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The National Health and Medical Research Council

Building pathways to a healthier future through research funding, health guidelines and ethical standards. NHMRC is 'Building a healthy Australia'.
OVERVIEW

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is Australia’s peak body for supporting health and medical research; for developing health advice for the Australian community, health professionals and governments; and for providing advice on ethical behaviour in health care and in the conduct of health and medical research.

The NHMRC brings together within a single national organisation the functions of research funding and development of advice. It draws upon the resources of all components of the health system, including governments, medical practitioners, nurses and allied health professionals, researchers, teaching and research institutions, public and private program managers, service administrators, community health organisations, social health researchers and consumers.

ROLE & DURATION
UX Lead | National Health and Medical Research Council
Research, Information Architecture, Interaction, Visual design & testing

Team of 1 UX/UI designers, 1 IA Researcher
6 Motion Graphics & 4 developers

January 2018

CLIENT

The Problem

In 2018 the National Health and Medical Research Council had an ageing brand, low community recognition, and a website that had become bloated and difficult to use. Both from a user/visitor perspective and those managing the website. 

81%

of Australians surveyed had no idea what NHMRC was or the work they did.

4%

of the medical research professionals were able to find the information they needed without calling the NHMRC help desk.

BUSINESS GOAL: Improve the userbility of the website by surfacing required information quickly | Increase NHMRC’s Brand awareness & recognition in the general population.

Solution

1. Information Architecture with a user centric model

The primary solution was to implement a system that would allow  users to quickly surface the information they needed when they needed all online.

2. Tell stories of the impact of NHMRC funding

Research funded by NHMRC has a profound impact, in Australia and internationally. Stories about outstanding researchers at all career stages and their ground-breaking discoveries should be surfaced. These cameos give a sense of the breadth and depth of the work that NHMRC is funding and the years of commitment and hard work that underpin research and its translation into crucial improvements in health care.

Challenges

1. Strategy for delievering a new approach 

As a radical departure from NHMRC’s previous ways of community outreach and communication there was a need for a digital first approach.

2. Just in time & Priority

The redesign and rebrand had a lot of moving parts. It required a systematic approach to making sure we had all of the assets to succeed in our launch and timeline. Developing a communications plan that included motion graphics, web, video, social and writen stories was imperitive to growing the engagement. 

3. Software and Security

This required a lot of research and testing. Not only did the website have to look good and be fit for purpose but it had to be able to handle peak traffic during NHMRC funding rounds and Guideline releases. This would require careful cloud hosting, platfrom and stress testing.

 

NHMRC