Sepsis Trust Website (WIP)

UX Design

Project Overview

Objective

Through J.P. Morgan, I am volunteering as a UX designer to help enhance the Sepsis Trust website alongside a team of software engineers. The goal is to improve the experience for survivors of sepsis and their families or friends by creating a more personalised, supportive, and recovery-focused platform that aids them on their journey after sepsis.

Info

Team: Project manager, Client Lead, 6 Software Engineers, UX designer

Duration: 8 Months

Tools: balsamiq, Confluence, Wordpress

Type: Volunteering

Goals

  • Recovery diary - Enable users to track their progress and share it with healthcare professionals.
  • Community forum - Provide a safe space for survivors, caregivers, and the recently bereaved to connect.
  • Personalised logged-in experience - Offer recommended resources, events, and tailored navigation.
  • Event and appointment booking - Allow users to sign up for events and schedule appointments with nurses.

Challenges

  • Time constraints - Voluntary project with a commitment of 4 hours per week over 8 months and a large set of objectives.
  • Technical constraints - All solutions must integrate with the existing site and be self-sustainable post-project.
  • Prioritisation - Balancing the charity’s requests with features that deliver the greatest user impact.
  • Budget limitations - Restricted technology stack due to charity funding.
  • Clarity of scope - Ensuring a shared understanding of objectives and “definition of done.”

01 - Discover

The Sepsis Trust initially provided a list of objectives, which we collaboratively refined into an achievable MVP. While the software engineers explored technical options, I conducted market research into other charities’ digital approaches, assessed how proposed features could integrate with the existing site, and created user personas representing survivors and caregivers. I also compiled a list of UX quick wins, such as accessibility enhancements and improved navigation, that could be implemented if time and resources allowed.

02 - Define

The solution-matrix review process took longer than anticipated due to budget constraints and a simultaneous Salesforce integration. Drawing from my UX research and these technical considerations, we agreed on an MVP focusing on: a recovery diary, a community forum, event sign-up and nurse booking functionality, and a personalised logged-in experience.

To keep momentum when other work-streams were paused, I logged UX quick win recommendations in Jira, including a personalised navigation bar for logged-in users, removal of duplicate buttons, improved heading hierarchy, and colour updates to meet accessibility contrast standards.

03 - Develop

I have created an information architecture map to organise content and identify relationships across the site. I am currently developing wireframes and running A/B testing on different layouts, gathering feedback from other UX designers to refine the designs. Some MVP features, such as the community forum, are temporarily on hold due to recent UK legal changes requiring potential ID verification, a shift that could increase both development time and costs for the charity.