The Conference Forum
Collaborated within a small team to successfully
launch a new website, contributing to its development
and implementation.
Confidentiality & Portfolio Representation
Due to the nature of my work on The Conference Forum website redesign, much of the design process and internal workflows are confidential. While I am unable to share all details, this portfolio entry focuses on public-facing aspects of the project, including my contributions to visual layout design, collaboration, and the successful launch of the website.
Project Overview
The Conference Forum website redesign aimed to modernize and optimize the online presence of this biotech research organization. The project involved creating a user-friendly, visually engaging, and responsive platform that effectively communicates The Conference Forum's mission, events, and resources to its diverse audience, including industry professionals, researchers, and stakeholders. By streamlining navigation, improving content presentation, and incorporating robust functionality, the redesign seeks to enhance user engagement, reflect the organization's innovative spirit, and support its goal of advancing biotech research through collaboration and knowledge-sharing.
Problem Statement
The current website of The Conference Forum is outdated, with limited functionality and poor navigation, which hinders user engagement and fails to effectively showcase the organization’s mission and resources. This impacts its ability to support collaboration and knowledge-sharing in the biotech sector. A redesign is needed to improve usability, modernize the design, and better serve its audience.
My Role
Web & Graphic Designer
Responsibilities
My responsibilities included creating and refining visual layouts to align with the organization's goals and audience needs, coordinating content updates, and optimizing the user experience. I actively communicated with the team to ensure seamless integration of design elements, conducted thorough testing to identify and address issues, and tracked project milestones to maintain timelines. Post-launch, I contributed to user training, troubleshooting, and ensuring a smooth transition to the new platform.
Tools
Canva
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe phototshop
Adobe indesign
Team
As part of a small, dynamic team of four in the Marketing/Design department
Business Goals
Increase Audience Engagement: Attract and retain a broader audience by offering an intuitive, user-friendly platform.
Showcase Expertise: Effectively communicate The Conference Forum’s mission, events, and resources to solidify its position as a leader in biotech research.
Boost Event Participation: Drive registrations and attendance for conferences and events through improved visibility and streamlined sign-up processes.
Improve Accessibility: Ensure the website is accessible to diverse user groups, including those with disabilities.
Enhance Brand Perception: Modernize the website to reflect the innovative and professional nature of the organization.
Support Marketing Efforts: Integrate analytics and SEO best practices to increase online visibility and track user behavior.
Design Goals
Modern Visual Aesthetic: Develop a clean, professional, and visually appealing design aligned with The Conference Forum’s branding.
Responsive Design: Ensure seamless usability across all devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
Intuitive Navigation: Create a clear and user-friendly structure that allows visitors to find information effortlessly.
Engaging Content Presentation: Design layouts that effectively highlight key content, such as events, news, and resources.
Consistent Branding: Apply cohesive branding elements, such as colors, typography, and imagery, across the site.
Interactive Features: Incorporate features like event calendars, forms, and search tools to enhance functionality.
Scalability and Flexibility: Build a design framework that can easily accommodate future updates and growth.
Who Our Users Are?
Target Audience
Biotech Professionals
Academics and Researchers
Healthcare Industry Leaders
Industry Stakeholders
Patients
—————————— Empathise ——————————
Divergent Thinking
Research Methods
Assess the existing website’s content, structure, and performance to identify gaps and areas for improvement.
Current Site Audit ———————————
Collaborate with internal stakeholders, including marketing, design, and leadership teams, to align the redesign with organizational goals.
Stakeholder Interviews —————————
Test wireframes and prototypes with users to gather feedback on functionality, navigation, and overall design before development.
Usability Testing ————————————
Analyze websites of similar organizations or industry leaders to identify strengths, weaknesses, and trends.
Competitor Analysis ——————————
Insights from Current Site Audit
Navigation was inconsistent, making it difficult for users to quickly locate important information, such as event details and resources.
The content hierarchy was unclear, resulting in a disjointed user experience that failed to effectively highlight the organization’s mission and offerings.
The site was not fully responsive, leading to poor usability on mobile devices.
Accessibility gaps were identified, limiting inclusivity for users with disabilities.
These insights emphasized the need for a comprehensive redesign to enhance usability, modernize the design, and better align with the organization’s goals and audience needs.
Insights from Competitor Analysis
Competitor websites in the biotech and healthcare sectors emphasized clean, modern designs with intuitive navigation, allowing users to locate essential information easily.
