Centralis and NorthShore University HealthSystem improve access to health & wellness information
The Client
NorthShore University HealthSystem (previously Evanston Northwestern Healthcare) is a comprehensive, fully integrated healthcare delivery system serving northern Illinois communities. NorthShore is the principal teaching affiliate of the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine.
The Challenge
NorthShore’s website offers a variety of health resources for doctors, patients and the surrounding community. Feedback from users suggested that this valuable content was difficult to locate given the breadth of information available on the site.
NorthShore asked Centralis to investigate how their website’s content could be better organized to meet users’ needs. We sought to provide consumers with clear, intuitive access to health and wellness information, as well as specific information about NorthShore’s clinical services.
Our Work
To gain insight into how NorthShore’s website should be structured, Centralis conducted a series of one-on-one card sorting sessions with representative site users. In these sessions, participants were asked to freely sort examples of the site’s content into categories they considered similar in meaningful ways. A cluster analysis of these data revealed how users seek out online health and wellness information, which served as a foundation for a revised information architecture for the website.
The Outcome
Based on our recommendations, NorthShore reorganized its website’s navigation system to better align with user goals. The site continues to serve the community by showcasing its clinical services and providing trusted health information from accredited sources.
