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Work ❯ Clinical Trials
Mission
ClinicalTrials.gov is a website and online database of clinical research studies and information about their results. It provides information about clinical research studies to the public, researchers, and health care professionals.
Agency partnersU.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)↳ National Institutes of Health (NIH)↳ National Library of Medicine (NLM) ↳ National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
See it liveClinicalTrials.gov
ClinicalTrials.gov is a website and online database of clinical research studies and information about their results. It provides information about clinical research studies to the public, researchers, and health care professionals.
Agency partnersU.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)↳ National Institutes of Health (NIH)↳ National Library of Medicine (NLM) ↳ National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
See it liveClinicalTrials.gov
Problem
In 2017, The New York Times reported that three women lost their eyesight after mistaking the purpose of clinicaltrials.gov as safe, “government-approved research.” Additionally, recent initiatives like Cancer Moonshot and the 21st Century Cures Act reemphasized the importance of publishing medical research and enhancing patient access.
Solution
In our six-week discovery research, we identified four major user challenges that we would focus on for the next four months:
Lack of clarity on search results and filtering options.
Difficulty understanding medical terminology used on the site.
Misconceptions about trial approval status.
Confusing site structure and navigation.
Through user-centered design, we significantly enhanced the platform’s comprehension, usability, and accessibility. By refining search functionality, simplifying content, and aligning the experience with user expectations, we reduced friction in accessing critical clinical trial information for both potential trial participants and researchers.
At the end of the engagement, I handed off designs, research recommendations, testing protocols, interaction guidelines, and UI components and the team continues iterating. The team adopted Agile methods and continues to make incremental improvements to the site.
Role
I worked as the Senior Visual Designer alongside a researcher and strategist for a four-month engagement. I was responsible for turning research and hypotheses into wireframes, prototypes, and mockups to users and stakeholders. I refined a new homepage, search results page, and study detail page through iterative design to address common usability issues.
I also assisted in workshop facilitation, user research, and synthesis.
On the partner's side, we worked with their small, in-house IT team to build their product management and design capacity, prioritize user needs, determine technical feasibility, and collaborate on creative solutions.
Project details
Discovery work
We conducted a comprehensive discovery phase, including:
User interviews and cognitive walkthroughs: Spoke with 22 users, including researchers, journalists, grant reviewers, and potential trial participants or their advocates. We asked people how they’ve used the site in the past, observed them using it, and asked questions about the barriers they ran into.
Stakeholder interviews: Spoke to seven stakeholders about their needs and expectations for improving the site. We analyzed the interviews to identify issues that need to be addressed.
Data analysis: Reviewed reports and analytics to identify patterns in user behavior and pain points.
Low-fidelity prototype testing: Created and tested mockups of key site pages to gather feedback on usability improvements.
Collaborative workshops: Worked with National Library of Medicine (NLM) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) teams to prioritize and refine solutions.
Original design
Original ClinicalTrials.gov design from 2017.
The in-house IT team set up a beta site for testing and continuous updates without impacting the ~66,000 daily visitors.
Initial research themes
Diverse user needs
The platform served two primary user groups:
Potential participants and their advocates: Often emotionally invested in finding treatment options, these users needed clear, accessible information about trial eligibility, location, and potential benefits.
Researchers: These users required specific trial details, such as study design, principal investigators, and outcome measures, often using highly targeted search queries.
Inefficient search experience
Users across both groups struggled to find relevant trials due to unclear search logic, difficulty refining results, and confusion over why certain trials appeared in search results.
Content complexity
Trial information was often written in scientific or regulatory language, making it difficult for lay users to understand.
Mismatched Expectations
Many users mistakenly believed trials listed on the site were government-endorsed, leading to confusion and misplaced trust.
Workshops and prototypes
We prioritized user feedback based on feasibility and priority.
Photo of a prioritization workshop to determine the priority and feasibility of addressing our biggest findings.
Screenshot of a virtual whiteboarding session to identify themes from research and set priority areas for prototyping.
Design principles
To help streamline our interagency process in our short partnership we co-designed five key design principles:
Prioritize potential participants: Balance participant needs with researcher requirements.
Simplify language: Use plain language to improve comprehension.
Improve site usability: Create a visually intuitive and accessible interface.
Clarify trial Information: Address common misconceptions through contextual guidance.
Implement a user-centered design approach: Foster a culture of iterative testing and user feedback
Screenshot of an affinity diagramming exercise from our brand principles workshop.
UI design evolution
Early mockups and prototypes
I started with low-fidelity mockups with the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) as my foundation. To start developing mockups, I used their design library on Sketch. It was really important to leverage an accessible, responsive design system that would be easy for developers to implement.
Screenshot of a low-fidelity homepage mockup I created to show how we might address our design recommendations.
Branding
Both users and stakeholders regularly asked for improvements to the site’s visual design.
I completed a comparative analysis of websites related to healthcare, pharmaceutical research, and/or libraries to create a few different brand directions to test. I reviewed the websites and branding guidelines from several related organizations in the U.S and abroad in both private and public sectors. To create search patterns, I also looked outside of healthcare at websites that returned a lot of search results.
Screenshots from different websites in my comparative analysis.
Search, sort, and filtering
I also addressed the user experience of the search results page. I created easier filtering, sorting, and scanning layout for the search results page. I defined the text hierarchy so information was easily parsed and scannable.
Some of the functionality I mocked up was difficult to replicate with static images when doing usability testing. Technical feasibility also required the feedback from the IT team. They were able to quickly make technical improvements to improve search functionality for usability testing like:
Enhanced search filtering: Restructured search inputs to align with user expectations. Instead of ambiguous fields like "Other Terms," new, clearly labeled filters (e.g., "City or Zip Code," "Principal Investigator") were introduced.
Smart autocomplete and guided search: Implemented an improved autocomplete feature that suggested relevant terms based on past successful searches, helping users refine their queries efficiently.
Result ranking adjustments: Algorithm improvements prioritized relevant, actively recruiting trials for participants while ensuring researchers could still access historical data.
Screenshot of a low-fidelity prototype of the search result page to show potential design directions.
Content design
Although there was no full-time content designer staffed to the project, content designers stepped in to help run content strategy exercises to create a voice and tone guide for those under distress. I worked with the content designers to create plain language copy to help with site comprehension.
Some terms that users found confusing were regulatory requirements that could not be changed. To address this challenge, I added a glossary for commonly misunderstood terms.
Photo from a content strategy workshop to help our partners develop a voice and tone guide.
Screenshot of the "glossary" solution used to define commonly misunderstood terms.
Final design
The site looks plain, but the branding was very intentional. Through research we heard several misconceptions about the purpose of ClinicalTrials.gov that we wanted to solve contextually, not just through content. We also wanted to provide the technical team with design solution that was easy to build and maintain without needing to hire a full-time designer.
After several rounds of research, I tested a "library" look and feel meant to look more like a directory and no-frills public resource. I avoided any graphical elements or anything that made the site look like it was a private organization made for a consumer. The design universally tested well in our observations of users—it made it clear that the site was part of the National Library of Medicine, and was not a source of government-approved clinical trials.
Screenshot of the study details page using the library resource look and feel.
Did you know?
ClinicalTrials.gov was created after the U.S. Congress mandated that all clinical trials, government funded or not, had to be registered in a centralized database.
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