Flagship Site Audit & Refresh

In web August 1, 2023

Earlier this year, I led a multi-phase digital modernization and user experience optimization initiative for the UCSF Medical Educatiom website, partnering with our outside developers, Kanopi Studios, and UCSF ITS to assess, redesign, and improve a large-scale Drupal platform serving prospective students, faculty, clinicians, and academic administrators. The engagement combined deep technical auditing with user behavior analytics and UX strategy to create a roadmap for improving accessibility, performance, navigation, and conversion pathways across one of UCSF’s most visible educational platforms.

One problem we sought to solve was wayfinding. Survey and heatmapping data suggested our users sometimes struggled to orient themselves among our content. Visually, it was hard to determine hierarchy. It was also difficult to contextualize where certain information fit into the larger scheme of things.

The refresh project included work that created visual distinction between the main content area and the right-side navigation. We also added clearer visual indication of which page a user is on, and where that page fits in hierarchically.

The first phase focused on a comprehensive technical assessment of site infrastructure, including platform health, security posture, frontend architecture, performance optimization, SEO configuration, and governance workflows. Key findings identified technical debt related to outdated modules, PHP end-of-life risk, accessibility compliance gaps, and frontend maintainability concerns. Recommendations included migrating to PHP 8 compatibility, improving WCAG 2.1 compliance, optimizing image delivery with responsive images and WebP, implementing stronger password policies, and modernizing frontend workflows using Gulp and Dart Sass.

Building on the technical audit, I helped lead a second phase centered on user research and behavioral analytics to better understand how visitors interacted with the platform and where they encountered friction. The initiative analyzed more than 25,000 user recordings, 67,000 page views, and detailed Mouseflow and Google Analytics heat map data across desktop and mobile experiences. Findings showed that admissions, continuing medical education (CME), and program information were the most heavily trafficked user journeys, while survey responses revealed that 65% of users struggled to easily find the information they needed.

I synthesized analytics, survey data, and navigation heat maps into actionable UX and information architecture recommendations. This included streamlining navigation hierarchies, reducing unnecessary clicks, improving accessibility in menu systems, consolidating redundant content, and creating clearer calls-to-action for high-priority tasks such as medical school applications and CME course registration.

A major contribution of the project was translating complex behavioral data into strategic design decisions. Heat map analysis revealed that users consistently engaged with admissions and application-related content while lower-value navigation elements received little to no interaction. I worked with stakeholders to prioritize homepage redesigns, improve mobile usability, restructure content pathways, and develop more intuitive admissions workflows informed directly by user behavior patterns.

The project resulted in a prioritized modernization roadmap that balanced technical remediation with user-centered design improvements. Outcomes included clearer navigation strategy, improved accessibility planning, performance optimization recommendations, admissions experience redesign concepts, and data-driven UX enhancements designed to improve engagement, reduce friction, and support the long-term scalability of UCSF Medical Education’s digital ecosystem. In addition to the structural changes this work informed, we also took this opportunity to give a slight aesthetic refresh, meant to give a more modern look while also clarifying user journey.

We consider this work a success: bounce rates on admissions-related pages have gone down, session duration has gone up, and site search data suggests that fewer users are struggling to find our most valuable information. Anecdotally, administrators report less confusion and less correspondence about where to find information specific to their roles.