Background.

The CDC Division of Opioid Prevention developed a website for public health departments and government subject matter experts to communicate on technical issues. The site, in addition to acting as a resource center, was also serving as a platform for technical assistance requests to be made and tracked. The platform and site, however, had been developed in-house without user feedback.

Problem statement: How might a heuristic evaluation be used to highlight and focus future areas to target user research?

Method.

Jakob’s 10 Usability heuristics were used as a starting point. However, I’d recently completed a UX Web Design course through NN/g which provided me with a wealth of information to put to use. I condensed the education gained there to second set of heuristics. In addition, I asked around at ICF to see any else existed, found their proprietary standards and sprinkled those on top.

I then went about analyzing each page using the comprehensive set of heuristics. The most meaningful pieces were communicated to the project team.

Impact.

The final deliverable can be found here.

Four areas identified for change were:

• Content and Information Architecture

• General system heuristics

• Visual Design and

The major recommendation was to rethink the Content Strategy and IA of the current website and platform. The information was useful but misplaced and mis-worded. Page goals were often unclear. In the end, our client gladly accepted the recommendation. I left as plans were being made to engage with the Content Strategy Team.