Dental Lifeline Network

For over 40 years, Dental Lifeline Network (DLN), a nationwide nonprofit, has been dedicated to providing comprehensive dental care to the elderly, individuals with disabilities, Veterans, and other underserved populations. However, their website required significant improvements, as the application process experienced a consistently high drop-off rate, and the design lacked intuitiveness-particularly for the vulnerable populations they serve. Consequently, the organization’s Marketing Coordinator enlisted my team to enhance both the volunteer and patient application processes while optimizing the site’s overall layout for improved usability.

Overview

Process:

• Competitive analysis and design research

• Heuristic Evaluation

• User research

• Stakeholder and user interviews

• Contextual inquiry

• Card sorting analysis

• Site mapping

• Sketching

• Wireframing,

• Lo-fi prototype

• User testing

• Iterating

• Hi-fi prototype

Team

Ben Flotken

Inea Padilla

Role:

I served as the lead designer while also actively contributing to the project’s research efforts.

Tools:

• Pen & paper

• Sketch

• Craft

• InVision

• Capian

Heuristic Evaluation & “Competitive” Analysis

We began by thoroughly analyzing Dental Lifeline Network, exploring its history and mission to establish a strong foundational understanding. From there, we conducted a heuristic evaluation of the website, quickly identifying a range of issues-including ambiguous organizational language and illegible buttons that posed accessibility challenges, particularly for DLN’s aging and visually impaired clientele. Subsequently, we conducted a competitive analysis of both dental and general nonprofit organizations to assess DLN’s unique positioning. this allowed us to identify best practices in naming conventions, site layout, and overall user experience.

User Research

Due to the sensitive nature of the patient experience, we began our research by analyzing online reviews of DLN. While patients expressed enthusiasm about receiving treatment, many also voiced frustration over unclear eligibility requirements, lengthy wait times, and a cumbersome application process. To further quantify these challenges, we examined the site’s Google Analytics, which confirmed our findings-high drop-off rates across consecutive pages highlighted the difficulty of the process. Unfortunately we were unable to directly reach patients for interviews. However, we engaged with various dental practitioners who provided valuable insights into the broader challenges faced by dental offices, as well as specific issues encountered while working with DLN, such as unforeseen patient complications that required significantly more extensive treatment than initially anticipated.

Personas

Ideating Solutions

Prototypes

Recognizing the need for a more intuitive user experience from the outset, we redesigned the site’s header and footer to provide clearer navigation, ensuring users could easily find the information they needed. We also overhauled the homepage and landing pages for both patient and volunteer signups to streamline the application process. Additionally, we introduced a profile component, enabling dentists to track upcoming patients and review past cases they had treated through DLN. We refined the general application introduction-emphasizing key requirements, eliminating unprofessional language, and establishing a more cohesive and professional corporate voice.