FDB Health

Led the strategy and UX to create a modern, responsive experience to support lead generation for a top medical data brand.

When I sat down with the team to kick off a project for FDB, it sounded like a typical site redesign. I would do the UX research in the Discovery phase, immerse myself in the business, and start ideating. However, as I interviewed the stakeholders, I quickly realized that things weren’t as simple as they first appeared.

We all wanted to simplify the experience, but there were a lot of opinions on how to achieve that for the products’ taxonomy and content. After some back-and-forth, I led a series of working sessions to try to understand the problem. It turned out that… complex medical databases are complex. After smacking myself in the head, I made a mental note to remember that simplification for its own sake should be avoided, and that over-simplification can be just as big a risk as complexity.

Simplification for its own sake should be avoided, and over-simplification can be just as big a risk as complexity.

Background

FDB is the leading brand in medical drug and device knowledge, providing the data used by hospitals and pharmacies all over the world. A database might sound dry, but the life-or-death decisions a doctor makes about a prescription rely on a constantly changing trove of research on everything from patient demographics, drug interactions, side effects, and more. This was a new area for me, and I enjoyed learning about an aspect of healthcare that is critical, but usually invisible to the patient.

Approach

I led the Discovery (research), strategy, and user experience design for the project. I drew on my past experience with technology clients like Intel and Cisco to consolidate and simplify FDB’s personas. Working with the team, I came up with three strategic pillars to guide the design.