ROLE

UX Director

Overview

Autolus Therapeutics is a pioneering biopharmaceutical company specializing in CAR T cell therapy—a revolutionary cancer treatment that utilizes a patient's own T cells to fight cancer. Autolus is at the forefront of developing cutting-edge therapies for patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases, leveraging advanced autologous T cell therapies.

As Autolus’ agency of record, we were tasked with creating a cohesive, engaging, and scientifically credible digital experience across multiple touchpoints to support both healthcare professionals and patients. This included the design and launch of three key digital properties—Autolus Assist, AUCATZYL HCP, and AUCATZYL Patient, as well as a campaign landing page highlighting Autolus' unique approach to CAR T cell therapy.

Challenges

1. Highly Specialized Medical Content: The information about CAR T cell therapy is complex and specialized, requiring us to present it in an easily digestible yet scientifically accurate manner.

2. Multiple Audiences: We needed to design for two distinct audiences—healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients—who had different needs and expectations from the digital properties.

3. Brand Cohesion Across Platforms: Although each digital property had its own color scheme and focus, maintaining a consistent brand identity was crucial to creating a unified experience.

What We Did

discovery & STRATEGY

The project began with a deep discovery phase where we conducted stakeholder interviews, reviewed existing materials, and analyzed competitive websites in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors. This helped us understand the scientific messaging as well as the emotional tone needed to address the specific pain points of both HCPs and patients.

• Audience Research: We roughed out unofficial personas for both HCPs and patients, helping to shape the content, design elements, and user journeys.

• Competitive Benchmarking: We analyzed digital strategies used by other companies in the CAR T cell therapy space and adjacent biotech industries to identify best practices in design, content presentation, and usability.

Results

Information Architecture (IA) & wireframing:

Once we understood the goals and requirements, we moved into designing the information architecture (IA) and wireframes for each digital property.

• Autolus Assist: Designed for healthcare professionals, patients, and their caregivers, navigating CAR T cell therapy with downloadable resources, a dedicated support line, and treatment options.

• AUCATZYL HCP: A resource hub for healthcare professionals, focused on offering clinical data, research insights, and product information about AUCATZYL.

• AUCATZYL Patient: This site needed to offer detailed, patient-friendly information about the treatment process, side effects, and expectations when taking AUCATZYL.

In collaboration with Autolus's medical, product, and marketing teams, we created wireframes that defined the user flow and content hierarchy, ensuring a smooth, intuitive navigation for both audiences.

visual design & iterative prototyping

Once the IA and wireframes were approved, we focused on the visual design. Our goal was to create a brand experience that conveyed Autolus' scientific credibility while still being engaging and compassionate for patients and caregivers.

• Design System: We developed a comprehensive design system for each digital property that defined core components (e.g., buttons, icons, forms) and ensured visual consistency across them all. While each site had its own color scheme to cater to different audiences (e.g., AUCATZYL HCP utilizes a more muted palette while Autolus Assist has brighter, friendlier, patient-focused color scheme), all components were drawn from the same system to maintain a cohesive user experience.

• Interactive Elements: We incorporated interactive map showcasing locations of places that offer AUCATZYL, video content, and scroll-triggered animations to help users engage with complex concepts like CAR T cell therapy in an easier and more digestible way.

• Mobile-First Approach: Given the increasing trend of users accessing healthcare information on mobile devices, we ensured that the design was fully responsive, delivering an optimal experience across all screen sizes.

Campaign Page Design

In addition to the three key digital properties, we created a campaign page to spotlight Autolus’s approach to CAR T cell therapy. This page served as a flagship resource, designed to showcase the company’s expertise, research breakthroughs, and commitment to improving patient outcomes.

Development & Launch

Once the designs were finalized, the development team worked in parallel with us to bring the concepts to life. The sites were developed with a focus on making them responsive, fast, and user-friendly across desktop and mobile devices. We worked closely with the development team to ensure that the designs were faithfully executed while maintaining functionality.

The outcome of this project was a set of digital properties that successfully met the goals of enhancing communication, increasing brand visibility, and improving the user experience for both healthcare professionals and patients. Key results include:

• Cohesive Brand Experience: The launch of the three websites and campaign page resulted in a unified and consistent digital presence for Autolus across all user segments. The use of a single design system helped maintain brand consistency, while the distinct color schemes allowed each site to cater to its specific audience.

• Improved User Engagement: The intuitive site structures and engaging visuals led to increased time on site, particularly for patients and caregivers who reported that they found the information more accessible and less overwhelming than before.

Our work with Autolus Therapeutics successfully delivered an integrated, human-centered experience that effectively communicated the complexity of CAR T cell therapy while making it accessible, engaging, and hopeful. By designing a scalable design system, we ensured consistency across their digital channels while allowing for distinct visual identities tailored to specific user needs.

The end result was a streamlined user experience that helped Autolus continue to lead the way in innovative cancer treatments while fostering trust and empowerment in all audience segments.