Case Study | Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine | 2024
Transformed
1,000+ pharmaceutical documents into an intuitive digital experience
How partnering with a PM to establish UX from scratch, I designed and validated a proof-of-concept dual-audience medical information application — transforming static PDF downloads into a searchable, filterable app embedded across J&J sites for patients and HCPs — in 4 months, in time for an executive-level demo.
MVP Proof of Concept
Pharma / MedTech
Dual Audience
Usability Testing
Figma
Responsive Design
Engineers Collaboration
100%
TASK COMPLETION
Across all usability test sessions
Demo Delivered
POC TIMELINE
Discovery through exec-ready demo
2 audiences
USER TYPES
Patients + HCPs — same UI, distinct content
Day 1
ENG PARTNERSHIP
Design & build ran in parallel
FRAMEWORK
My Role
UX Designer — first UX investment on this product
Team
1 UX Designer (me) · 1 strategist / PM · engineering team · J&J medical and regulatory SMEs
Methods
User research, usability testing, rapid prototyping, iterative design-build collaboration with engineering
Users
Patients seeking medication information · Healthcare providers (HCPs) needing full clinical / scientific data
Success Metrics
100% task completion in usability testing · stakeholder-ready demo validated for executive presentation
Process Arc
Research → UX process setup → concept → design-build iteration → usability testing → POC demo → executive presentation
DESIGN PROCESS
My strategic approach
BEFORE → AFTER
Before
View ‘After’
Medical information existed only as static PDF downloads — patients and HCPs had to locate, download, and manually search through documents to find what they needed
No search or filter capability — finding a specific medication, indication, or clinical detail meant scrolling through unstructured document content
No UX process existed — MVP level without research, testing, or a shared framework
No application to bridge patients and HCPs — two very different information needs with no unified access point across J&J sites
Patients and HCPs had to navigate to separate, disconnected resources to find medication or clinical information
No validated concept to present to executives — the product existed only as an idea without evidence it would work for users
Backend Issue - the engineering team figured out how to pull information from multiple databases and present it in a single interface with a CMS structure.
CONSTRAINTS
CMS FORMAT
We couldn't reorganize the database content because the existing information was stored in static PDFs within CMS formats — well-established formats that medical, legal, and regulatory teams were familiar with and had approved. I needed to develop a solution that met business and user needs.
REGULATORY
Pharmaceutical content is tightly regulated. Every piece of information surfaced to patients vs. HCPs had to be medically and legally appropriate for that audience — copy, hierarchy, and content access required SME and compliance sign-off.
DUAL AUDIENCE
Designing one interface that works for two fundamentally different user types — patients who need simple, digestible leaflet information and HCPs who need full clinical and scientific depth — without making either experience feel like a compromise.
SCOPE
The application had to embed cleanly into existing J&J site infrastructure. Design decisions had to account for technical feasibility in real time — which made day-one engineering partnership non-negotiable.
TIME
Four months to develop an executive-ready demo from scratch — without any prior user experience process, existing design artifacts, or established research routines.
KEY DECISIONS
App over PDF
The case for the transformation had to be explicit. PDFs required download, offered no search, no filtering, and no role-based content — a patient and an HCP received the same undifferentiated document. The app gave both audiences instant access within the J&J site ecosystem, keyword search and category filtering to find information in seconds, and content tailored to their role. The usability test results — 100% task completion — became the evidence that the format change was the right call, not just a technology preference.
KEY DECISIONS
Single UI, role-based content
Building two separate apps would have doubled the scope and blown the 4-month timeline. Instead, we designed a single experience with role-based content — same structure and navigation, but patients see patient leaflet information and HCPs see full scientific data. Validated in usability testing with both groups.
