Increased User Engagement >30% through Website Overhaul
Higher Education, Research
Landing Page After Redesign
Landing Page Before Redesign
Client
UCLA Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics (CNG)
Timeline
Aug 2021 -
Dec 2021
(3 months)
Skills
Content Strategy
Information Architecture
Stakeholder Communications
UX Design
Role
UX Designer
Project Manager
Tools
GoogleDocs
Photoshop
WordPress
Problem
The Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics (CNG) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a renowned research group comprised of distinguished faculty, researchers, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, trainees, and administrators.
Through stakeholder interviews with board of directors, our team identified CNG’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Although it held a strong reputation within the neuroscience research community, it lacked publicity and centralized information—particularly in the online space.
Solution & Impact
Based on insights from our team’s SWOT Analysis as well as qualitative and quantitative data collected over the span of a decade (2011-2021), we designed and shipped a new website for CNG. It served as a platform for showcasing CNG’s accomplishments, highlighting its resources, fostering stronger community, encouraging funding support, and expanding the candidate pool for its training program.
After launch, the new website bolstered user engagement by more than 30% and significantly reduced the administrative burden of responding to frequently asked questions by more than 50%.
Faculty Page After Redesign
Faculty Page Before Redesign
Building Community
CNG is defined by its inclusive community, close collaboration, and innovative research, but the design of the original website suggested otherwise.
Faculty were introduced on separate, inconsistently formatted pages.
Information on regularly scheduled program events was nowhere to be found.
Few photos were posted, and they were outdated.
Walls of dense text occupied the website.
We designed the new website to bring CNG’s collaborative spirit to the forefront!
Faculty were introduced within a single page with a concise overview of their background and research.
Dynamic event calendars displayed upcoming seminars, journal club meetings, workshops, and retreats.
Recent group photos and group publications were spotlighted.
Highly complex components of CNG’s federally-funded training program, including its curriculum and application process, were outlined clearly with adequate space in between.
Increasing Usability
Our team focused on establishing sustainable infrastructures that persisted beyond short-term solutions:
Transitioned the website to a more customizable content management system
Streamlined the navigation menu
Added an accessibility toolkit that offered adjustments to font size and color contrast
Implemented web features that auto-populated information across multiple pages
Following the launch of the new Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics website, the reception was positive! Visitors praised the website for its easy navigation and extremely informative content.
Accessibility Toolkit: High Contrast View
Learnings
While no additional structural changes were made to the website after the initial round of feedback, our team continued to iterate on its content based off comments on readability from correspondences, conferences, and other communication channels.
“This is the most informative, user-friendly and updated website I’ve seen for a training grant.”
Disclaimer: While I was employed by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) during the course of this project, the views and options expressed by me on this page are my own, and do not represent the views and opinions of UCLA or its other employees.
