Helping people affected by arthritis find information and support.

The Challenge

The Arthritis Society is Canada's principal health charity providing education, programs and support to the over 4.6 million Canadians living with arthritis. They wanted to rethink their online presence to make it easier for people affected by arthritis to find the answers that they need through resources, tools and a network of experts.

Depending on a person's role (living with arthritis, a loved one with arthritis, healthcare professional, researcher, or supporter) and where they are from, they are looking for different answers, so we needed to find a way to drive different people to different content.

The Process

Through research and a series of collaborative workshops with the client, we determined the project objectives and KPIs. We knew that we wanted to use content personalization, so we ran a Design Studio with a focus on the potential ways we could use this technology to offer unique content to different visitors.

The content was analyzed and organized into an information architecture and a set of wireframes. Once we had initial UI designs, we created an interactive prototype, which was used for informal user testing so that we could iterate and improve the user experience. It was also used to help The Arthritis Society board of directors get a feel for the website very early on, prior to any actual development. Follow the numbered hotspots to experience the prototype yourself:

Arthritis Prototype

We wanted to ensure that the website would stay fresh and up-to-date post launch, so creating an easy to update content management system was also important. The website was designed using a modular approach that ensures maximum flexibility for content editors. This approach is outlined in the comprehensive style guide, which includes design references, common elements and base HTML.

Styleguide

The Solution

Content personalization is used throughout the website to present unique content to different users. Website visitors identify themselves on the home page by answering the question "I am..." — from then on, the content that they see is related to that role. Someone living with arthritis might see a call to action to join the community, whereas a researcher might read about the latest treatment breakthrough.

Arthritis Personalization

Geolocation is also used through the site to promote content from the visitor's community. For example, visitors from Toronto will see news and events from Toronto.

Arthritis Geolocation

The Arthritis Society's analytics revealed a drastic shift towards mobile and tablet viewing, so we used a mobile-first design approach. The final website is optimized for a wide variety of screen sizes.

Arthritis Mobile Screenshot
Arthritis Mobile Screenshot
Arthritis Mobile Screenshot

Role

Facilitation of collaborative workshops with the client, design look and feel exploration, responsive website design, style guide creation, prototype creation, custom icons

Agency

ecentricarts

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