UX Research Case Studies in Tech, Gaming, Financial Services

Pharma Client: Improving Drug Safety Information

Written by AnswerLab Research | Jan 1, 2015 8:00:00 AM

A leading pharma company asked us:

How should our website best convey safety information to patients while providing a positive customer experience?

Our client wanted to obtain patient feedback to help determine which website format provided the best overall experience for consumption of drug safety information.

AnswerLab set out to re-evaluate the way the drug website displayed safety information to patients and ultimately recommended a multi-phase approach, including a heuristic evaluation and concept testing, followed by remote usability sessions.

We answered:

In the first phase, the AnswerLab's UX research team categorized drug websites across all major manufacturers by their presentation of safety information, and evaluated their effectiveness. During phase two, we worked with a design agency to develop mock drug website concepts reflecting each of the major website layouts.

We gathered user feedback and reactions to different elements of these mock-ups to inform the development of the prototypes. In the third and final phase, AnswerLab moderated remote usability sessions with interactive website prototypes that were refined versions of the top-performing website layouts from the concept testing round.

Key research questions and areas included:

  • Needs analysis - understanding users’ intents, goals, needs, wants, pain points and delights when engaging with drug safety information
  • Balance - determining the most effective treatment of content without detracting from the website’s overall user experience
  • Usability - appropriate treatment of required information, ease of finding safety information, ease of consuming safety information

Outcome:

AnswerLab captured user insights into why users preferred certain drug websites layouts to others, and identified the most effective approach for presenting drug safety information without disrupting the overall user experience. As a result, the location of drug safety information has changed on almost all of the company’s drug sites.