Improving the Intake & Information Experience for Autism Services
Project Overview:
The Autism Spark provides Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services for children and families. I worked on improving the organization and clarity of the company’s website to better support families navigating the process of seeking autism services—often during emotionally stressful moments.
The project focused on improving how services, eligibility, and intake steps were communicated to families while balancing clinical accuracy, regulatory considerations, and operational needs.
Project: Improving the Intake & Information Experience for Autism Services
Role: UX Designer
User research and usability testing
Information architecture restructuring
Iterating designs based on stakeholder and user feedback
Duration: 6 months (Lynn, MA)
Team: UX Designer, Product/Operations Stakeholder, Clinical Leadership
NDA-Protected Case Study: Due to NDA restrictions, proprietary screens and internal data are omitted. This case study focuses on process, decision-making, and outcomes.
Problem
Families visiting the Autism Spark website often faced several key frustrations:
Understand what ABA services were offered
Determine whether services were appropriate for their child
Know what steps to take to begin the intake process
This resulted in:
Confusion and hesitation during early decision-making
Incomplete or misdirected inquiries
Increased clarification requests handled manually by staff
This experience signaled a deeper issue: misaligned information architecture and navigation that didn’t map to user mental models. This is a core problem in UX, when users can’t find or understand content, task completion and confidence suffer.
Constraints
Design decisions were shaped by several key constraints:
Healthcare and privacy considerations
Emotionally sensitive user context (families seeking care for their children)
Clinical accuracy requirements
Limited development resources and tight operational timelines
These constraints required careful prioritization and collaboration.
UX GOALS
From research insights, the following high-level UX goals were defined:
Clarify content hierarchy so that priority information rises to the top.
Improve navigation and labeling to match how families think and speak.
Reduce decision friction — helping users get to an answer with minimal confusion
Align IA with user mental models — meaning the structure mirrors how people conceptualize their journey when seeking services.
Research & Discovery
To better understand the problem space, I conducted:
Stakeholder interviews with clinicians and administrative staff
What information must appear,
What language resonates (and what didn’t),
Known points of confusion from prior patient inquiries.
Usability testing of the existing website structure
I ran usability tests where participants attempted common tasks — like finding intake steps or eligibility criteria — on the current site.
Content audits of service descriptions, FAQs, and intake-related page
Key insights included:
Families were unfamiliar with clinical terminology used throughout the site
Important information about eligibility and next steps was buried or fragmented
Users needed reassurance and clarity more than speed or feature density
Research & Analysis
A systematic content audit revealed:
Redundant content and unclear hierarchy
Hard-to-find service pages
Buried calls-to-action
User Research (card sorting & tree testing):
Users prefer services grouped by goal or outcome
"Getting Started" path is a high-priority journey
Footer and About pages were not intuitive for critical actions
Design Approach
Based on research findings, I focused on:
Simplifying language to align with how families naturally described their needs
Restructuring information architecture around common user questions
Making intake steps explicit and easy to find across the site
Using findings from user research and content audit, I:
Developed a new site map and content hierarchy anchored in user needs rather than internal categories.
Emphasized pathways (e.g., “Discover Services,” “Determine Eligibility,” “Start Intake”) that aligned with common user journeys.
Simplified labels and grouped related content into coherent, easy-to-scan sections.
Before high-fidelity screens, I built low-fi wireframes to validate:
Navigation categories,
Content placement,
Hierarchy and labeling decisions with representative users.
This early testing allowed changes to be made before visual design, saving time and reinforcing IA decisions.
Iteration & Collaboration
Designs were iterated through:
Reviews with clinical and administrative stakeholders
Feedback from usability testing sessions
Ongoing alignment with organizational priorities
Tradeoffs were made between ideal user flows and real-world operational constraints, with decisions documented and communicated clearly to stakeholders. This iterative process ensured the design stayed grounded in both user needs and practical constraints.
Outcome & Impact
While specific metrics cannot be shared, outcomes included:
Clearer communication of ABA services and eligibility requirements
Improved discoverability of intake information and next steps
Reduced confusion for families during early stages of the care-seeking journey
Stakeholders noticed a significant shift in how families approached the site: instead of guessing or asking for help, users were able to find and understand complex service information independently.
Reflection
This project strengthened my ability to:
Design for emotionally vulnerable users
Working on healthcare-adjacent content requires empathy and clarity. Patients and families come with emotional needs that directly influence how they seek and absorb information.
Balance empathy with clinical and operational accuracy
UX decisions had to be validated against clinical correctness. The balance between simplicity and medical precision was a key challenge.
Understand the power of solid IA
Strong information architecture isn’t just navigation, it shapes how users think about and understand content. Structuring content around user goals significantly improved usability and reduced confusion.
Advocate for user clarity within healthcare constraints
It reinforced the importance of thoughtful content structure and information architecture in healthcare UX in order for users to gain better access to healthcare services.