User Experience in Healthcare Web Design: 12 Effective Strategies

Key Takeaways:

1. Knowing who is the website for can help to choose the layout, fonts, and colors, and build the overall design.
2. With the rise in data breaches and ransomware attacks, patients rely on safe healthcare websites. Incorporate privacy measures such as HIPAA compliance to safeguard healthcare data against potential cyber-attacks.
3. Accessibility and inclusivity play a critical role in enhancing user experience in healthcare web design.
4. Adding quality content, using relevant keywords, and optimizing images can increase healthcare website visibility. Plus, it also displays a positive user experience in healthcare web design.
5. Mobile-optimized websites adapt seamlessly to different screen resolutions and sizes. This offers a consistent user experience across every device.

What accounts for a great user experience for a healthcare website? Is it the flawless back-end coding or the exceptional front-end layout? Well, a balance of both makes a great healthcare website. But, at the end of the day what matters is the user experience. If users don’t spend time on a website and make use of its features, then it is a lost case.

According to a report, over half of the respondents feel that a fantastic user experience in website design is important for a company. The report also states that 31 percent of the people think that an engaging user experience is a top priority for the website design.

User experience in healthcare web design plays a critical role in SEO ranking, accessibility and inclusivity, and improving patient experience. So, to make a killer site, healthcare website development companies must nail the design phase.

Here are the top 12 effective strategies that will help to enhance user experience in healthcare web design.

Strategies for Enhanced User Experience in Healthcare Web Design

Designing a user experience to accommodate everyone, along with creative visual elements and content can uplift a healthcare website. Having a deeper understanding of the users can help to elevate user experience and satisfaction even further. Let’s look at how to go about doing it effectively.

1. Who is the Website For?

Knowing who is the website for can help to choose the layout, fonts, and colors, and build the overall design. A healthcare website will be primarily used by the patients, so have a patient-centric approach during the healthcare web design phase. Focus on what the patients want from the healthcare facilities. What are their pain points?

Addressing patients concerns can not only help you to build a great user experience, but also enhance patient satisfaction. When a patient goes on a healthcare website, they normally look for options such as appointment bookings, care specialists, availability of online consultations, payment options, and more.

The goal of a healthcare designer should be to guide the patients through this process effortlessly. If that’s in place then the chances of patient retention increases, and so does the possibility to attract more patients in the future.

2. Users Love a Secured Healthcare Website

When it comes to healthcare, everyone goes for secured healthcare services and products. The reason is simple – a sense of protection for patient health information.

As per the HIPAA Journal, healthcare data breach statistics clearly show that there has been an upward trend in data breaches over the past 14 years. In 2023, 725 data breaches were reported to OCR and across those breaches, more than 133 million records were exposed or impermissibly disclosed.

With the rise in data breaches and ransomware attacks, patients rely on safe and secured healthcare websites. Incorporation of privacy measures such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliance can safeguard healthcare data against potential cyber-attacks.

3. Design to Include Everyone

Healthcare services are available for all, so why not design a website that accommodates people from every background? A healthcare web design that lacks voice assistance or AAC devices may fail to attract patients with disabilities. So, accessibility and inclusivity plays a critical role in enhancing user experience in healthcare web design. Failure to do so may result in lawsuits.

For example, Tenet Healthcare faced a lawsuit that was filed on behalf of all Americans with visual impairment. The complaint was that the company’s healthcare website was not accessible via screen readers, so it violated the Section 504 and Title III of the ADA standard.

In order to design an accessible and inclusive healthcare website, development companies need to adhere to standards such as WCAG, ADA, and Section 508.

These standards state that design a website with high color contrast, readable font, screen readers, voice assistants, AAC devices, etc., include elements that will make the website available for the disabled.

4. Keep a Track of Trends

Healthcare technology is constantly on the rise. The launch of AI, machine learning, data analytics, IoMT, big data, etc., in the healthcare industry has completely changed the way care is given. Let’s look at some of these trends in brief:

1. Generative AI: Generative AI has become popular due to the launch of ChatGPT. It’s no secret that ChatGPT is playing a crucial role in the healthcare sector. It can spot errors during documentation, assist in recommending treatment and diagnosis, and aids in mental health treatment. However, physicians debate on the authenticity of the results produced by ChatGPT. One other thing that generative AI is capable of is image analysis for radiologists. It improves the accuracy of medical imaging.
2. Natural Language Processing (NLP): This is another branch of AI that aids in converting unstructured healthcare data into structured format. So, healthcare providers can easily read and understand them. NLP also contributes towards understanding the emotions of patients through semantic analysis technique. Furthermore, it offers voice-to-text feature, so providers can easily make patients’ notes at real-time.
3. Internet-of-Medical-Things (IoMT): The nature of IoMT devices is to capture data from anywhere such as fitness trackers or EHR. This data is later transferred to the provider’s server for analysis. Rather than going to a clinic for a check-up, patients can keep a track of their health at real-time with the help of remote monitoring devices. This is a great way for personalized diagnosis.

