Sexual Being is a website launched by the DC Department of Health’s HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB Administration (HAHSTA) to help reduce transmission of the diseases while providing care and treatment to those with the diseases.
Under the Creative Direction of Garth Moore, I used my user experience skills to research, brand, wireframe and design the campaign website. The goal was to create a human-centered approach to their entire initiative.
To begin, qualitative research was performed by the agency Brave UX. Their methodology consisted of 11 in-depth interviews focusing on key discussion point:
Unaided responses on health and sexual health research, resources, and needs
Aided discussion of sexual health statistics for Washington, DC
Aided discussion of two sexual health scenarios
Discussion of sexual health resources, needs, priority, and messaging
The sample audiences included:
African-American MSMs (1)
African-American hetero men (1)
African-American women (2)
Latino MSMs (2)
Transgender individuals (2)
White hetero women (1)
White MSMs (2)
The research findings helped define user problems and what possible solutions would look like when creating the website.
There is a low awareness of HAHSTA
Understand your users; those looking for sexual health information are feeling scared, concerned, uncomfortable, and embarrassed.
Other users are curious about sexual health issues and advancement
Start with empathy
Prioritize the most important services including testing, contraceptives, and education
Statistics tell an important story
Scenario testing reveals fear and need for support and guidance
Low awareness of PrEP leads to questions
The website recommendations based on the research included:
Unifying all the campaign sites into one
Conveying information with empathy
Emphasizing partnerships and services
Easy and intuitive to find and read
Leveraging WebMD’s successes
Recognizing cultural and socio-economic differences
Using the research findings and card sorting, we put together a site map along with the information architecture.
I put together a series of wireframes, for both low fidelity prototyping as well as content strategy. Below are some examples of them.
I then set about creating a mood board, so the client would have an idea for the visuals we wanted to undertake. Along with a mood board, we put together a quick style guide to go along with it.
Finally we get to the high fidelity mockups. Mobile versions were also created but are not shown. We went through a series of rounds and finally landed on these designs. They represent the final buildout.
The resulting website both improved visibility and understanding of what and how the DC Department of Health’s HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB Administration can do for the citizens of Washington, D.C.