Development of a medical website of a hospital, private clinic or dentistry: the order of creation and promotion, important points and new trends in web design
Any modern medical institution should have its own website. But today it is not enough! You are unlikely to surprise patients with outdated boring pages presenting a couple of photos and a reception phone.
In the new realities, the provider of medical services, whether it is a large clinic or a doctor’s office, is obliged to make an impression at first sight and maintain a positive image. At each stage of interaction with the patient, on each page of the site.
Today we are going to share our experience and knowledge in developing an effective medical website. Your success depends on two factors – useful functionality combined with the latest trends in medical web design.
Stages of development of the clinic website on a turnkey basis
In general, the process of developing a website on medical topics is very different from most projects that web development studios encounter daily.
The main emphasis here is on expertise, the reliability of the published content, the high quality of each article, each description of the service. It is necessary to sell medical services competently, without causing patients to feel obsessive and doubt about the professional competence of the staff.
Human health is priceless, and people on both sides of the screen understand this.
Therefore, our web studio pays priority attention to compliance with the principles of medical ethics, building patient confidence in the institution through design and professional content.
To do this, we employ experienced medical copywriters who have medical education and rich experience in writing articles for patients and fellow doctors.
Of course, designers and marketers have to immerse themselves in the subject for a while and delve into the relevant field of medicine (for example, urology or dentistry). Only armed with an understanding of the problems, the needs of patients, can you develop an effective website that inspires people’s trust.
Based on this knowledge, we design the site and fill it with competent articles. Any mistake can tarnish the credibility of the doctor or the entire institution, so we responsibly treat every detail of your project.
Informativeness and clear navigation, acquaintance with the clinic and its specialists, the possibility of online doctor consultation, simple and friendly design - all this is thought out from the first days of work on the project.
Stages of development of the site of the hospital / clinic / dentistry:
- Gathering information about the clinic and studying its services
- Website design, layout and programming
- Filling with professional SEO content
- Testing and launch of the site.
The most important step is the collection of information on which the correct and consistent implementation of all other stages depends. Filling the site can last a long time, as many clinics on an ongoing basis blog for their patients and continue to promote their brand on the Internet.
Your active participation in the development process and timely coordination of articles, functionality, appearance of pages will speed up the launch of the project at times.
What is important for a medical website?
First of all, we want to tell you what the design of the ideal medical website should look like. We mean what users expect from the design of your website:
Trust in the web resource
No element of the page should irritate the visitor, including the design of the website of the medical clinic and the way the information is presented.
Informativeness of the site
It is necessary to give patients, their relatives and simply interested people as many valuable recommendations as possible to solve their problem.
Preliminary acquaintance
The patient should see on the medical website detailed and reliable information about the clinic and its doctors before contacting the institution.
Easy-to-use interface
Medical websites are often visited by people who have already had their health undermined (vision, memory, fine motor skills) – help them navigate the pages effortlessly.
This is really important, and we will discuss accessibility in more detail later when we talk about specific trends in web design and promotion of medical sites.
*Mobile version of the site_
We focus on the development of a mobile version of the resource, adapted for any device on iOS, Android and so on. Among the visitors to your hospital’s website, more than half use smartphones, and this must be taken into account.
Medical Marketing Tools
We strongly recommend that you use special marketing tools to promote the resource. Say, advertise your site on social networks, increasing the interest of users with finely selected materials.
And now let’s see what functions the medical site should provide.
Site functionality for hospital and dentistry
As mentioned, an extensive set of features is the key to a successful website. Hence, be prepared to provide patients with the following information:
Full contact details
The most important thing is to make contact information accessible and understandable. The patient should not spend an extra second to find the phone number of the clinic and the numbers of the offices. When it comes to health, the time factor is really crucial.
Location of the clinic
“How to find a clinic? Where is she? If I get lost?” – these and many other similar questions are asked by patients, especially those who do not know the city well. Therefore, your medical web resource should show the way to the institution using an interactive map.
Main services
A medical website should clearly indicate what services you offer, and – preferably – the approximate price of services. This will help save time for all stakeholders.
