Website Redesign
The Challenge
Meridian Healthcare's website had grown organically over eight years, resulting in a fragmented experience across 350+ pages. Different departments had added content without central governance, leading to inconsistent branding, duplicate information, and a navigation structure that confused patients trying to find care options.
Analytics revealed that 73% of users abandoned the site within two pages, appointment requests had declined 40% year-over-year, and mobile users — now 65% of traffic — faced an essentially unusable experience. The organization needed a complete digital transformation, not just a visual refresh.
The Approach
User Research Foundation
Conducted 40+ user interviews, card sorting exercises, and usability studies to understand how patients actually seek care information versus how the organization assumed they did.
Content Audit & Strategy
Audited all 350+ pages, eliminating 40% as redundant or outdated. Created a new content hierarchy based on patient journey mapping and search intent analysis.
Mobile-First Design
Rebuilt the entire experience starting from mobile, ensuring critical actions like appointment booking and location finding worked flawlessly on any device.
Performance Optimization
Implemented modern web architecture with lazy loading, image optimization, and CDN distribution to achieve sub-3-second load times across all pages.
The Results
Within six months of launch, online appointment requests increased by 89%, and the site achieved a Core Web Vitals score of 95+ across all metrics. Patient satisfaction surveys showed a 34% improvement in "ease of finding information."
Key Deliverables
- Comprehensive UX audit and recommendations report
- User research synthesis and persona development
- Information architecture and sitemap redesign
- Mobile-first responsive design system
- Component library and design documentation
- SEO migration strategy and implementation
- Accessibility audit and WCAG 2.1 AA compliance
- Analytics dashboard and KPI tracking framework
- Content migration and optimization for 200+ pages
- Staff training and CMS documentation
Reflection
The biggest lesson from this project was the importance of stakeholder alignment before diving into design. Healthcare organizations have complex internal politics, and getting buy-in from clinical, administrative, and IT leadership early prevented countless revision cycles later.
We also learned that content strategy is UX strategy. The most beautiful design in the world can't save confusing or outdated content. By investing heavily in the content audit phase, we created a foundation that made the visual design almost obvious.