GSK - Website Factory 1.0

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a global healthcare company with a wide portfolio of consumer health and pharmaceutical products. With a vast product lineup, GSK faced a recurring challenge: building and maintaining product websites was time-consuming, inconsistent, and difficult to scale.

To address this, the company initiated the Website Factory 1.0 project — a scalable framework designed to streamline the creation of responsive websites for multiple products. The vision was to design a modular system where reusable components could be assembled quickly to build websites with consistency and efficiency.

Problem

• Each GSK product website had been developed in silos, leading to inconsistent user experiences across markets.

• Building sites from scratch was inefficient, costly, and time-consuming.

• Lack of a reusable framework created bottlenecks for new product launches.

• Websites needed to be responsive and accessible across desktop, tablet, and mobile, but implementation was inconsistent.

Goal

• Create a modular framework (Website Factory 1.0) that could serve as a foundation for building product websites.

• Design reusable components that ensure scalability, consistency, and reduce development time.

• Deliver a fully responsive experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile.

• Empower GSK’s global teams to launch websites faster without compromising on usability or brand standards.

Challenges

• Balancing consistency and flexibility: The design system had to be consistent yet adaptable to meet varied product needs.

• Compliance & Accessibility: Every module had to meet pharma regulations and accessibility standards.

• Scaling across markets: The system needed to work not just for U.S. products, but also for global launches.

My Role

As the UX Designer, I was responsible for:

• Requirements Gathering → Partnering with stakeholders to understand business needs and product requirements.

• UX Research → Studying competitor sites, industry best practices, and user needs to inform design decisions.

• Wireframes & Information Architecture → Structuring reusable layouts and defining component-level interactions.

• High-Fidelity Mockups → Translating wireframes into polished designs aligned with GSK’s brand identity.

• Prototypes → Creating interactive prototypes for usability validation and stakeholder buy-in.

• Collaboration → Working closely with product owners, developers, QA, and cross-functional teams to ensure feasibility and scalability.

Tools: Sketch, InVision, Zeplin

Design Process

1. Research & Requirements

I began by gathering requirements from stakeholders and conducting research into pharma and consumer health websites. The focus was on identifying patterns for content presentation, accessibility, and compliance while ensuring responsiveness.

2. Modular Framework Design

The core idea was to design a “Website Factory” — a framework composed of modular components. Each component (e.g., hero banners, product cards, CTA blocks, navigation, forms) could be reused and rearranged across different product websites.

To ensure flexibility, every module was designed for three breakpoints:

• Desktop

• Tablet

• Mobile

This made the framework scalable and adaptable to GSK’s global product portfolio.

3. Wireframing & IA

Created wireframes to define how modules could be arranged and combined. The wireframes focused on hierarchy, clarity, and responsiveness, while also considering compliance guidelines.

4. High-Fidelity Design & Prototyping

Using Sketch, I created high-fidelity mockups of key modules, applying GSK’s brand guidelines. With InVision, I developed interactive prototypes to simulate user flows and gather early feedback from stakeholders.

5. Collaboration & Iteration

Throughout the project, I collaborated closely with:

• Developers → To ensure modules were technically feasible and reusable.

• Product Owners & Marketing Teams → To align with business goals.

• QA Teams → To validate usability and responsiveness across devices.

Feedback was continuously integrated, refining the system into a flexible and scalable solution.

Outcome

The Website Factory 1.0 framework became a foundation for GSK’s digital product launches:

• Reduced website development timelines significantly by leveraging pre-built modules.

• Delivered a consistent, responsive user experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile.

• Empowered teams to launch new product sites quickly and cost-effectively.

• Created a scalable design system that set the groundwork for future iterations (Website Factory 2.0 and beyond).