McMaster’s HSE Search Engine
PROJECT
UI/UX Design
Free Access Point for Evidence to Support policy makers, stakeholders and researchers.
DESCRIPTION
With more than 11,000 registered users, McMaster’s Health Evidence System is the world’s most comprehensive, free access point for policy makers, stakeholders, and researchers interested in health systems. Along with our partners at Functional Imperative, we were tasked to update and revitalize the HSE website. This meant creating a fully responsive site, with a powerful open search function, an extensive filtering system, a guided search option, the ability to save preferred searches, save retrieved documents and export results.
By nature, the website is text heavy. Therefore, our design tasks included making the site less impenetrable, more navigable and ultimately more readable and digestible. We started by understanding the width and breadth of a regular search, then the multitude of levels necessary for good open search and lastly how it might be simplified through nesting information. This helped us understand what was necessary to create a mobile interface (mobile first) that could be efficiently navigated by inexperienced and power users alike. This began with laying down the rules for a solid typographic hierarchy that could work seamlessly across all devices. After beginning with mobile, the learnings were extrapolated to other devices up to desktop sizes.
“We’re excited to launch the latest version of Health Systems Evidence—a powerful tool to help health-system policymakers, stakeholders and researchers rapidly identify research evidence about how to strengthen health systems and get the right programs, services and drugs to those who need them,” “For all those looking for evidence to support policy decisions, we’re trying to help you do this better or more efficiently.”
—Dr. John N. Lavis, Director of the McMaster Health Forum (mcmasterhealthforum.org).
DELIVERABLES
UI/UX Design, Fully annotated Files for Development
CREDITS
Overdrive Design Limited—Creative Direction, UI/UX design, Graphic design, Project management
Code—Functional Imperative
LINKS
Visit the HSE website: healthsystemsevidence.org
Read a press release about the project at: mcmasterhealthforum.org
Information on what HSE is: learn more
