Modernising the visuals of the WWARN site needed to take into account what has changed in web trends over the last few years - bandwidth improvements and progression in ideas about usability influenced the new look.
It’s easy for global health content to appear inaccessible when not given room to breathe, this was a factor we kept in mind when designing the landing pages that direct you around the site. Clean style with clear labelling - “too busy” was the mantra of the design stage, so ruthless editing of content was required to complement the more visual way of leading a user to their goals.
We often use the WWARN site as an example of how to use visual cues and interactivity to present content - clear descriptive labelling, enticing images, space to digest the information.
A site rebuild is a great opportunity to reflect on how navigation has evolved over the lifespan of a site. Additions are often made in an ad-hoc fashion, which makes sense at the time but can result in an inconsistent tapestry of content. Information architecture needs holistic consideration, and input from people who aren’t involved in maintaining a site helps! What’s intuitive for one may seem curious to another, so it’s useful to take many opinions on board.
There are a few tools we use which help us organise a site that’s easy to use, but our global health experience gives us a headstart - we know what works for the industry, and the audience.
WWARN worked hard to draw input from across the organisation, and also roped in family and friends to take part in exercises to determine how best to sort the pages on the new site. Having a consensus on where people expect to find certain information is a handy way to gauge how future users will behave - the kind of insight that can easily evade those working closely to the project.
Improving the visibility of the results and impact of WWARN’s activities was a priority for the new site.
Our scoping phase highlighted opportunities to improve the site for the layman - a recurring challenge for global health organisations is being able to clearly communicate their impact.
Case studies pull out particular services WWARN carries out, explaining their impact upon the current malaria landscape, and how they’ll shape the fight against malaria in years to come.
WWARN’s toolkit is a key service, which contributes to their objective of standardising the way malaria research evidence is collected and presented. As it’s freely available, it’s of particular use for researchers in malaria endemic countries.
A priority for the new site was to give WWARN’s toolkit the status it deserved within the real estate of the home page, and the IA of the site.
Together with WWARN, we created an interactive representation of the Toolkit, with relevant links to assist work in any stage along the timeline of the evidence collection process. This visualisation features prominently on the home page, giving an immediate idea of the areas which WWARN can support a researcher, and leading them directly there if required.
It took a great deal of effort from everybody involved, but we’re proud of the site that it produced, and to be associated with all that WWARN are doing to meet their vision to provide the information to prevent or slow antimalarial drug resistance.
The WWARN site is one of our go-to examples of how we help organisations communicate and showcase the significant activities they carry out.
