How to design HCP engagement strategies with UX at the centre

HCPs have to deal with large volumes of information. Fast. Interfaces that add friction, bury key content, or depend on guesswork slow them down. Unclear hierarchy, unnecessary steps, and unclear labels cause drop-off and frustration.

They want - and need - the essential content first. Clinical evidence, safety, dosing, and data summaries. Large banners, distracting visuals, or testimonial content often get in the way. HCPs using brand sites frequently call these features a distraction rather than a benefit.

The digital tools they interact with should also support clinical conversations. This includes concise evidence summaries, printable material, short explainers, and formats that help them communicate decisions with patients or colleagues.

In our industry the range of different specialties, markets, and digital experience levels shape behaviour. The best way to understand customer needs is still through direct, first-hand research. Even small sample sizes can reveal meaningful patterns that guide design direction and prevent assumption-driven decisions. 

Our work across HCP portals and brand sites shows that even five to ten interviews can reveal structural issues worth correcting early. 

When these needs aren’t met, it affects how HCPs judge the credibility and intent of the organisations behind the content.

And right now HCP trust in pharma-run digital content is low. In our webinar on industry trust, HCP-facing leaders pointed to a long-standing concern about selective data, promotional framing, and poor explanation of evidence sources. But it’s not all negative. Trust improves when information is balanced, clearly sourced, and easy to interrogate.

HCPs also expect clarity on data privacy and security: what is collected, how it is used, and what they control. Ambiguous privacy language reduces confidence and stops  repeat engagement.

In all of this, consistency is key. Consistency across a company’s sites influences trust. Inconsistent layouts, navigation, and component styles are all recurring issues and a cause of confusion for regular users moving between products. 

One way you can address this structural issue is by implementing a well-structured Design System. These help address consistency challenges by standardising approved components, speeding up builds, and giving HCPs predictable interfaces across brands and markets.

Now we move on to how to structure the content of your digital product. This is known as your ‘information architecture (IA)’. 

The primary role of information architecture should reduce cognitive effort. Not add to it.

This means clear grouping with stable navigation and predictable labelling. When structures match the way that HCPs search for content, engagement will improve.

We can explore this a little further. Journeys should take HCPs to critical information with minimal branching. Complex nesting, hidden sub-pages, and ambiguous categories are all common blockers on pharma sites. And they all serve to make an already strapped for time user even more exasperated. 

Alongside this, readable typography, spacing, and contrast influence how easily clinical information is processed. Usability tests show that dense layouts slow HCPs down, even when the underlying information is clear.

Taking this all into account, search functionality, the most direct route to relevant content, becomes key. Many pharma sites either lack it or provide a limited feature. Like most users, HCPs appreciate reliable search as one of the fastest ways to reach specific data or documents.

Once the essentials are delivered, supporting content such as PDFs, studies, tools, or training should be one click away and clearly surfaced.

Consistency across devices and channels seriously matters. When page structures, labels, and interaction patterns change between platforms, it forces relearning and undermines trust.

The medium of product interaction is just as important. Device behaviour is shifting. Desktop remains key, but mobile and tablet use is rising among HCPs, especially during quick look-ups. Sites and apps that don’t adapt layouts or interaction patterns create avoidable friction.

Again, strategically created omnichannel Design Systems provide a scalable solution that can help organisations keep all these experiences aligned. Supporting global rollouts, simplifying localisation, and any ongoing updates, they will reduce fragmentation and keep multi-market ecosystems coherent. 

When handled transparently and within regulatory boundaries, personalised content improves relevance. In our research with HCPs, the desire for more personalised and relevant content from pharma organisations is something that comes up as a top priority time and time again. This includes surfacing material based on speciality, previously viewed content, or patterns of engagement.

AI-assisted analytics can support predictive content delivery, provided data use is explained clearly and HCPs can adjust what is shown to them.

Customisable dashboards or portal layouts give HCPs control over what they see first, increasing the sense of utility.

Offering resources aligned with speciality or recent behaviour reinforces that the experience adapts rather than generalises.

Teams often rely heavily on analytics without pairing them with right qualitative insight. Analytics show what happened; research shows why it happened. Many mature digital teams run both, especially when improving complex portals or multi-step journeys. Analytics give you a chance at reflection and ongoing improvement on your digital offering.

Behavioural tools such as heatmaps, journey analysis, and session recordings help identify friction. Combined with direct interviews or moderated tests, they give a full picture that supports targeted improvements.

Changes should be iterative. Adjust, test, release, measure, and refine. This avoids the cycle of large releases that miss the mark and then remain unchanged for long periods. Providing a better service for HCPs and users is never a one and done thing. It’s constant, evolving as new needs and pain points emerge.