Sector(s)

Team Members

jordan.caldwell, pfrilling, rachelh_design, rheidenry88, artinruins, jonathanwestman

Project Team

  • Jordan Caldwell: Lead UX Engineer — Theming, page building, and content architecture
  • Philip Frilling: Lead Back-end Engineer — Technical discovery, migration, SSO integration, custom modules
  • Rachel Hart: Senior UX/UI Designer — Discovery, information architecture, wireframes
  • Rachel Heidenry: Senior Digital Project Manager — Discovery planning, Project Management
  • J. Hogue: Director, Experience Design — Discovery planning, strategy, UX and UI oversight
  • Akili Greer: UI Designer — Design mockups and component system
  • Jonathan Westman: UX Engineer — Theming, page building

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Organizations Involved

Oomph partnered with the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) to unify three fragmented websites into a single, streamlined digital hub for the oncology nursing community. By redesigning content architecture, optimizing clinical tools, and implementing Algolia-powered search, we made essential resources easier to access. The new WCAG-compliant Drupal site enhances usability, supports institutional memberships, and ensures nurses can quickly find evidence-based care resources — anytime, anywhere.

Describe the project (goals, requirements and outcome)
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The Brief

Support a visual rebrand

ONS had just gone through a brand update with the studio, Mekanic. The comprehensive rebrand created a cohesive system that visually connected three sibling organizations —  ONS, ONF, and ONCC.

The time was right to approach a redesign and rearchitecture of the main digital member portal. While the Drupal platform was up-to-date thanks to a dedicated internal technology team, the content model and information architecture was cluttered by eight years of internal growth and expansion. Speciality database spin-offs created multiple domains which confused members and made it more difficult to find information when they needed it. 

Support Nurses and the critical work they do

Our in-depth Discovery process uncovered common pain points as well as new insights the team was not aware of. Out of this process, we recommended that an updated digital platform needed to provide enhanced member support by:

  • Consolidating content into one domain with a unified intuitive and accurate search interface with smarter rankings and page weights
  • Reducing time to destination with improved navigation pathways and powerful filter interfaces
  • Support the opposite work mode as well, when appropriate, for relaxed discovery, browsing, and educational support
  • Strategically demonstrate the value of membership through clear benefits, opportunities, and quick sign-ups
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The Approach

Foundational Discovery conversations

After an extensive Discovery process, where we conducted multi-stakeholder meetings to work through User Journey Maps, Content Modelling, Information Architecture, and more, we started into our visual design process. While initial site-building and migration planning proceeded, we produced Style Tiles to capture different ways in which we can apply the brand elements that Mekanic created. This was the first application of the new brand, and therefore, we were collaboratively creating a complex visual language.

Shared design and engineering source of truth

Collaboration and communication was key to this complex project, both internally and with multiple client teams. Since there was so much interconnected content, the underlying structural wireframes became a source of truth for design, development, and expected behavior. Both engineers and designers independently reviewed each wireframe and referenced each others’ notes as they worked. The content model was the start of every wireframe, and the wireframe the start of every build.

Design and development highlights include:

  • Search implementation with Algolia
  • Complex search interfaces for Biomarkers and System Interventions
  • Integrations with membership-management platform Aptify
  • Complex content migration of three sites into one
  • Flexible visual page-building with single directory front-end components with Layout Builder and Layout Paragraphs balanced with content types leveraging strict templates

Side by side preview of the homepage and the ONS Congress page, which is their annual conference

The Biomarkers search is smart, revealing contextual secondary filters and specific cancer-type information (in accordion elements) when certain criteria are met Both search interfaces display teasers which provide much of the needed detail to immediately apply to your practice. Additional details are available with an additional click.

A Unified, High-Impact Digital Resource

The new ons.org is a centralized, efficient, and scalable platform that makes it easier for oncology nurses, institutions, and administrators to access and manage critical healthcare resources.

  • One streamlined platform for nurses, institutions, and administrators.
  • Optimized content structure that simplifies navigation and enhances usability.
  • Advanced search functionality that delivers real-time, high-accuracy results.
  • Scalable and flexible design that supports future content growth and evolving member needs.

For oncology nurses, this platform is more than just a website — it’s a trusted clinical resource that supports better patient care, continuing education, and professional growth.

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Why Drupal was chosen

Drupal continued to be the platform of choice for the ONS, ONF, and ONCC teams. The organizations have been using Drupal for over 10 years and have an internal team dedicated to security, module, and core updates. They appreciate the flexibility of the content model, the focus on community-supported modules to achieve high SEO, and the robust workflows that allow different teams to function within editorial guardrails and critical peer review processes.

Technical Specifications

Drupal version:

Key modules/theme/distribution used:

Why these modules/theme/distribution were chosen

SSO and Paywall

The redesign introduced Single Sign On (SSO) and reconstructed the paywall. The previous site did not leverage Drupal log in, but instead used Javascript to verify access. This caused delays in content loading and resulted in multiple page refreshs to render correctly. The new site implemented SSO using the openid_connect module as a more performant and secure solution. We also built a custom Paywall service to verify access server side which removed the flash of content that previously plagued the site.

Custom Aptify Integration

Aptify is one of the cornerstones of this website. As a member organization, ONS needs a service to manage member-specific resources, course and publication purchases, membership renewals, etc. This required individual controls set and configured for each of these key features, requiring a complex system of integrations that involved extensive testing.

With the migration of three sites, we encountered issues with the menu. One hurdle was displaying the secondary menu on certain node types. The Menu Position module helped build the active menu tree for both the primary and secondary navigations.

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