NORTHWESTERN MEDICINE

Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital is one of the largest and most respected hospitals in the United States. It is a national hub for both patient treatment and research, but the university website struggled to simplify the hospital's complex offerings while touting its world-renowned services. I partnered with Wire Stone in Chicago to develop a content strategy driven by a set of principles to develop a user-friendly website that quickly drove users to the content they needed. 
 

homepage

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The Northwestern Medicine homepage had to distill crucial information about a vast organization: highlight its achievements, communicate its scope and size in a positive way, and drive visitors to relevant locations. We did this with a hierarchical content strategy that used the hero area to meet specific user needs (find a doctor, schedule an appointment), while using lower sections on the page to communicate the hospital’s benefits. 

 

 

locations

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Northwestern has multiple centers and locations, each offering unique treatments and services. The website’s About Us page had to differentiate locations, highlighting their strengths and driving potential and existing patients to the right location. We created a hierarchical template that featured each location’s achievements as well as the key highlights of its offerings. We then enabled access points to content for specific audiences, and featured news and other content that communicated the benefits of the locations. 

 

disciplines

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Along with highlighting specific locations, Northwestern also aimed to tell the accomplishments and offerings of specific medical practices at the hospital. We created a template that each discipline could use to feature content about the practice and direct patients to schedule an appointment, find a doctor, or contact the practice area. 

 

patients & visitors

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Patients and visitors are, of course, a key audience segment for any hospital. The challenge Northwestern faced was clearly communicating to patients and visitors a variety of content and offerings. We developed a template that allowed patients and visitors to find the content they needed to help them do whatever task they had to do at the hospital: scheduling an appointment, contact the billing department, access their medical records, and more.