You may have noticed a recent boom in web-based services and features offered by industries that you never thought would move online. As we continue to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, industries have been forced to change, and what was once always in-person has shifted either partially or entirely online. One industry that has taken part in this shift is the healthcare field. A quintessential “in-person” arena has found a way to adapt their previous model to meet current needs, and there are so many benefits to both clinicians and patients. Of course, some parts of healthcare cannot be conducted online, but as we are learning, many can be and have been! There are a few steps that need to occur before moving your business online, but one of the most crucial steps is making sure your web design is up-to-date and flawless. Having the best healthcare web design possible ensures patients and clients can quickly and easily access the features they need to receive the care they deserve.
Providing great web design for your Healthcare site has many benefits, including:
1. Allows you to adhere to Covid-19 protocols
One of the most important Covid-19 safety measures is to limit unnecessary interactions, this includes shopping, socializing, and appointments. Although I think you will agree, some appointments must be kept and must be done in person, but there are others where a simple phone call or video chat will suffice. Modern and innovative healthcare web design allows for this reality.
2. Reduces anxiety
Unfortunately, one of the many nasty bi-products of the global pandemic is the increase in anxiety. Moving some healthcare services online not only alleviates the anxiety around catching or spreading the coronavirus, but it alleviates the normal dread of going into a doctor’s office. When appointments, results, consulting, and other measures can be conducted through a well-designed website, everyone benefits!
3. Healthcare web design reduces lines and wait-times
Have you had the experience of waiting in a doctor’s office, even with an appointment, for what feels like an eternity? Only made worse by the reality that you have to be present in the office or clinic to keep your time-slot? Switching appointments to online changes this! Now you can wait from the comfort of your home until your clinician is ready. As long as your healthcare provider has a web design that allows for video appointments or other chat functions, you can say goodbye to crowded waiting rooms.
4. Saves time for patients and doctors
Online healthcare platforms are making the most of web design and both patients and practitioners are benefiting. Healthcare web design allows patients to have seamless access to location and hours, knowledge of doctors on site, how to book appointments, how to access lab results, talk with doctors, and secure billing. Doctors spend less time on clerical work and patients spend less time waiting for appointments and results.
5. Increases overall satisfaction
Not only does great healthcare web design save time but it increases clinician and patient satisfaction. Healthcare providers can see more patients and help more people, and patients can get the care they need more efficiently and effectively.
Great web design offers so many immediate benefits to both healthcare providers and patients, without it, using online platforms can literally leave you feeling lost.
Imagine for a second you’re headed to the doctor’s office and you can’t find the front door to the building. Imagine there are no obvious street numbers, and no number to call. Imagine you’re in the office and there’s no lab tech to do your blood work, no office administrator to show you to your room, and no doctor available to help you. This is a bleak situation to imagine, it’s stressful, unproductive, frustrating, and doesn’t suit your needs. Whether you’ve thought about it before or not, all these things determine a good or bad doctor visit; finding the clinic and being able to access it, staff onsite to help guide the experience and the ability to see a doctor quickly, having tests or a procedure done, and getting results on time are what we need and expect from healthcare providers. Today, many of these features or experiences happen on your website. Web design is your front door, your waiting room, your staff, your appointment, your results. Without a well-thought-out and functioning website, you might as well build a clinic in a building with no doors.
Taking advantage of web design is more than just having a website. Healthcare web design must be modern and innovative to stay current and cutting-edge. It must be user friendly to accommodate and appeal to all demographics. It must run smoothly, without glitches or dead-ends. The user experience must be on par with what you would expect from a world-class hospital or a modern, integrative medical clinic. All the factors that elicit a positive healthcare appointment must be taken into consideration when it comes to the design of your website. Focusing on web design ensures your patients and clients are taken care of and get the best service possible. However, just like all medical offices are not designed the same, not all websites are either. Below are 5 tips to follow to ensure your healthcare website has the best web design possible!
5 Healthcare web design tips!
1. Make sure all information is accurate and easy to find
It may sound like a no brainer, but one of the first things clients look for on a website is store hours, location, and contact numbers – this information should be immediately visible, up to date and accurate. Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to contact a service you need or showing up just to find out it’s closed.
Notice how HealthVue, an integrative medical clinic, has all important information on its homepage. Services, doctors, news, contact is all there and can be found within a few scrolls. This is a great example of functional web design!
2. Offer video calls and live-chat features
User-experience and user-friendly web design can make the difference between a successful website and a flop. Simple things like the ability to live-chat with a staff member or not having to switch between multiple pages and platforms for video calls are some features to consider. With many industries taking advantage of video calls, patients and clients mustn’t be overwhelmed by having to use multiple websites and applications.
3. Provide detailed information for important pages
Your website should provide the same amount of information as if your client were talking to a member of your staff looking for answers. However, instead of this in-person interaction, your website takes care of it and the web design compliments this by making all important information accessible.
4. Healthcare web design needs click-to-action links
Nothing is more frustrating than reaching a dead-end. Often websites will encourage you to learn more or get in touch or pay now, but fail to provide links to make that happen. The user should never have to fish around a website to book a service, all important features should have visible and ample click-through links. Some key services to use click-to-action links include contact, payment, and booking appointments.
One of the best examples of Healthcare web design is CloudMD, where the landing page has just the right amount of click-to-action links, which guides the user-experience and ultimately gives patients and clients exactly what they need. The rest of their website is bright and vibrant while maintaining a comforting and professional feel.
5. Use a simple layout that guides the user-experience
Again, this may sound intuitive but many websites get caught up in the details and forget about the most important feature of any website, which is being user-friendly. Just like no one likes to feel lost in an office building, no one likes to feel lost online. Too many pages, or having to sift through multiple links to get to the page you’re looking for, are the opposite of good website design! Eliminate this by using modern and intuitive web design layouts.
A great example of layout can be seen in this healthcare website for trauma counseling. It uses a simple scroll down web design with all relevant information laid out clearly and cleanly. There’s no getting lost! From the color scheme to the font, to the layout to the pictures used, everything is intuitive and inviting creating the perfect user-experience.
Healthcare web design bonus tip!
Include testimonials and reviews – most of us rely on reviews to some degree when deciding on a service to buy or place to go. By including them in your web design, not only do you enhance your credibility but you save your online users the hassle of having to go somewhere else to find reviews. Strive to have all the information your patients need right on your website!
I think you’ll agree, web design is important! The healthcare industry has largely been in person, but recently it has started to shift more and more services online, and with this shift comes the need for better and more efficient web design. It’s up to all of us to do our part to not overwhelm our healthcare system right now and utilizing online features is one way you can help. Vancouver web design agencies are blazing the trail for healthcare web design, ensuring that both practitioners, clients, and patients are happy. If you have a healthcare-oriented field, now’s the time to make the shift to bettering your online services. There are many small changes you can make to your website yourself and if you want a complete overhaul then there are lots of great professional web design agencies out there to ensure you get all the features you need.
