User research revealed that the organization’s website was targeting the wrong audience. Patients often faced accessibility barriers related to health concerns and treatment schedules, while other important user groups—such as family members and volunteers—were underserved.
Our team restructured the site’s architecture and recommended navigation updates to better align with actual user behaviors, improving findability and relevance for each audience segment.
Our redesign clarified navigation for caregivers and volunteers while improving overall findability within Michigan Medicine’s larger ecosystem.
For this project, we worked within Michigan Medicine’s existing design system and style guide. Rather than feeling restrictive, these guardrails clarified many design decisions and allowed us to focus on streamlining. The landing page was restructured to act as a clear portal to each of the four core user pathways we identified.
Breadcrumbing came up as a point of confusion for users during interviews. Originally, "Michigan Medicine Home" was just home, which users thought would take them back to the Gifts of Art home page. We suggested this overarching change to the Michigan Medicine ecosystem which would improve navigability throughout the site, not just for Gifts of Art.
"How might we ethically shift functionality away from a patient focus while serving caregivers and volunteers more effectively?"
We began by mapping and categorizing key user actions across the existing site. Once we understood which groups performed which tasks, we restructured these features into streamlined, linear flows tailored to each audience. This included simplifying how family members order bedside services, introducing clear volunteer sign-up tools, and implementing accessible forms to support both actions.
Nancy is the primary caregiver for her husband. She relies on Gifts of Art programming to provide comfort and connection during treatment. Nancy needs needs to be able to easily find and request services.
Jennifer is a nursing student volunteering at Michigan Medicine. She wants to learn how to get involved and needs information about the organization that’s fast and trustworthy. She values clarity and confirmation that her interest is being seen and acknowledged.
Gerald is a patient at Michigan Medicine and enjoys the services provided by Gifts of Art. However, due to accessibility challenges related to his health, he relies on caregivers to help him access and request those services.
We used Chat GPT to quickly develop story board images for user scenarios extracted from our interview and survey content. This process helped uncover and personify the unique painpoints our users were facing. We used these to inform our sitemap and other design decisions.
To address our newly identified user groups, we began by restructuring patient services into four clear categories. Each service was given its own page with concise information and a dedicated request form, allowing family members and capable patients to easily find and request assistance.
Because Gifts of Art relies heavily on volunteers, we focused on making the volunteer pathways intuitive and purposeful. Information was reorganized by role and skill level, and each pathway now ends with a form tailored to the appropriate type of volunteer—from general helpers to specialized artists.
Donations are a vital part of Gifts of Art’s sustainability. Exposing this business-supporting action through a clear, linear user flow was non-negotiable. We elevated donation visibility across the site and restructured the related pages to feature stronger CTAs and a more direct route to contribution.
Programs and events represent the public-facing side of Gifts of Art, featuring exhibitions, visiting artists, and community outreach. We clarified navigation for exhibitions, visiting artists, and archived performances, making it easier for new visitors to explore and for recurring users to engage.
Future iterations could integrate more contextual prompts and interpage linking to reinforce donation pathways and strengthen financial sustainability.
The restructured site architecture and enhanced navigation make Gifts of Art easier to locate within the broader Michigan Medicine ecosystem. The newly defined user flows guide each user group through key tasks with clear starting and ending points. These changes reduce confusion, improve task completion rates, and foster more positive interactions with the program.
Because Gifts of Art functions as a suborganization within Michigan Medicine, we had to coordinate with multiple stakeholder groups—including Communications, Patient Coordination, Public Relations, and the Gifts of Art team itself.
HIPAA regulations and public image considerations restricted access to patients, and our participant recruitment process required multiple rounds of approval, reducing our timeline and overall sample size.
Additionally, the Communications team prioritized higher-impact, patient-facing initiatives, making it difficult to secure support for changes to an auxiliary program like Gifts of Art.
Despite these constraints, our redesign provides a framework for future implementation once departmental priorities allow.
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