Redesign: The Department of Surgery

The personality of an organization is relayed through the visual presentation, words and voice of printed and online communications as well as through the actions of its people. As an entity grows and evolves, so should all of its communication elements.

The Challenge

In the Department of Surgery, our sections are as diverse as our people. Although there is power in this, there is also risk. Our web presence was fractured, with duplicate content, a lack of shared organization and no unified look and feel.

As a unit of the Department of Surgery, we at Michigan MultiMedia know the importance of reaching out to each of our audiences, the critical need to organize a complex entity into an understandable experience, and the power of visual message. Michigan MultiMedia's challenge was to redesign the department's website to accomplish these goals while maintaining the unique nature of each section.

The Solution

Our approach was two-pronged: a new shared visual identity and an overhaul of the information architecture.

A New Visual Identity

Our first task was to create a look and feel that could support customization for each of the sections and programs within the department. Working with a subtle color scheme, our design team created an appealing look that combined the precision of surgery with the caring of our physicians, nursing and staff.

Leveraging a very flexible structure, the design could be manipulated with different imagery, colors, and navigational approaches to provide unique, yet related, looks for each section - truly form and function working perfectly in concert!

A Robust Information Structure

As leaders in clinical practice, research and education, the Department of Surgery had a web presence that was vast - encompassing thousands of pages. Michigan MultiMedia needed a framework that would support the overarching departmental content and the specialized section content. This continuity would help the user navigate through the amazing amount of valuable information the department had to offer.

We accomplished this task by organizing our content by audience: patients and families, potential residents and medical students, internal and external research peers, donors and the public. This structure was extensible enough to support the more general content about the Department of Surgery and the very specific content within a specialized multidisciplinary program like Surgical Critical Care.

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