Making CTD clearer, simpler and intuitive for 100,000+ scientists and researchers
Context
The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) is a federally-funded platform used by scientists and researchers to explore the connections between chemicals, genes, and diseases. CTD offers a powerful search function and a suite of analysis tools for interpreting complex toxicogenomic data.
New Design
The Problem
Despite its capabilities, CTD’s homepage didn’t effectively guide users. The homepage was text-heavy and cluttered. The most-used Search feature was hard to discover and slow to use. Analysis tools were underutilized, often overlooked or misunderstood. Users were exporting data to third-party websites of using CTD’s built-in tools.
Approach
Snippets From The New Design
Final Solution
New homepage anchored by a search-first experience.
Chips below the search bar show types of data available.
A tools slider makes analysis features more discoverable.
Redesigned icons and illustrations add clarity and visual rhythm.
Other Screens
Conclusion & Impact
This redesign improved the search flow, made analysis tools easy to discover and use, and laid the groundwork for users to stay within the platform for analysis, making their research process faster and more seamless.
To ensure smooth implementation of my design, I built a design handoff kit, documented and created a library of icons, reusable components and other assets in Figma. I also collaborated closely with developers to translate component logic and layouts into code.
