Medical website design for a clinic, or medical center
Development of a medical website for a hospital, private clinic, or dentistry: the procedure for creating and promoting important points and new web design trends
Any modern medical institution should have its website. But today, this is not enough! You are unlikely to surprise patients with outdated, boring pages presenting a couple of photos and a phone number for the reception.
In the new realities, a healthcare provider must impress at first sight and maintain a positive image, whether in a large clinic or a doctor’s office, at each interaction stage with the patient and on each website page.
Today we will share our experience and knowledge on developing an effective medical website. Your success depends on two factors – useful functionality combined with the latest medical web design trends.
Stages of developing a turnkey clinic website
In general, developing a website on a medical topic differs from most projects that web development studios face daily.
Expertise, the published content’s dependability, the article’s high quality, and service description are highlighted. It is necessary to sell medical services competently without causing patients to feel obsessed or doubt the staff’s professional ability. Human health is priceless, and people on both sides of the screen understand this.
Therefore, our web studio prioritizes 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 with medical education and rich experience writing articles for patients and fellow doctors.
Of course, designers and marketers must immerse themselves in the subject for a while and delve into the relevant field of medicine (for example, urology or dentistry). Only with an understanding of the problems and needs of patients is it possible to develop an effective website that inspires people’s trust.
Based on this knowledge, we design the site and fill it with competent articles. But, of course, any oversight can tarnish the authority of the doctor or the entire institution, so we take every detail of your project responsibly.
Information and clear navigation, getting to know the clinic and its specialists, the possibility of an online consultation with a doctor, a simple and friendly design – all this is thought out from the first days of work on the project.
Stages of developing a hospital/clinic/dentistry website:
- Collecting information about the clinic and studying its services
- Website design development, layout, and programming
- Filling with professional SEO content
- Website testing and launch.
The most important stage is collecting information, on which the correct and consistent implementation of all other steps depends. The site’s content can continue for a long time, as many clinics maintain a blog for their patients on an ongoing basis and continue to promote their brand on the Internet.
Your participation in the development process and coordination of articles promptly, functionality, and the appearance of pages will speed up the project launch at times.
What is important for a medical site?
First, we would like to describe the optimal layout for a medical website design. We mean what users expect from your website design:
Web resource trust
No element of the page should irritate the visitor, including the design of the medical clinic site and the way information is presented.
Information on the site
It is necessary to give patients, their relatives, and just interested people as many valuable recommendations as possible to solve their problems.
preliminary acquaintance
The patient should see detailed and reliable information about the clinic and its doctors on the medical website before contacting the institution.
Easy-to-use interface
Medical websites are often visited by people with poor health (vision, memory, fine motor skills) – which helps them navigate the pages effortlessly.
This is important, and we will discuss the issue of accessibility in more detail later when we talk about specific trends in web design and the promotion of medical sites.
Mobile version of the site
We focus on developing a mobile version of the resource, adapted for any device on iOS, Android, and so on. More than half of your hospital website visitors use smartphones, which should be considered.
Medical Marketing Tools
We strongly recommend that you use special marketing tools to promote the resource. For example, advertise your site on social networks, increasing users’ interest with finely selected materials.
Now let’s see what features a medical site should provide.
Site functionality for hospital and dentistry
As mentioned, an extensive feature set is key to a successful site. Therefore, be prepared to provide patients with the following information:
Full contact details
Accessible and understandable contact information is of utmost importance. The patient does not have to spend an extra second to find the clinic’s phone and room numbers. When it comes to health, time is an important factor.
Location of the clinic
How to find a clinic? If I’m lost? – Patients ask these and many other similar questions—especially those who do not know the city well. Therefore, your medical web resource should indicate the path to the institution using an interactive map.
Basic Services
The medical website should clearly state what medical services you offer and, preferably, the estimated price of the services. This will save time for all stakeholders.
Online doctor’s consultation
Site visitors (perhaps your future patients) should be able to pre-consult with a doctor online. The effectiveness of this service is enhanced if you have a well-known specialist on the Web.
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 deserving ones and save their precious time. Therefore, the online appointment feature is required.
Detailed information about doctors
It would help if you made a compelling case to attract the greatest number of patients to the clinic. And one way to accomplish this is to provide detailed information about doctors’ experience, accomplishments, certifications, and awards to your visitors.
Success stories
In marketing, there is such a thing as “social proof.” Remember the line at the pharmacy or store: sometimes customers are more willing to follow the advice of a “colleague in misfortune” standing next to them than 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. Each doctor in practice has several cases of almost miraculous cures – you can back them up with photos, 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? Express yourself? Not only. You probably want people to contact you and perform some targeted action (registration, making an appointment, online consultation).
Make sure you have a clear call to action. But remember: a medical site should not use overly annoying and noisy marketing methods. Likewise, your web design should not 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, and descriptions 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, evidence-based nature.