Many showcased events and resources using visually appealing layouts, interactive elements, and clear calls to action.
Advanced functionalities, such as personalized user dashboards and dynamic event calendars, were frequently implemented.
These benchmarks revealed gaps in design and functionality on The Conference Forum’s existing site.
Insights from the analysis highlighted opportunities to enhance user engagement, showcase the organization’s unique value, and maintain competitiveness within the industry.
Insights from Stakeholder Interviews
Stakeholders emphasized the need for the site to reflect The Conference Forum’s innovative and professional identity.
User-friendliness was highlighted as a priority to cater to a diverse audience.
Improving the visibility of events and streamlining the registration process were identified as key objectives.
Making resources more accessible was considered a critical goal.
Stakeholders stressed the importance of integrating robust analytics tools to track user engagement and measure the site’s success.
Ensuring the website could scale to accommodate future growth and support evolving organizational needs was identified as a top priority.
These insights underscored the need for a strategic, future-proof redesign that balances aesthetic appeal with functionality.
Insights from Usability Testing
Participants reported difficulty navigating the site due to unclear menus and inconsistent labeling.
Key tasks, such as finding event details or registering for conferences, often required multiple steps, leading to frustration.
Mobile users encountered significant challenges due to poor responsiveness, with layouts and functionality not adapting well to smaller screens.
Testers noted a lack of visual hierarchy, making it difficult to distinguish important information from less critical content.
These findings highlighted the need for:
A more intuitive navigation structure.
Streamlined workflows for essential actions.
A mobile-first design approach to ensure a seamless user experience across all devices.
—————————— Define ——————————
Convergent Thinking
Problem Statement
The current website for The Conference Forum fails to meet the needs of its diverse audience, including biotech professionals, researchers, and stakeholders. The site suffers from outdated design, poor navigation, and limited mobile responsiveness, making it difficult for users to access important information or complete key actions like registering for events. The lack of a cohesive visual identity and insufficient content hierarchy further diminish the site’s ability to effectively communicate the organization’s mission and resources. Additionally, accessibility shortcomings and the absence of advanced functionality hinder user engagement and inclusivity. A comprehensive redesign is essential to address these issues, create a modern and user-friendly platform, and support The Conference Forum’s goal of advancing collaboration and innovation in biotech research.
—————————— Idiate ——————————
Divergent Thinking
How we did the Ideation
The ideation phase for The Conference Forum's website redesign focused on transforming research insights into actionable concepts. A central challenge was creating a design that worked cohesively across nine distinct conference domains and the main Conference Forum site while maintaining a unified user experience. To address this, the team developed a modular design system adaptable to each domain and established consistent navigation patterns to connect the user journey seamlessly. The goal was to ensure users could easily access event information, multimedia content, and resources while preserving the individual identity of each domain under the overarching Conference Forum brand.
Efforts during this phase prioritized simplifying the user experience through features such as a streamlined menu structure and a dynamic event calendar. These solutions aimed to make navigation intuitive and efficient, meeting the needs of a diverse audience. Accessibility was a key consideration, with mobile-first designs and user-friendly layouts incorporated to ensure inclusivity. Dedicated sections for podcasts, webcasts, and editorial pages were integrated into the concepts, enhancing the visibility and accessibility of the organization’s multimedia offerings.
The team visualized these ideas through wireframes and mood boards, fostering alignment and collaboration among stakeholders. Special attention was given to the information architecture, ensuring clear pathways guided users between the main site and specific conference domains without disruption. This interconnected approach laid the foundation for a strategic redesign that balanced aesthetics, functionality, and scalability, providing a unified and flexible experience tailored to diverse user needs.
—————————— Prototype ——————————
Home Page
The landing homepage for The Conference Forum was designed to provide a clear, engaging entry point. It featured a modern layout that highlighted upcoming events and key resources, with prominent call-to-action buttons for easy navigation. The design focused on simplicity and responsiveness, ensuring a seamless experience across all devices while making important information easily accessible.
Multimedia
The multimedia pages for editorial content, webcasts, and podcasts were designed to provide a cohesive and easily navigable experience across all nine company domains and subject areas. To maintain consistency, the layout was kept uniform across all pages, ensuring users could quickly familiarize themselves with the structure, regardless of the content type. The pages were organized in chronological order, allowing users to easily browse through past and current content. Featured work was highlighted and prominently called out, ensuring that key pieces stood out and caught the attention of visitors. This streamlined design not only enhanced the user experience but also allowed for efficient access to a wide range of content from across the organization’s various domains.