Online doctor’s consultation
Site visitors (perhaps your future patients) should be able to consult a doctor online beforehand. The effectiveness of this service increases if you have a well-known specialist on the Web.
Make an appointment online
The modern website of the clinic is not just a business card. This is an interactive tool thanks to which future patients choose worthy ones and save their invaluable time. The function of making an appointment online is mandatory.
Detailed information about doctors
If you want to attract as many patients to the clinic as possible, you need to make strong arguments. And one way to do that is to provide your visitors with detailed information about doctors, their experiences, accomplishments, certifications, and awards.
Success Stories
In marketing, there is such a thing as “social proof”. Remember the queue at the pharmacy or store: sometimes customers are more willing to follow the recommendation of the “colleague in misfortune” standing next to them than the advice of a professional at the checkout.
Success stories of your patients on the site. This is an effective way to convince visitors that it is better here. Every doctor in practice will find several cases of an almost miraculous cure - you can support them with a photo or CT scans “before” and “after”.
This method will give your potential patients confidence and hope.
Call to action
What is the purpose of developing a hospital or doctor’s office website? Make yourself known? Not only. You probably strive for people to contact you, perform some targeted action (registration, appointment, online consultation).
Be sure to take care of a clear “call to action.” But remember: a medical website should not use too annoying and noisy marketing methods. Your web design doesn’t have to be intrusive. The only way is to advise carefully.
Blog for patients
Diversify the content with interesting information on your topics: news from the field of medicine, useful tips, description of various treatment options for a particular disease. Of course, the quality of published materials is very important, as well as their reliability and scientific, evidentiary nature.
Patient Testimonials
Are patients satisfied with the prescribed treatment? Of course, not all, but let the clientele share their opinion on the pages. Positive feedback from people is another kind of social proof that will convince others to come to you with their problems.
Well, bad reviews will also come in handy: they will help the administration to adjust its strategy in a timely manner and avoid similar situations in the future.
Naturally, we told only about the most important functions of the medical site.
In the process of developing your project, together we will come up with how and when it is better to use each technique. The main thing is a user-oriented site.
And while you are thinking about the problem, let’s discuss another important topic.
Trends in the development of the website of a medical institution
It is impossible to succeed if you do not follow the requirements of the time. The design and promotion of the clinic’s website is also changing, new fashion and trends are emerging.
Let’s take a look at what’s popular
Content-oriented design
A good medical site attracts visitors not only with visual components, but also with content. Agree, this is not an entertainment portal. Our goal is to make the process of interaction between patients and your clinic as efficient as possible.
Therefore, the resource should be, first of all, informative. The design should highlight the main aspects of your quality content, which may include useful prevention tips, available drug descriptions, stories from medical practice, and so on.
Simplicity and conciseness
The design of the user interface should be simple and convenient. Simplicity and an emphasis on content is what really matters! So, you should remove all unnecessary elements and make the remaining ones as simple and concise as possible.
Believe me, the clean design of the medical site is the key to the effectiveness of the resource. The main reason for this is that today patients prefer to use mobile devices to browse websites. They read on the go, not at home over a cup of tea. A mobile site should be simple and fast to load – there is no room for unnecessary details.
Clear navigation and search engine
If a person has visited the website of a medical institution, he is probably looking for important information. And this means that you should provide a comfortable and ergonomic navigation bar. Don’t force visitors to look for appointment form and appointment hours.
In this regard, one of the new trends in website development is the mobile navigation bar. It should reach after the user while they scroll down the page (instead of constantly being at the top of the web page). This technique greatly improves the user experience.
Animation and interactive elements
The trend associated with the use of animation in web design originated several years ago, and it remains relevant. Most likely, interactive design will expand the scope of its application, moving to more complex forms of animation.
Small animated elements blend well with other medical web design trends and improve the entire process of user interaction with a medical institution in search of information or services.
Background photos and videos
Along with the increasing role of animated elements, widescreen background photos and videos have also become one of the new trends in the development of medical sites.