5. SEO Optimization is the Key

Content is the king! And what’s even more essential than content is SEO optimization. Inducting this strategy in the healthcare web design phase can elevate user experience. How so? Well, users are hungry for relevant and value-added information. This information provides patients with tips and tricks on how to ameliorate care.

Resources or blog section helps websites to rank higher on SERPS. Moreover, it also enhances credibility of a healthcare organization and showcases its authenticity towards patient care. Adding quality content, using relevant keywords, and optimizing images can increase healthcare website visibility. Plus, it also displays positive user experience in healthcare web design.

6. Lead with Engaging Visuals and Multimedia

Too much of anything is a distraction. So, it is paramount that designers have a sound knowledge of how many and in what way visuals can be used. One must know that healthcare data can be difficult to process for many patients, hence a website must convey meaning in an easy way. Using multimedia and visuals is one of the ways to provide meaningful information on the website.

Make use of infographics to represent healthcare statistics and data in an understandable format. Include it in blogs or case studies; using analytics to check patients’ charts is also another way to leverage infographics. Moreover, value-added videos with closed captions can elevate healthcare web design too. Try to encompass videos on medical concepts, healthcare news, services offered by the healthcare organization, and more.

7. Go for Mobile-Friendly Design

Website analytics gives us a complete report on how many people are viewing the website, and from which device. Designers may find that maximum number of people use smartphones to access healthcare websites. Mobile usage has risen ten folds now, so patients are likely to use it to carry out several tasks. The goal of the designers is to deliver mobile-friendly web design to accommodate a much larger section of the patients.

Mobile optimized websites can enhance user experience in healthcare web design. It ensures that website adapts seamlessly to different screen resolutions and sizes. This offers a consistent experience across every device. This is essential for patients who access healthcare services and information on the go.

8. You Can’t Go Wrong with Simplicity

“Keep it Simple Stupid” is a popular strategy applied by the healthcare designers. This approach allows them to create a simple, easy-to-use healthcare web design. A simple website has intuitive navigation and search feature. This augments user experience by several lengths.

Moreover, features are designed to address user’s needs quickly, helping them to find information efficiently. Additionally, losing distractive elements such as GIFs, images, and unnecessary graphics can foster great experience.

Sticking to one font and color combination highlights organization’s image, tells the users what they represent. The key is to design with the patients in mind, after all they’ll be using the website the most.

9. Build a Responsive Healthcare Web Design

Responsive healthcare websites are an essential part of the user experience. Plenty of users access healthcare websites via smartphones, so offering them a consistent user experience adds to organizations’ longevity.

Some of the ways to build a responsive healthcare website are:

1. Proportionate the elements on the website by the grid rather than limiting them in specific size as in pixels.
2. Ensure that the size of the icons are large enough, so it is comfortable to touch when accessed through handheld devices.
3. Optimize images and videos for mobile, set the maximum width to 100 percent and leave height on auto.
4. Assure that the font size is suitable for all. For a responsive website, a responsive font-size works the best.
5. Use breakpoints and media queries to optimize the healthcare web design for different screen widths.

10. Don’t Miss Out on Seamless Navigation

Provide an understandable navigation menu and a website structure that is both obvious and logical. Divide material into sections so that it may be easily accessed and retrieved.

To help users navigate the website, utilize headings and labels that provide context.

11. Test and Test Again

Conduct A/B testing to ensure that the different pages of your website are attractive and appealing to the users. Testing tells designers whether the features align well with patients expectations and needs or not. Different tools and techniques are used for testing web pages and see which pages are performing the best and which aren’t.

12. Focus on Faster Loading Time

Optimize the website’s loading time to avoid aggravating visitors and a high bounce rate. To increase performance, use caching strategies, minify the code, and compress the images. Frequently check and improve the speed of the website with resources such as Google PageSpeed Insights.

Outsourcing to a healthcare web design and development company that specializes in creating exceptional user experience is going to be your best shot at designing a simple, yet mobile-friendly website.

Arkenea ranks among the top-rated healthcare web design companies and with 13+ years of experience under their belt, our dedicated team of designers and developers can help you create an engaging website that results in enhanced user experience. Get in touch with our team for a consultation call right away.