Michigan Medicine

Project Overview

I collaborated with a team to redesign Michigan Medicine’s Interpreter Services Portal. The portal supports staff who need to quickly access interpreter-related resources, request interpreters, locate translation information, and navigate urgent patient communication needs.

The redesign focused on improving clarity, reducing cognitive load, and helping staff complete time-sensitive tasks more efficiently. Rather than adding unnecessary features, we prioritized clearer information architecture, stronger visual hierarchy, and more direct pathways to the resources staff use most.

As the design lead, I guided the visual and interaction design direction while contributing to research synthesis, information architecture, wireframing, high-fidelity designs, usability testing, and final design recommendations.

Problem Statement

Michigan Medicine staff often need interpreter-related resources in time-sensitive situations, but the existing Interpreter Services Portal made key information difficult to find quickly. The portal had unclear navigation, overlapping pathways, inconsistent organization, and a cluttered homepage, making it harder for users to know where to start.

Because of this, many staff relied on workarounds, such as phone interpreter lines or informal communication, instead of using the portal. This created an opportunity for our team to redesign the experience around real staff workflows, especially for new, infrequent, or time-pressured users.

*The original site’s cluttered layout and unclear information hierarchy made interpreter-related resources harder to locate

Audience

The portal serves a wide range of Michigan Medicine staff, including:

• New staff who need clear orientation and guidance.

• Infrequent users who may not remember where specific resources live.

• Experienced staff who need fast access to high-priority interpreter services.

• Staff working in time-sensitive patient care situations who need immediate support.

• Understanding these different user needs helped our team design an experience that supports both quick access and clearer discovery.

*User journey map

Design Goals

• Make “Request an Interpreter” immediately visible as the primary action.

• Reduce homepage clutter and simplify competing pathways.

• Organize content around users’ mental models rather than internal structures.

• Improve access to high-frequency resources through clearer Quick Links.

• Maintain a visible emergency request option for urgent interpreter needs.

• Increase staff confidence when navigating interpreter-related workflows.

Research Methods

Our team used a mixed-method research approach to understand how staff currently use the Interpreter Services Portal and where the experience breaks down.

Our research included:

• Accessibility audit.

• Heuristic evaluation.

• Survey of approximately 300 Michigan Medicine staff.

• User interviews.

• Open card sorting.

• Structural analysis of the existing portal experience.

*A closer look at some survey insights

Together, these methods helped us identify usability issues in the existing portal and better understand how staff search for interpreter-related resources.

Research + Insights

Our research revealed that the main issue was not a lack of resources, but a lack of clarity. Staff often knew interpreter services existed, but they did not always know where to go, which pathway to follow, or which labels matched their task.

We identified several key insights:

• Staff prioritize speed over exploration, especially in high-pressure situations.

• The portal works better for experienced users than for infrequent users.

• Structure and labeling were bigger issues than missing functionality.

• Interpreter requests and contact information were top priorities.

• Users wanted clearer pathways, not more features.

These insights shaped our design direction: simplify the experience, make critical actions more visible, and align the portal structure with how staff naturally think about interpreter services.

Updated Site Map

Before moving into wireframes, we restructured the site map to better match user goals. The existing portal mixed services, resources, policies, and contact information together, which made it difficult for users to know where to go first.

Our updated site map organized content into clearer, task-based categories:

• Request an Interpreter

• Staff Resources

• Feedback & Support

• Quick Links

• Policies & Guidelines

• Announcements & Updates

*Updated site map

This new structure helped separate services from resources, reduce duplicated content, and create more consistent terminology across the portal. We also kept most pages within two to three levels of the homepage, making the experience easier to navigate for both new and infrequent users.

Lo-Fi Wireframes

Before creating lo-fi wireframes, we completed a Crazy 8s exercise to explore multiple homepage directions and identify the strongest layout concepts.

From there, I helped lead the design direction for our low-fidelity wireframes, focusing on simplifying the homepage and establishing a clearer visual hierarchy. Since our research showed that users often come to the portal with a specific task in mind, we prioritized “Request an Interpreter” as the primary call-to-action and reduced the number of competing options on the page.

*Homepage lo-fi wireframe

The lo-fi stage helped us test different ways to organize key resources, including Quick Links, staff resources, policies, and support options. We focused on creating a layout that was easy to scan, matched the updated site map, and gave users a clear starting point.

