Helping people understand their heart or circulatory condition.
Background
Being diagnosed with, or caring for someone with, a heart or circulatory condition can be overwhelming. The British Heart Foundation’s website plays a vital role in helping people understand their condition, feel less alone, and know where to turn for support and further information.
As part of a wider website redesign, the health conditions pages needed to move onto a new, more flexible template that could better serve this diverse and often anxious audience.
Brief
To create a new, variable website template for the health conditions pages on the British Heart Foundation website that helps users understand a condition and know where to find more information, empowers users to adopt healthy behaviours, and promotes ways in which the BHF can help people with heart and circulatory diseases.
Conditions pages were identified as content to migrate early because they’re popular with users, strategically important, need to reflect digital best practice, and are a possible trial for reusable components.
Research
Personas
Eight personas, representing the main British Heart Foundation audiences, were created in collaboration with Sift Digital.
Person with CVD
- Name: Tony
- Age: 64
- Job: Retired
- Location: Chelmsford
- BHF familiarity: Medium/high
“I know the British Heart Foundation are there for people like me, but I’m not sure of everything they do.”
Situation
Tony was hospitalised with a racing heartbeat and had a catheter ablation. His diagnosis came as a surprise, having never smoked and stayed physically active.
Top tasks
Tony searches ‘arrhythmia’ online, prints a page on medication side effects for his GP, and looks up suitable exercise.
Family member
- Name: Russell
- Age: 47
- Job: Surveyor
- Location: Coventry
- BHF familiarity: Medium
“I need help for my dad now, but I’m also worried about my children and me.”
Situation
Russell’s dad had a heart attack a couple of months ago, and he wonders if the condition is genetic and what it could mean for his children.
Top tasks
Russell searches ‘healthy eating heart condition’ and reads about risk factors and new research on the BHF website.
Competitor analysis
NHS
The Heart attack overview page begins with a list of topics covered as hyperlinks, prioritises a 999 message, breaks symptoms and prevention into digestible bullet points, links to further detail, and features a video with last-reviewed dates.
Mayo Clinic
A heart diagram is prioritised on the page, supporting information is highlighted in a light blue box, and symptoms, risk factors and other information are broken into clear, digestible bullet points.
Card sorting
A patient panel of people affected by heart and circulatory diseases took part in card sorting sessions to determine what information they’d expect to see, and in what order. Nearly all groups put a short summary of the condition at the top, with symptoms, causes, tests and treatments coming next. Information for family and carers was considered important, written in a softer, more personal tone. None of the groups prioritised a strong research message or ways to donate.
Design
Component review
Based on the findings, I made decisions on what content would feature on the health conditions pages and in what order, reviewing existing web components and considering some that would need to be built by our developers.
Design development
The pages were mocked up in Sketch and an interactive InVision template was sent to the Healthcare Innovation team for feedback, across three rounds of designs.
Draft 1
Content order was based on the research findings, prioritising symptoms, causes, diagnosis and treatment. Information for family and carers used a grey component to stand apart in a softer tone, and the page included time stamps for accuracy.
Draft 2
Header copy prioritised the ambulance service message, a Health Unlocked community panel was added, helpline opening hours were included, and the heart attack booklet was prioritised over the case study feature.
Draft 3
Copy was finalised and approved by the Medical team, a video component moved to the top of the page, and the related links component was refined with the team’s input.
Testing
Biometric lab testing
A high-fidelity desktop prototype (designed in Axure) was used in biometric usability testing sessions run by UX agency Space Between, including galvanic skin response, facial emotional analysis, mouse tracking, eye tracking and heart rate monitoring, with six people directly or indirectly affected by heart and circulatory diseases.
Affinity mapping
Clear themes emerged from the testing sessions, covering potential improvements to the website’s meganav, donate component, copy and photography, and the pros and cons of a competitor’s website.
Recommendations
Heart attack page
- Split copy into smaller, more digestible sections and cut down the amount of copy
- Decide whether to break the conditions page into separate, more detailed sub-pages
- Discuss and decide on whether to use anchor points at the top of the page
- Move the video further down the page to give users a better indication that they can scroll
- Move the 999 messaging up to the ‘Symptoms’ section and make the number clickable
Cardiac rehab page
Imagery could include younger people with CVD.
Website designs
Testimonials
Deborah is a joy to work with! She is an extremely talented designer with a natural user focus. I was lucky to have her join my Product team; she immediately added value.Katie, Digital Product Manager at the British Heart Foundation
I loved working with Deborah! She’s incredibly proactive, thorough and a team player with outstanding user-centred design skills.Emilia, Brand Manager at the British Heart Foundation
I’ve worked with Deborah for ten years and can confidently say she’s one of the best. She takes the time to understand a brand’s visual identity and develop content that is consistent, accessible and effective.Kimberley, Brand Manager at the British Heart Foundation