Unlocking medical knowledge to combat leprosy and other neglected tropical diseases

How do you enable health professionals and researchers to cooperate and share knowledge worldwide in the battle against leprosy and other neglected tropical diseases?

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Having all available information and support is essential for health professionals and researchers in the field of neglected tropical diseases (NTD’s). However, information about cross-cutting issues used to be dispersed across many channels. Managed by NLR International, Infolep and InfoNTD centralise the relevant information, publications and tools on two websites to help health professionals and researchers worldwide. However, the platform called for renewal, not in the least of the outdated Drupal 7 technology. The migration to Drupal 8 meant a good opportunity to improve design, user experience and functionality in one go.

Wat we hebben gedaan

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From migration to optimisation

With 40-50.000 academic articles the publications section is at the core of the multi-site, a database that serves the two portals. To secure it’s value, we created a content and migration plan for the move from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8. We automated migration of the majority of the articles, manually migrated the remaining content pages and added redirects to the ones that would cease to exist. The entire section was then re-designed, improving the way users can navigate search results or find relevant sections in an article.

Quickly search, filter and find with smart search functionality

With such a vast amount of content, it’s key to use a database that is optimised for searching. Using Elasticsearch we have been able to set up a fast search engine that doesn’t just produce relevant content, it also makes suggestions based on search queries. Refinement of the datasets such as deduplication or improved references between different types of information, further improved search results.

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Easy navigation through a logical structure

Once this cutting edge search functionality was in place, we reassessed the way of navigating the many (sub-)pages. With intricate interaction design we created a more logical structure and hierarchy to enable users to quickly navigate the large quantities of content.

Modest but modern: a clear source of valuable information.

To serve as a podium for the much-valued content, we created an uncomplicated design that restrained from any excessive visual distractions. With some new fonts and colours we then swiftly updated the look and feel to give the websites a fresh, toned-down and modern look.

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Globally accessible and lightning quick

This minimalist design also supported the demand of the websites having to be lightweight. Looking at the statistics we realised that users are from all four corners of the world. With a Google PageSpeed Insights score of 100 on desktop and 91 on mobile, we have been able to provide a fast and positive user experience, even in places where internet speed and technology are lacking. Additionally, the websites have been made accessible in many languages. If available we offer manual translations and if not, an automated tool provides translation in over 100 languages.

For better care, everywhere

Working together with Infolep and InfoNTD has been an extremely rewarding experience. Not only because of their impact on the lives of people but also because their goals are so closely aligned with ours. Therefore we are proud to be their digital partner and look forward to contribute even more to their battle against leprosy and other neglected tropical diseases.