Business Overview:
Fred Hutch is a cancer research center dedicated to the elimination of cancer and related diseases. Shared Resources is a tool that is intended to be a database for researchers to utilize and reference.

Problem Statement:
The Shared Resources tool had been contributed to over the course of ten years without experience considerations, causing usability issues for both internal and external researchers.

Business Goals:
Increase site utilization from internal and external researchers to become a more trusted and reliable resource. Improve admin experience for internal users. Improve donors experience in order to continue to receive charitable monetary contributions.

Process & Deliverables:
Stakeholder Research
User Research
Competitive Analysis - Feature & Experience
User Research
Personas
User Scenarios
User Journeys
Wireframes

Tools Used:
Pen & Paper
Google Meet, Drive, Docs, Sheets
Sketch & Figma
inVision

My Role:
Lead UX Designer

Stakeholder Interviews

I interviewed 9 individuals from Fred Hutch ranging from the director of operations, staff scientists, shared resources admin, and scientific directors in order to understand project priorities, goals, understood opportunities, competitors and vision. My findings included: 

Users - Users include labs, grant administrators, pharmaceutical companies, PhDs, or faculty recruits.

Varied User Needs - Each core has strongly varying needs, and requires various functionality to be successful in their unique practice category.

Content Organization - Even users who are familiar with the site prefer not to use it because they cannot easily locate and save content, causing users to bypass the site, and contact an admin directly.

Tell the Story - The current site does not inspire, as it does not showcase the cutting-edge, breakthrough science the Shared Resource cores deliver.

Backend Upkeep - Utilize a backend system that employs regular maintenance.

User Interview Findings

I interviewed a total of ten users of the Shared Resources site and consolidated findings by way of an affinity map in order to categorize common categories & pain points. Findings include:

• Vague Page Details - Pages do not effectively share enough detail.

• Users Bypass Site - Many users will bypass the site and look for alternate options to achieve their goals.

• Time - It is especially important for all users to efficiently access content.

• Site Awareness - Both internal and external users indicated that site awareness is low. Some users stated that the nomenclature is confusing - “Shared Resources” doesn’t indicate the intended use for the site.

• Content Organization - Content lacks organization and hierarchy.

• Secure Content / Pricing - Currently, pricing is not included and was said to be crucial in order for researchers to be efficient with their time.

Competitive Analysis - Features

Opportunities were distilled from a feature analysis looking at Fred Hutch and similar institutions. The categories examined were high-priority issues mentioned during the user & stakeholder interviews. Areas include:

• Relationship to other Fred Hutch sites is unclear and undefined

• The indented use of the site is not clearly enough defined

• Naming conventions within Core Facilities and Services are unclear

• Links are vaguely titled and redundant

• Provide more detail within services offered. Opportunity to include pricing, who will be involved, location of lab, time estimation, etc…

Before

After