Abstract
User experience (UX) is a key element in the design of effective public health websites. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Yellow Book, a key travel health resource published by the U.S. CDC, adapted its print publication into a free companion website in the late 1990s to increase the resource’s online reach and allow for more frequent updates of content. This process did not adopt a digital-first approach, leading to UX gaps such as barriers to finding relevant content, poor visual appeal, and inaccessibility on mobile devices. On May 10, 2023, the CDC Travelers’ Health Branch implemented a UX update for the CDC Yellow Book 2024 website to improve the website’s overall structure, content, and functionalities. This meant that the previous CDC Yellow Book 2020 website was replaced with the updated CDC Yellow Book 2024 website. Website metrics from Adobe Analytics were collected to show the outcomes of these updates. The CDC Yellow Book 2024 website received 5,726,545 page views for the year following the UX update, which was a 46% increase in web traffic compared to the CDC Yellow Book 2020 website the year prior to the update. In addition, there were 2,375,995 users who returned to the CDC Yellow Book 2024 website seven or more days after their first visit. This case study provides an overview of how the UX framework was used for the CDC Yellow Book 2024 website, which includes describing the lessons learned to inform future digitization efforts for health promotion tools.
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