Video gives the web resource dynamics and allows you to immerse the user in the story you wrote, so that he can personally participate in events within the company.
Of course, a medical website should be very careful to use such a trend.
It is better to involve professional UI / UX designers in the work: those who will find the golden mean and offer the right way to impress your users without risking overdoing it.
Neutral, calm colors
Medical marketing professionals know that hospital patients and pharmacy visitors are best influenced by neutral, soothing colors. They inspire confidence, while bright ones cause alarm.
Therefore, bright colors are best left to online stores with their screaming price tags and seasonal offers. In the development of websites of hospitals, clinics and laboratories, a calm natural palette is increasingly used - this is an important decision.
Gallery of original images
Today, many medical sites look like twins, and the main reason for this tastelessness is completely identical galleries of template images downloaded from public photo stocks.
Therefore, one of the new trends of medical websites in 2020 is unique, professionally shot images. Show users the real doctors of your clinic or happy patients that you managed to cure.
This approach will help personalize your project, giving it a unique character.
Fonts as a design element
The fashion for minimalism, as well as the technological expansion of mobile devices, allowed the text to become almost an independent design element.
Due to the need to optimize sites for mobile screens, fonts have become much larger: they occupy the main part of the page, displacing other elements.
Fonts as key elements of graphic design look good on smartphone and tablet displays. They deliver the message directly to the user.
This is the key to creating a really good medical website design: nothing distracts attention from the information your patients need to receive.
Non-standard site grid
This is one of the newest areas of medical web design. The fact is that site visitors are too accustomed to clear markup, so popular in the recent past.
The standardized grid stopped attracting attention. The “curved” (as it were, “broken”) grid forms a new aesthetic, and the new always attracts the eyes.
Even reputable medical companies from the United States and Europe, concerned about corporate identity, are now applying this method in a more universal format. For example, in combination with the classic grid.
Fewer pop-ups
This is another trend associated with minimalism and simplicity of design.
Reduce the number of pop-ups that annoy users so much. Try to find more acceptable ways to contact the patient.
3D panoramas
360° panoramas are a great way to showcase a new operating room or comfortable ward in a three-dimensional format, allowing users to virtually visit the clinic. This makes a very favorable impression.
Accessibility of web content
Meeting the needs of people with disabilities has become an actual trend of web design, in many countries supported at the legislative level.
Now many hospitals and medical centers are exploring the possibility of providing users with equal opportunities to use sites without any problems.
Agree, it would be strange if medical institutions did not take care of patients with disabilities when creating their own online resource!
The availability of a web platform is determined by the following four principles: receptivity, manageability, clarity, and reliability.
Up-to-date data
A website for a healthcare institution is not only a marketing tool. First of all, it is helping patients in their treatment. That is why new trends in the development of the site imply the publication of relevant, truthful and useful articles.
What we mean is that information doesn’t have to be just a bare fact. Your patients need a real guide that can tell them about the following steps: what medicines to buy, which doctors to make an appointment with, what tests to take, and so on.
Visual perception of information
Discussing web design strategies, we talked a lot about the visual component.
This paragraph will summarize all of the above: information should be easy to perceive, and therefore easy to visualize. After all, this is how we humans perceive the world.
Clean page design, large fonts - and the patient will not get confused.
Sincere care for the user
All that has been said about the importance of website design services can be summarized as follows: the medical site should be focused on the user (the equivalent of the patient) and his individual needs.
We have long been developing medical sites on 1C-Bitrix and can offer effective established techniques that are relevant now.
Development of a medical application
Remember, healthcare apps are the future of medicine.
Do you want to create a medical app for your patients or employees? Contact us
Assistance in the development of a medical site
We talked about the stages of developing a turnkey clinic website and listed the main trends in medical web design. Following them, you can easily turn your web resource into an effective tool for doing business.
And remember: the development of a medical website is a very difficult task that requires a special approach. It’s not enough to know what’s popular today. You should be able to apply such knowledge in practice. If you are not sure of your capabilities, we are ready to advise and help you at any stage of the project.