10 elements of a great healthcare website design
A new website design is a large, but worthwhile, investment. Make sure your next redesign includes these elements.
Designing and building a healthcare organization's website is an exciting and sometimes challenging process. There are multiple factors to keep in mind—your organization's goals, your site visitors' needs and meeting web accessibility standards are just a few.
It's likely that you'll be working with a website design team on the project. Being aware of the following best practices can help you choose the right website design vendor for your redesign and work with them to create the best possible finished product.
10 keys to a great healthcare website design
1. Modern code. Your website's design should be built on a strong foundation of modern, crawlable code. Staying current on coding best practices and techniques takes an ongoing effort. For example, Coffey's designers and developers meet weekly to study, share knowledge and learn new skills.
2. Contemporary design. Much like fashion or architecture, web design trends change frequently, and, before you know it, a certain visual aesthetic is outdated. Working with a design team that keeps up with the latest trends—for both healthcare and the broader web—can help ensure that you see design prototypes that are modern and relevant.
3. A connection to your brand identity. A well-designed website can strengthen your organization's brand and create an emotional connection with potential patients. Before you redesign your site, walk your design team through your brand guidelines. Refer back to those guidelines frequently as you review prototypes to ensure your new design supports the brand's visual identity.
4. A focus on your goals. Every healthcare website should have clearly defined goals. It's important to share these goals with your designers at the start of the project.
5. Intuitive navigation. Your site's design should help make it easy for people to find the information they're looking for. This starts with the navigation. The layout of the navigation and the words used in it are both important.
Working with a website design agency that also has content expertise can help ensure that your site's navigation is put together in the best possible way.
6. Mobile-first design. The vast majority of Americans are smartphone users—77% to be exact. Your site needs to be designed so that it works well on these devices.
7. Speed. Your site should be designed with both speed and functionality in mind. The design should include properly optimized images and clean code so that it loads as quickly as possible.
8. Accessibility. Web accessibility is no longer a nice addition to a healthcare website. It's a requirement. Your design and development team needs to be well-versed in accessibility guidelines like WCAG 2.0 and 508 compliance laws, which can inform everything from your color choice to alt image tags.
9. Consistent design. From your headline styling to text alignment, your site's design needs to be consistent throughout.
10. Easy-to-use maintenance tools. Your site isn't done once it goes live. An intuitive content management system (CMS) can help you easily add new content, update existing content and spot broken links easily. All of these things can help ensure that your new site keeps working well over time.
Let us design your healthcare website
Designing a healthcare website is a big project. Coffey has the experience to get the job done right.
Our team can design and code your healthcare website with your goals, brand guidelines and accessibility standards in mind. Call 888.805.9101 or email us to learn how we can help.
