Introduction

• Brief: Solo project to design and launch the Irish Medical News website (now Irish Medical Times).

• Challenge: Create a digital platform for busy Irish healthcare professionals that’s as informative and trustworthy as the print edition.

• Goals: Fast, clear access to news, easy navigation, and mobile-friendly design.

Discovery Phase

• Stakeholder interviews: Met with editors and journalists to understand publishing workflows.

• Business requirements: Needed to support weekly news cycles, archives, and advertising.

• User needs: Doctors and health pros wanted quick headlines, deep dives, and a clutter-free experience.

Problem Framing

• Problem statement: Print readers needed a digital home that matched their workflow—without the clutter of early 2010s news sites.

• Success criteria: Users can scan headlines, dive into stories, and find archives without friction.

• Constraints: Tight timeline, limited dev resources, must support legacy content.

User Research

• User interviews: Talked to doctors about how they read news online vs. print.

• Competitive analysis: Benchmarked top medical and mainstream news sites.

• Market research: Found most medical sites were clunky, slow, or text-heavy.

Synthesis

• Personas: Busy hospital doctors, GPs, and medical students—all short on time.

• Journey mapping: From homepage scan to in-depth article, and back to archives.

• Key insights: Speed and clarity trump bells and whistles.

Solution Development

• Information architecture: Simple, headline-driven homepage; clear sections for news, opinion, and research.

• Wireframes & prototypes: Sketched layouts for rapid feedback.

• Visual design: Clean, professional, but approachable—no unnecessary distractions.

Testing

• Usability testing: Ran quick sessions with doctors and editorial staff.

• User feedback: Tweaked navigation and story layouts for faster scanning.

• Design iterations: Optimized mobile and tablet layouts.

Implementation

• Handoff: Delivered annotated designs to the dev team.

• Collaboration: Worked closely on CMS integration and ad placements.

• Go-to-market: Launched with a big push in the print edition and direct outreach to subscribers.

Results & Impact

• Metrics: Won Business Website of the Year at the Irish Magazine Awards 2011.

• User adoption: Surge in traffic and positive feedback from healthcare professionals.

• Business impact: Strengthened the Irish Medical News brand and digital ad revenue.

• Lessons learned: Simple, user-focused news design beats flashy features every time.