Turning research materials into a public experience
Research teams know their field, study, participants, and institutional setting. The design task is to preserve that authority while translating scientific material, participant-informed guidance, and study workflow into a coherent public experience.
A public site can introduce the study, explain what participation involves, provide resources and contact pathways, and help people return to a particular stage of the process. It does not need to become the study database. Screening, survey responses, protected records, and research administration can remain in the systems intended to handle them.
An institutional publishing platform may be sufficient for a modest informational presence. More control becomes useful when the content has an internal structure, such as a sequenced participant guide, a video collection, a publications directory, or material staff will revise as the study develops.
Publishing systems shaped around the material
The public information architecture establishes what each audience needs to find and how the parts of the study relate. Responsive behavior and accessibility considerations carry that structure across devices and modes of use.
Behind the public interface, structured publishing systems give staff defined records, fields, and sequence controls instead of relying on separately formatted pages. A roadmap can generate its navigation from ordered study steps. A video record can keep titles, descriptions, durations, sources, thumbnails, captions, and transcripts together. A publication record can retrieve available DOI metadata into an editable record for staff review.
The system supplies the publishing structure. The research team remains responsible for scientific content, participant guidance, terminology, and approval.
From study workflow to current operation
I lead requirements and UX discovery with investigators and staff, working from the materials, decisions, and processes they already have. I turn that understanding into information architecture, interaction behavior, responsive layouts, and editorial workflows.
Implementation proceeds through review and testing with the team. Staff can test terminology, navigation, layout, and the publishing process before release. Documentation, training, hosting, backups, maintenance, and continued development can be included when the project requires them.
Keeping public communication separate from protected data
The boundary between a public research site and protected systems should be established before development. The public site can provide context and route people to an appropriate screening or study platform without storing the resulting records itself.
On the SHARE Lab site, no patient health information, survey responses, screening data, or study records are stored. Platforms such as REDCap remain responsible for screening and protected participant data.
A working example
Participant information and publishing systems for an evolving research study
The SHARE team supplied the scientific content, participant-informed direction, and study workflow. Working with the principal investigator and research assistants, I designed the information architecture, responsive interface, Participant Roadmap, Video Library, and Publications Directory.
The first public release was built and refined in approximately four weeks and launched in October 2025. Work has continued on the three publishing systems, hosting, backups, and maintenance. One staff member has been trained to manage the structured content.
Read the SHARE Lab case studyQuestions to resolve before development
What belongs on the public website?
Study information, participant guidance, research resources, and contact pathways may belong there. Screening responses, protected participant information, and study records should remain in systems designed for those responsibilities.
Will staff need a developer for every update?
Not when recurring material has been modeled as structured content. Defined fields, reusable layouts, and sequence controls can let staff maintain study steps, videos, and publications without rebuilding pages.
Can the institution’s existing platform support the work?
Sometimes it can. The decision depends on the required content structure, interface behavior, staff workflow, accessibility needs, and boundaries with protected systems. Discovery establishes those requirements before a platform is selected.
Who determines how the research is described?
The research team retains subject-matter authority. My role is to organize team-supplied material, adapt it for the web where requested, and build interfaces that the investigators and staff can review and approve.
Discuss a research website or publishing system
If your team is considering a public research site or a more maintainable way to publish participant guidance and resources, existing materials and study workflow are enough to begin the discussion.
Email Christopher to arrange an introductory call