400 pages. No personas. A CMS already under contract.

Attribute mapping. I kicked off the on-site work by having the client call out what differentiates Tanner against competitors — for both the website and the overall health system. This surfaced what the site needed to communicate and gave us a head start on IA and content strategy before speaking to any users.

Persona workshop. Tanner had never gone through this process. I ran a workshop with internal stakeholders and the marketing team to discuss and rank the types of users coming to the site. That gave me the client's perspective as a baseline — a necessary starting point before talking to real users.

In-person wireframes. The client wanted to be an active part of the process, so we held an in-person wireframing session. The wireframes were directional, not final — they changed significantly after user feedback. But the session was productive in aligning the team around direction and giving them something tangible to react to.

With the workshops complete, I moved to real users. Phone interviews were the lowest-barrier entry point — I asked questions like "Think about the last time you used a medical-focused website. What did you go there for?" That started surfacing user motivations and use cases before bringing anyone into a room.

I ran two on-site focus groups. The first was with community members — the primary user of the site. The finding was consistent: the community viewed Tanner positively, but had a hard time finding what they needed. Phone numbers, appointment scheduling, department information — all of it was buried and needed to surface higher. The second focus group was with Tanner department heads, which gave me a clearer picture of how the health system was arranged internally and what their departments needed the site to do.

All of that shaped three personas: Patient (primary), Clinician, and Prospective Employee. The patient was determined to be primary — managing healthcare for herself and, increasingly, her family.

Tree testing and card sorting. To understand how users navigated the existing structure, I ran a tree testing exercise — watching what paths users took to find specific content. Then a separate card sorting exercise with a different participant group. Both fed directly into the new sitemap.

Sitemap. The previous site had over 400 pages with no clear logic to their arrangement. Using everything from the tree test, card sort, and all prior user sessions, I mapped a new structure. The site ended up around 200 pages — more streamlined, and built around what users were actually trying to do.

Information architecture. With the sitemap complete, I worked with a content strategist to define what information needed to appear on each page. The research was clear on what had been missing: phone numbers, parking, amenities, and community-focused content. Those became non-negotiables. Since Tanner is a local, community health system, that community identity needed to come through in the content.

Module system. The third-party developer had over 200 modules available. I reviewed the full library and narrowed it to 20 that best fit what we were building — then used those 20 to create a consistent system where like elements were treated the same throughout the site.