National Eye Institute
Claire Schorin
Health Communications Associate
CommunicateHealth, Inc.
Rockville
Maryland
Website
National Eye Institute Website Redesign
National Eye Institute, NIH
Maria Zacharias
Kym Collins-Lee, NEI Technical Information Specialist
Rachel Pryzby, MPH, CHES, CommunicateHealth Project Director
Kim Hassell, MPH, CommunicateHealth Associate Project Director

The National Eye Institute (NEI) redesigned its website with two goals in mind:

1. To provide users with eye health information that is easy to use, actionable, and relevant to their individual needs in order to improve and maintain their eye health
2. To provide users with the latest eye health news and research opportunities

NEI used a human-centered design approach throughout the redesign process — including two rounds of user testing to ensure the redesigned site met its audiences’ needs. This resulted in a modern website that meets best practices in usability, web performance, accessibility, and content clarity.
NEI’s website is large and caters to a wide range of audiences but the primary target audience is consumers, specifically people with eye diseases and their families.

Other key audiences for NEI’s website include:

Eye health professionals
Health educators and advocacy organizations
Researchers and grantees
Students and interns
Prospective employees
We tracked our results with these methods:

Revised 120 webpages, ensuring each page scored 80% or higher on the CDC’s Clear Communication Index.

Made sure that the homepage loads in 1.5 seconds on fast internet connections and scores over 90% on Google Lighthouse, a tool that measures load speed, accessibility, and search engine optimization.

Conducted user testing with 70 consumers and researchers to test the site’s information architecture — and then iterated on the web design to address feedback.

Built custom Drupal search filters to make it easier for eye health professionals to find news articles and outreach materials .
NEI’s site goes beyond federal web accessibility standards (i.e. 508 compliance) with features that benefit users with low or impaired vision, including:
• Supporting high contrast mode
• Accommodating page zooming to at least 200%
• Supporting “prefers reduced motion”

Designing the site for users with vision impairments makes the site better for everyone, which is why we spent a lot of time making sure that our accessibility features are top of the line. In addition to being an industry leader in web accessibility, our redesigned website demonstrates NEI’s commitment to plain language and web performance best practices.
NEI redesigned its consumer-facing website to provide eye health information that’s accessible to all — including people with vision impairments.

NEI used human-centered design practices to ensure that the site meet users’ needs, including user testing.

The site’s advanced accessibility features raise the bar by going beyond 508 compliance.
http://nei.nih.gov/