Conference Information
The conference information pages were designed to provide a clear and user-friendly overview of each event. The pages included well-organized sections for essential details like dates, location, agenda, speakers, and registration information, all structured for easy scanning. Important information was highlighted for quick access. Interactive elements, such as an event map were integrated to enhance usability. The design remained consistent with the overall website layout, ensuring a seamless experience across all pages. This approach made it easy for attendees to navigate the content and efficiently plan their participation.
Agenda
The agenda page was designed to allow users to easily scan through event schedules with essential information, such as session titles, times, and locations. Each session was clickable, and when selected, a pop-up would display a more in-depth description and additional details. The agenda was also color-coded by track, linking each track to specific rooms to help attendees easily identify which sessions were taking place in which rooms. Given the assumption that users would access the agenda in real-time during the conference on their phones, the page was optimized for mobile, ensuring a seamless and user-friendly experience for attendees on-the-go.
—————————— Test ——————————
After the prototype phase, we conducted user testing to gather feedback on the website’s usability, functionality, and overall experience. Participants from diverse backgrounds, including potential conference attendees and industry professionals, were invited to trial the site. They were tasked with completing key actions, such as navigating the agenda, registering for events, and accessing multimedia content. Observations and user feedback revealed valuable insights, including areas where navigation could be further streamlined, small adjustments to visual hierarchy for better clarity, and additional opportunities to enhance mobile usability. This iterative testing process allowed us to identify and address pain points, ensuring the final website delivered a seamless and intuitive experience for all users.
Clear Navigation Menu: The website features a straightforward navigation menu, allowing users to easily access sections such as Conferences, Editorial, Podcasts, Videos/Webcasts, Marketing Services, and About Us.
Subject Area Exploration: Users can explore content by specific subject areas, including Clinical Trial Operations, Immuno-Oncology and Cell Therapy, Drug Delivery, Patients as Partners in Clinical Research, Biotech CMO/R&D Leadership, CRAACO: Clinical Research as a Care Option, and Women Leadership in Biotech.
Upcoming Conferences Section: A dedicated section highlights upcoming conferences, providing users with quick access to event details and dates.
Featured Content Highlights: The homepage showcases featured editorials and podcasts, drawing attention to key content and resources.
Consistent Design Layout: The website maintains a uniform design across various sections, ensuring a cohesive and user-friendly experience throughout.
Responsive Design: The site is optimized for various devices, ensuring accessibility and usability across desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
Going Forward
The redesigned website for The Conference Forum lays a solid foundation for future improvements. Moving forward, regular usability testing and user feedback collection will ensure the site continues to evolve in alignment with audience needs and organizational goals. There’s also an opportunity to enhance analytics integration further, providing more insights into user behavior and engagement to guide strategic updates.
Key Takeaways
This project underscored the importance of a collaborative approach in tackling complex redesigns. I learned not only from working closely within my own design and marketing team but also from engaging with each of the nine separate conference teams. Balancing their diverse opinions and accounting for their unique needs was critical in ensuring the website effectively supported all domains. At the same time, maintaining a consistent design and cohesive user experience across the entire platform required strategic planning and thoughtful execution. The insights gained from research, usability testing, and stakeholder collaboration were instrumental in delivering a user-friendly, unified website.
Impact
The redesigned website significantly enhanced user navigation and accessibility, leading to a more intuitive and engaging experience for visitors. By modernizing the design and improving responsiveness, the site now caters to both desktop and mobile users seamlessly. The cohesive structure across all domains strengthens the organization’s identity while providing a streamlined platform for its events and resources, ultimately supporting its mission and increasing user satisfaction.
What I have Learned
This project reinforced the value of a user-centered design process, especially when managing a multifaceted website with
diverse audience needs.
I gained a deeper understanding of how to integrate feedback from various stakeholders and how to prioritize design solutions that balance aesthetics, functionality, and scalability. Additionally, I developed a stronger appreciation for the role of responsive and accessible design in ensuring inclusivity.
Next Steps
To continue building on this project, periodic updates to content and functionality will be essential to keep the website fresh and engaging. Expanding personalization features, such as tailored user dashboards or curated content recommendations, could further enhance the user experience. Additionally, ongoing efforts to refine the analytics strategy will help the team better measure the impact of future changes and ensure the site continues to meet its users' needs.
