Caron Treatment Centers

Digital Transformation
and Website Redesign

A close-up of a woman holding a smartphone with the new Caron Treatment Centers website.

Caron Treatment Centers is an internationally recognized not-for-profit dedicated to addiction and behavioral healthcare treatment, research, prevention, and education. We worked across the organization to evaluate ways to transform their digital presence, from first experience with the Caron brand to going through treatment and into recovery, starting with the redesign of their front-facing website.

Foundations in Research and Strategy

Our engagement with Caron began with an extensive discovery and research process, including competitive research, a detailed analytics review, site-wide content audit, and thorough evaluation of all technologies and systems that Caron leverages. I led the discovery, design, strategy and content efforts for the new site managing a diverse team. We facilitated dozens of stakeholder conversations with Caron's staff across multiple departments, and research with patients, patient family members, and professionals that refer to Caron. All of this research was compiled into a detailed long-term roadmap, including the implementation of the new websites initial release. We also developed a measurement plan that outlined key site objectives and performance indicators to help us define success post-launch.

A table of technology leveraged by Caron across departments.
As part of our early research, we facilitated a series of stakeholder interviews to evaluate the technologies and systems in-use across departments. This foundation helped our team build a long-term digital transformation roadmap, starting with the redesign of the website and connected systems.
A group of people standing around a large table as part of an accessibility empathy lab, using various assistive technologies.
During our Discovery and UX process, accessibility was an important part of our planning process. The new site was designed to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA guidelines, but we facilitated an Empathy Lab with the Caron team to build a better understanding of assistive technology.

UX and Content Strategy

After our discovery phase of work, we rapidly worked through the information architecture, content strategy, and user experience of the new site. Using our content audit and early research, we designed a new sitemap that better aligned to patient expectations. We validated this approach through card sorting testing with Caron staff, and facilitated a content workshop with their team to define the structure of content within individual pages and templates. We used this foundation to wireframe the new site across breakpoints, considering what patients and families needed to create an experience that catered to their needs.

A journey map diagram, outlining the process that patients, families, referring professionals, and Caron staff engage with from first touch to entering recovery.
To summarize our Discovery findings, we built journey maps to outline the intersection of various audiences through their end to end experience with Caron. This was the foundation of our measurement planning and experience design work.
A man exploring the Caron program page for the Renaissance program on a laptop.
The new Caron website was designed from the ground up, reevaluating what patients and their families need as part of their journey. The new Programs section of the site was designed and tested with patients, families, and Caron staff to ensure it exceeded expectations.

Revamping An Outdated Identity

Part of our redesign was an overhaul of Caron's visual brand identity to align with the new content strategy and brand positioning. We began the interface design process with an exploration of competitive brands, exploring the tone, feeling, mood, and visuals of the new site. We used this research to gather input from the Caron team to define the direction for style tiles and designs. Our process was highly iterative, working with the Caron marketing team to align on an approach. The final design was built into a robust prototype that was used for user testing to validate our content and design approach.

Explore the UI Kit

As part of our design process, we built the beginning of a comprehensive design system. Explore the UI Kit and Component Library that were designed for the initial site launch.