Foundation 29

Based in Madrid, Spain, Foundation 29 is a non-profit organization striving to bridge the gap between medical technology and artificial intelligence to advance the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases in children.

Role UX Designer · Accessibility SME

Partners Client · Content Strategist · Digital Strategist · Front-end Engineer

Deliverables User Profiles · Sitemap · Wireframes · Design System · High-fidelity

Tools Flowmapp · Axure · Sketch · UsableNet

Timeframe 3 months

Company GeekHive

The Problem

Parents of children with rare diseases are desperate to find a fast diagnosis. Still, they spend endless hours managing their child’s care, researching solutions, tracking medical records, and visiting doctor after doctor. Parents need a quicker way to learn about how they can get their children healthy.

For medical providers, rare diseases are often edge cases not yet encountered in their education or practice. Providers need access to medical research on rare diseases for a successful diagnosis to happen on a faster timetable.

Opportunity

  • Tell Foundation 29’s story and improve SEO with an improved content strategy and information architecture.
  • Optimize the site’s WordPress templates to improve website performance, organic traffic, and accessibility conformance.
  • Focus UX efforts on the online donation user journey to increase financial gifts.
"How do we make our website accessible and drive donations?"
Success Measurements
  • Increase organic site traffic from 10% to 30% in one year.
  • Achieve 80% of all donations made are online.

Process

Research & Discovery

Stakeholder interviews, site analytics, and membership data helped us define and understand patients, clinicians, and donors as target personas. These user bases were primarily motivated to learn about F29’s technology, and donors were driven to contribute financially. Furthermore, I ran an accessibility scan to determine the current state’s level of conformance.

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Define

User Personas

Stakeholder interviews, site analytics, and membership data helped us define and understand patients, clinicians, and donors as target personas. These user bases were primarily motivated to learn about F29’s technology, and donors were driven to contribute financially. Furthermore, I ran an accessibility scan to determine the current state’s level of conformance.

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Ideate

Sitemap

A series of workshops contributed to forming a sitemap designed to elevate critical areas of interest based on the persona interests. In the end, we decided to prioritize content finding and donation as essential journeys in our scope.

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Branding

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UX Design

Wireframes illustrated a content strategy designed to optimize SEO and better tell Foundation 29’s story, showcase its technology, and elevate the call-to-action to donate.

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Visual Design

To evoke emotion and establish authenticity, I introduced stock images of doctors and patients. The design also addressed accessibility issues by increasing color contrast and font legibility.

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Testing

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Impact

Outcomes
  • Increased Online Donations: Enhanced donation visibility with a prominent call to action and a new platform, simplifying giving and driving measurable online donation growth.
  • Reduced Donation Friction: Streamlined the donation process for quicker electronic gifts and lower transaction drop-off.
  • Improved Accessibility Compliance: Enhanced accessibility in content, design, and technology for greater inclusivity and usability.
  • Expanded Audience Reach: Deployed immersive content, bold imagery, and streamlined UI to target key personas, boosting site visits and engagement.
Learnings & Reflections
  • Trust Is A UX Foundation: Users must feel secure and informed; a clear content strategy—what to say, to whom, and where—is critical to success.
  • Accessibility is Cross-Disciplinary: Achieving accessibility requires designers, engineers, and content teams to collaborate closely, ensuring compliance and a unified experience across all aspects of a product.
  • Content Should Lead Design: Having finalized content first would allow layouts to better support messaging and hierarchy, reducing rework.
  • Accessibility Requires Time And Advocacy: Investing more time upfront would have improved accessibility across content, design, and code, strengthening inclusivity and quality.