Korczak Lab Website Redesign
During my time as a Clinical Research Project Assistant at SickKids’ Korczak Lab in 2022, I was tasked with designing the Lab’s website. A year later, after completing Google’s UX Design Certificate and expanding my design knowledge through extensive research and practice, I decided to redesign the site using Figma to fix some of the aesthetic and usability issues. The following is a documentation of this process.
Research and Inspiration
I used Dribble as my main source of inspiration for this project, drawing from examples of web design done for research labs and academic institutions. Some key elements I took away from the examples above include:
Header design: I was surprised that the menu items and logo on the header were smaller than the title and even the subtitle text on the pages. I decided to do some research on header design and came across this article by the Nielsen Norman Group, one of my go-to UX resources. This helped me understand that the header should generally aim not to interfere with or distract from the content on the page. Regarding the site logo, which I had previously thought should be proportionately large to establish emphasis and hierarchy, I learned that alternative techniques could be used to ensure its memorability, like placing it on the left side of the screen.
Minimalist home pages: The home pages I studied had minimal information on them. They gave a clear message of what the organization was about and saved the details for other site pages. I realized that my previous iteration of the Korczak site was too cluttered and may overwhelm users and take away from the site's aesthetics.
Wireframing
Design System
Creating a design system/sticker sheet for the site allowed me to ensure elements were consistent across pages, creating a cleaner and more unified design.
It also made for more efficient work in Figma, as I made each item on the sticker sheet a component and created instances to reuse them easily. Thanks to Koru UX for the “Colours” section formatting!
Updated Designs
Although it is still a work in progress, creating an updated version of the Korczak Lab website has been a valuable learning experience and a marker of my growth as a designer. Aside from the visual design aspects, I have also learned a great deal about the importance of responsive web design, which was lacking in the original website. This video by Tim Gabe on Youtube was a lifesaver for learning the ins and outs of responsive web design on Figma.
I plan to have completed the website design by June 2023 and have the updated site live by July 2023. Stay tuned for more updates! :)