Putting science first

I was working with global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, to help create a new corporate digital presence that represents AstraZeneca's focus on pushing the boundaries of science to deliver life changing medicines.

The new website has defined KPI's centred around changing the perception of AstraZeneca amongst scientific audiences, increasing the quantity and quality of visitors that are driven through the Partnering and Recruitment funnels within the wider AstraZeneca digital eco-system and serving the traditional corporate audiences, including investors and media.

 

Role & Responsibilites

My role within the team was as Lead User Experience Architect working with a multi-disciplinary team from initial concept to post site launch improvements. This included the following tasks over 15 months:

  • Concept sketches and scamps
  • Wireframes
  • Sitemaps
  • Prototypes
  • Content mapping
  • Client presentations
  • Specification documents and write up for 50+ components
  • Working with Sketch, Axure, Photoshop, Illustrator, MarvelApp and good old pen and paper!

22 countries

roll-out over the next 6 months

£16 million

committed budget over 3 years

+23%

increase in 'science-led' perception

CONCEPT

It was evident that we needed to adopt a ‘show, don’t tell approach’ to demonstrate that AstraZeneca is a different type of pharma company that can visualise and put the science first.

We worked closely with some of AstraZeneca’s best scientists to bring to life a variety of cutting edge scientific stories and engaging content, ensuring we gave an insight into the science and the culture

 

AstraZeneca had previously had a very hierarchical structure with lots of buried content and throughout the course of the project I created multiple sitemaps to indicate how the site navigation and underlying content areas were shifting with new requirements.  We switched the site towards a flat navigational structure to meet the needs of many different user groups looking for different information and as there was much deliberation from  AZ about what areas should live within the primary navigation. 

MAPPING THE NEW ASTRAZENECA

 

 Initially when tackling a new area of the site I would work collaboratively with a designer and sketch out a proposal for how the page would work and the kind of assets and components we could utilise throughout the site. This ensured that we had a clear story arc, and experience for each page whilst aligning with the creative vision for the project.

Utilising the Sketch app as the main tool for both creative design and wireframing meant I could share production assets with the creative team and helped with consistency across the site. It also brought the initial hand drawn sketches, wireframes and final creative deliverable closer together.

FROM SKETCH TO DESIGN

 
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WIREFRAMES IN FOCUS

Once requirements for a section of the site had been decided I created wireframes for presentation to the client for initial proposals of how we could move those sections forward. As the project proceeded we created a catalogue of components in Sketch of fully designed components that were in build. I used these components within my wireframes for a more accurate representation of the final design.

 

Desktop view

Mobile view

PROTOTYPING & INTERACTION DESIGN

Full Axure prototype developed with multiple members of the UX and Creative teams. This prototype evolved throughout the course of the project as more pages were designed.

THE REAL DEAL

Check out the live global AstraZeneca corporate site.