.
The diabetes prevention CSC is a national public platform supporting over 1,400 health organizations and 780,000 participants with diabetes prevention resources and technical assistance.
While the platform provided essential tools, many program organizations struggled with poor navigation and complex workflows, making it hard to find resources and hindering effective prevention work. We addressed these usability and accessibility issues through a human-centered design approach.
Identified Problem
Many users struggle to navigate the CSC site and access the right resources, like toolkits, videos, and training materials.
Hard to navigate
The outdated information architecture and unclear navigation patterns make it difficult for users to locate essential resources.
Visual inconsistency
Inconsistent styling and unresolved accessibility issues create cognitive load and reduce overall usability.
Poor discoverability
High-value materials including toolkits and training videos are buried within deep menu layers, limiting access and engagement.
the challenge was..
How might we redesign the site to enhance navigation, accessibility, and visual desigan, ensuring users can easily access resources, ask questions, and receive technical assistance.
From numbers to narrative.
As part of our initial research, we conducted a usability evaluation of the existing website to analyze user interaction flows and identify experience gaps. The assessment revealed multiple usability issues affecting navigation, clarity, and task completion.
Key Insight: Users are not finding immediate value. This signals an urgent need to improve information architecture, enhance content discoverability, and deliver a more compelling first-click experience.
Research methods used
01
Heuristic Evaluation
Reviewed the existing site for usability, accessibility, and content clarity issues affecting navigation and task completion.
02
Competitive Analysis
Studied similar public health websites to identify best practices in structure, tone, and information hierarchy.
03
Analytics & Behavioral Review
Analyzed site data to understand user behavior, drop-offs, and engagement, guiding content and CTA improvements.
Understanding the Usability Gaps in the Current Platform
To evaluate the current user experience of the CSC website, we conducted moderated usability testing sessions. Through initial testing with 20 stakeholders initially, Our goal was to uncover interaction barriers and uncover improvement opportunities.
The study highlighted consistent usability challenges across key areas, including site navigation, resource discoverability, and task efficiency.
I feel like I’m apart
of a scavenger hunt!
Key Insight: Users are not finding immediate value. This signals an urgent need to improve information architecture, enhance content discoverability, and deliver a more compelling first-click experience.
Design decision.
To shape our design direction, we began by mapping user flows and creating empathy maps to uncover user needs, pain points, and behavioral patterns. These tools helped us visualize the end to end journey and identify critical friction in navigation, content accessibility, and visual clarity. Through usability analysis, we outlined five key focus areas: simplifying global search and navigation, improving visual consistency, streamlining resource access, enhancing community engagement, and strengthening accessibility. These insights grounded our decisions in empathy, usability, and inclusive design.
Ideation.
Through user interviews, usability testing, and heuristic evaluation, we gathered extensive feedback on the existing platform. Using affinity mapping, we organized these insights into thematic clusters that revealed key pain points across navigation, content structure, and accessibility. This synthesis, combined with empathy mapping and user journey mapping, helped us identify priority areas for design intervention and guided our solution framework.
Mapping Core Journeys
Through iterative wireflows and user testing, we crafted three core journeys that transform complex navigation into intuitive pathways, enabling users to discover content, explore resources, and access support effortlessly.
After the mid-fidelity design phase, I led the usability testing and A/B testing with my team to evaluate the information architecture, interaction flows, and overall task efficiency of the redesigned interface compared to the original CSC platform. Testing revealed improvements in navigation clarity, error reduction, and user satisfaction. We also ran visual preference tests comparing two color schemes, selecting the one with stronger contrast ratios, better accessibility compliance, and higher perceived usability
21
Testers
5
Tasks
89%
task success
120
Insights
Insights
Final Solution.
We transformed a cluttered platform into an intuitive ecosystem where users can easily search, discover events, access resources, and find support reducing friction and building trust throughout their entire journey.
Findability
Challenge
Users struggled to find events, resources, and information across the platform due to poor navigation and lack of search functionality.
Solution
Redesigned the Event Calendar to improve discoverability and planning for webinars, demos, and office hours. Clear list views, search, and save functionality reduce friction and help users quickly find and track relevant events.
Ask the community or an expert
Challenge
Fragmented help resources and hidden support options left users struggling to find assistance, eroding trust and platform satisfaction.
Solution
Designed a streamlined Support experience to help users quickly access help, resources, and assistance without leaving the platform. Clear pathways to FAQs, contact options, and program guidance reduce confusion and response time. This ensures users feel supported at every stage of their journey while maintaining trust and accessibility.
Salesforce was integrated as the central system of record, enabling seamless data exchange between the user facing platform and internal service workflows without exposing complexity to end users.
What was Integrated?
Salesforce Service Cloud for case and request management
Automated data sync between frontend forms and Salesforce custom objects
Role-based views for internal teams (admins, consultants, support)
Real-time status tracking and lifecycle updates surfaced back to users
Tools & Systems: Salesforce (Service Cloud) · API-based system integration · Enterprise workflow design · Data-driven UX
