HealthLink BC (HLBC) is a trusted source of public health information and services in the B.C. health care sector. HLBC assists the public through the 8-1-1 phone service, which is supported by a website serving health professionals, HLBC staff and members of the public. Yearly, the website receives over 16 million views.

For HLBC, it was a priority to make the site as intuitive and functional as possible. The website was last redesigned in 2019, when a new update to the clinical content and backend software was required. In 2024, a design refresh would enable improvements for users and align the site with increased demand for accessible health information in B.C.

The redesigned HLBC website features a more accessible, user-friendly design. Navigation has been improved for a wide range of health care topics and resources, making information easier to find. Information has been audited and organized to make it easier to understand and an updated platform allows flexibility for additional enhancements.

Redesigned for a clean bill of health

Visitors to the website are greeted by a refreshed look and feel with new navigation categories. The creation of customizable components has enabled more flexible page design while ensuring continuity across the website.

Getting a user experience check-up

The Digital Experience team worked with partners at B.C. service design firm Number 41 Media to conduct user research both internally with HLBC staff and externally with the public.

The HLBC website has a huge internal audience who use it differently from members of the public, so it was important to include all user groups in testing. These internal users are call takers from the different areas that HLBC supports, including navigation, nursing, dietary, physical activity and pharmacy services. They are the public’s first point of contact when calling 8-1-1 for health information or advice. Call takers will often share resources from the website with callers, so we made sure that this was easy to do in the redesign.

Meanwhile, members of the public use the website directly to answer health related questions, get information on a variety of health topics and to register for programs like the Health Connect Registry, a portal that helps people get matched to a family doctor or nurse practitioner in their area.

Internal interviews

The team conducted interview sessions with HLBC staff to learn more about how they use the current website. We spoke with staff responsible for creating and maintaining content on the website, as well as those in support roles who use the website as a resource when helping callers. Participants’ experience at HLBC ranged from one year to over 20 years.

The 30-minute interview sessions focused on how they interact with the website and what they hear from callers when trying to share resources. Our goal with these sessions was to better understand the unique needs of staff using our website to ensure the new site design works for all users.

We quickly learned that internal staff rely heavily on the use of internally-created resources like Health Files, which may not be as familiar to members of the public. Through this research we were able to validate some of the changes already implemented into the redesign and identify opportunities for improvement in design and functionality. We learned that staff are invested and opinionated about the resources they use daily and they appreciated having an opportunity to share their input and help shape the future of the website.

Usability testing

Number 41 Media conducted usability testing sessions with Ministry of Health staff, who were shown prototypes of redesigned webpages and asked to navigate through a series of scenarios and tasks. Participants were also asked about their overall impressions of the usability of the designs.

After the sessions, the facilitator and notetakers analyzed, synthesized and themed the feedback. The goal of testing was to validate which aspects of the designs were working well and identify opportunities for improvement. HLBC used the findings from these sessions and the internal interviews to refine and iterate our designs for the new website.

A common theme between both our internal and external testing was the importance of good search functionality.

Information architecture

Working on information architecture involves mapping out how all of the content on the site will be organized, including the hierarchy of each page and the overall structure. To help inform this work, we conducted card sorting activities using healthy eating and physical activity content. This content, written and reviewed by internal experts like registered dieticians and qualified exercise professionals, was chosen because it is unique to our website.

We used Mural, a virtual whiteboard tool, to help visually map out the site and then created a spreadsheet to inform the developer team where each page on the website should live on the new website. This was a collaborative effort and HLBC teams worked together to ensure it made sense for all content areas.

Benefits for all

Thanks to these updates, people in B.C. will find it easier to access programs and services in their community and get the information they need to make decisions for themselves and those they care for. On the other side of the desk, our health sector partners, clinicians and physicians will benefit from a centralized and trusted source of information.

Internally, HLBC teams find it easier to navigate and share information with patients and providers. Ministry of Health teams who work on the site also benefit from a content management and maintenance framework that’s much easier to use.

Let’s book a follow-up

Our website redesign launch is a major milestone in the HealthLink BC Digital Service Transformation Strategy. But there is still more to come, including adding increased search functionality, implementing a responsive layout and increasing optimization.

Feedback is welcomed to help us identify and troubleshoot issues with the website by contacting Kimberly Copeland, Manager of Digital Experience at kimberly.copeland@gov.bc.ca.