Visual System

To make the redesign feel consistent with Michigan Medicine’s existing brand, we followed University of Michigan colors, typography, and logo guidelines.

Michigan Blue was used for primary actions, while Maize was used for callouts and supporting moments to draw attention while staying aligned with Michigan branding. For emergency services, I used red and green to create stronger visual salience, helping urgent actions stand out quickly in time-sensitive situations.

Grayscale colors supported readability, contrast, and accessibility. We also adjusted the main “Interpreter Services” header from all caps to title case to improve readability and make the interface more accessible. Following these guidelines helped the redesigned portal experience feel credible, familiar, and aligned with institutional standards while still being easier to scan and navigate.

*Components and UI elements

Final Design

The final design creates a cleaner, more task-oriented portal experience for Michigan Medicine staff accessing interpreter services. As design lead, I helped translate our research findings into a final interface that prioritized hierarchy, clarity, and ease of navigation.

The landing page centers the “Request an Interpreter” action, making the most important pathway immediately visible. Supporting resources are grouped into categories that match staff expectations, including Staff Resources, Feedback & Support, Quick Links, Policies & Guidelines, and Announcements & Updates. We also simplified the navigation bar to remove unnecessary elements and create a more consistent structure across pages.

*Landing page + emergency request flow

*'Request an Interpreter' (left) / 'Quick Links' (right)

Key Features

• Primary Request Pathway: A prominent “Request an Interpreter” call-to-action gives users a clear starting point for the most important task.

• Simplified Homepage: The redesigned landing page reduces clutter and highlights high-priority resources.

• Task-Based Categories: Content is grouped around staff mental models, making resources easier to find.

• Quick Links Page: Frequently needed information, including interpreter request details and contact information, is surfaced in a scannable format.

• Emergency Request Option: A visible emergency button supports urgent interpreter needs with clear confirmation and system feedback.

• Consistent Visual System: Michigan Medicine branding, typography, color, and button styles create a cohesive and trustworthy interface.

Evaluation

To evaluate the redesign, our team conducted moderated usability testing with 5 Michigan Medicine staff members. Participants completed tasks on both the original portal experience and the redesigned prototype, including requesting an interpreter, locating translation contact information, and navigating an urgent interpreter scenario.

The redesigned prototype showed clear improvements in task success, efficiency, and perceived usability. Participants completed tasks more quickly, made fewer navigation errors, and described the redesigned experience as cleaner, easier to use, and more intuitive.

Testing also revealed opportunities for refinement, especially around making Quick Links more visible and ensuring the emergency feature remains prominent and accessible.

Results + Impact

Overall, the redesign helped Michigan Medicine staff complete interpreter-related tasks more quickly, clearly, and confidently.

The redesigned experience improved:

• Navigation clarity.

• Task completion speed.

• Visibility of key actions.

• Staff confidence.

• Ease of use.

• Access to high-frequency resources.

By aligning the portal with real staff workflows and making critical actions easier to find, our redesign better supports fast decision-making in a healthcare environment where clarity and efficiency are essential.

Next Steps

Future iterations would focus on refining the visibility of Quick Links, strengthening labels to better match user expectations, and continuing to test the emergency request pathway in realistic urgent scenarios.

I would also explore adding previews of nested categories within the main homepage buttons. This would help users understand what resources live within each section before clicking, reducing frustration for staff who may not know which category contains the specific resource they need.

I would also want to conduct additional usability testing with a larger and more varied group of Michigan Medicine staff to better understand how the redesign performs across different departments, levels of experience, and patient care contexts.

Key Takeaways

• This project taught me how to lead design efforts within a collaborative team while designing for speed, clarity, and confidence in healthcare workflows.

• I learned that improving usability does not always mean adding new features. Sometimes the most effective design solution is simplifying structure, clarifying labels, and making existing resources easier to access.

• Card sorting helped me see how important information architecture is when users are trying to complete tasks quickly.

• Usability testing reinforced the value of validating design decisions with real users, especially when designing for high-pressure environments.

• Most importantly, this project showed me how small changes in hierarchy, labeling, and feedback can have a meaningful impact on staff confidence and patient care workflows.

  
  

*Created in collaboration with Lily Steinmetz, Joe Marino, Nour Bazzi, and Evelyn Nguyen