.

A Responsive Web-First Approach to Design

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DlRI’s new platform was designed with a web-first approach as enrollments into DLRI’s preceptor and student networks are done via laptop sessions. However, the website is adapted to different platforms including mobile and more.

This new DLRI website site is not just about visual appeal, it's about practicality and reach. The web and mobile-friendly design significantly enhances user interaction and prioritizes community engagement and accessibility.

Improved KPIs for DLRI

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After implementing the new DLRI site design, we saw the following results:

• A 15 percent increase in UCLIC enrolments within three months.
• Student inquiries about DLRI and UCLIC tripled in comparison to Q1 of 2024.
• An eight percent decrease in DLRI's website bounce rate.
• A 25 percent increase in preceptor enrolment with the department.