The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

The project


User testing the old site [+]

The Sanger wanted to completely overhaul their website. They knew that they have many thousands of viewers a day and massive page views (this site is the centre of the Universe as far as the study of genetics is concerned) but they were concerned that the quality of the visitors' experience was sub-standard.

They employed me to look at how people were using the site and make things better by designing a new IA and undertaking a visual redesign.

Phase 1 - What have we got?


Page of analytics report [+]

Combining user testing, surveys and introducing the web team to serious analytics, we quickly isolated some key usability problems and aspects of the site that were causing people difficulty.

An intensive site audit where we documented all top-level pages and pathways showed serious problems with out of date and inappropriate content.

Phase 2 - What should we be doing?


BIG sitemaps! [+]

After reviewing site objectives and coming up with a new draft information architecture the team went through the existing site in detail, re-mapping and culling sections as needed.

I then built a prototype version of key new site sections and retested them on users to confirm that our ideas and assumptions were valid.

Phase 3 - Visual design and code


Clickable site prototype [+]

Then we finally went ahead and developed three visual pathways and, with key input from senior staff intent on giving the Sanger a clean and fresh look, went ahead and developed the final look. I then coded this into a series of templates for the web team to use to apply on a section by section, page by page overhaul of the site.

It's not over yet...


Running a feedback workshop on campus [+]

In fact if you look at the site today you will see... the old one. There are thousands of pages to recode so the project will take a while to bear fruit. In the meantime the Sanger have requested that I give them some further help with direction and ideas for the future of the site, it's underlying technology and how it is managed.