Patient reviews
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 type of social proof that will convince others to come to you with their problems.
Bad reviews are also useful: they will help the administration adjust its strategy on time and avoid similar situations in the future.
Naturally, we talked only about the most important functions of the medical site.
During the development of your project, we will figure out how and when to use each technique best. The main thing is a user-oriented website.
And while you’re thinking about the problem, let’s discuss another important topic.
Trends in the development of the site of a medical institution in 2020
It is impossible to succeed if you do not follow the requirements of the time. The design and promotion of the clinic’s website are also changing. New fashion and trends are emerging.
Let’s see what’s popular in 2020.
Content-Driven Design
A good medical site attracts visitors not only with visual components but also with content. Agree. This is not an entertainment portal. On the contrary, we aim to make the interaction process 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, including helpful prevention tips, accessible drug descriptions, medical practice stories, and so on.
Simplicity and conciseness
The design of the user interface should be simple and user-friendly. Simplicity and focus on content are what matter! So, you should remove all unnecessary elements and make the remaining as simple and concise as possible.
The clean design of the medical site is the key to the effectiveness of the resource. The main reason is that patients today prefer to use mobile devices to browse websites. They read on the go, not at home with a cup of tea. Therefore, a mobile site should be simple and load quickly – there is no room for extra details.
Clear navigation and search engine
If a user visits the website of a medical institution, he is likely in search of vital information. And this means that you must provide a convenient and ergonomic navigation bar. Do not force visitors to look for an appointment form and specialist appointment hours.
In this regard, one of the new trends in website development is the movable navigation bar. It should be dragged along with the user as they scroll down the page (instead of always being at the top of the web page). This trick greatly improves the user experience.
Animation and interactive elements
The trend of using animation in web design started a few years ago and is still going strong in 2020. Most likely, interaction design will expand the scope of its application, moving to more complex forms of animation.
Small animated elements fit 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 growing importance of animated elements, widescreen background photos and videos have emerged as a new trend in the design of medical websites.
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 use this trend very carefully.
Hiring professional UI/UX designers who find the sweet spot and come up with the right way to impress your users without risking overdoing it is better.
Neutral, soothing colors
Medical marketers know that patients in hospitals and pharmacies work best with neutral, soothing colors. They inspire confidence, while bright ones cause anxiety.
Therefore, bright colors are best left to online stores with their noisy price tags and seasonal offers. Instead, hospitals, clinics, and laboratories are increasingly using a calm natural palette in the design of websites – this is an important decision.
Gallery of original images
Today, many medical sites look like twins, and the main reason for such bad taste is the completely identical gallery 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 the happy patients 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 and the technological expansion of mobile devices have allowed the text to become almost an independent design element.
Due to the need to optimize websites for mobile screens, fonts have become much larger: they occupy the main part of the page, crowding out other elements.
As key graphic design elements, fonts look good on smartphone and tablet displays. This is because they directly deliver the message to the user.
This is the key to a really good medical website design: nothing detracts from the information your patients need to receive.
Non-standard site grid
This is one of the newest trends in medical web design. Site visitors are too accustomed to the clear markup that was so popular in the recent past.
The standardized grid has ceased to attract attention. Instead, the “curved” (as if “broken”) mesh forms a new aesthetic, and the unknown always draws the eye.
Even reputable medical companies from the US and Europe, concerned about corporate style, are now using this method in a universal format. For example, in combination with a classic mesh.
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 theater or comfortable rooms in 3D, allowing users to visit the clinic virtually. This makes a very favorable impression.
Accessibility of web content
Meeting the needs of individuals with disabilities has become a trend in web design, supported by legislation in many nations.
Now many hospitals and medical centers are exploring the possibility of giving users an equal opportunity to use the sites without any problems.
Agree. It would be strange if medical institutions did not care for patients with disabilities when creating online resources!
The accessibility of the web platform is determined by the following four principles: responsiveness, controllability, clarity, and reliability.
Current data
A website for a healthcare institution is not only a marketing tool. First of all, it helps patients in their treatment. New website development trends involve publishing relevant, truthful, and useful articles.
What we mean is that information should not be just bare facts. Instead, your patients need a real guide to tell them the next steps: what drugs to buy, which doctors to book an appointment with, what tests to take, and so on.
Visual perception of information
We discussed web design strategies a lot about the visual component.
This point sums up 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 concern for the user
All that has been said about the importance of website design services can be summarized as follows: a medical site should be user-oriented (patient equivalent) and its individual needs.
We have been developing medical sites on 1C-Bitrix for a long time and can offer effective, well-established techniques that are relevant now.
Development of a medical application
Remember that healthcare apps are the future of medicine.
Do you want to create a medical application for your patients or employees? Then, contact us: the cost will pleasantly surprise you, and the result always exceeds expectations.
Assistance in the development of a medical site
We discussed the stages of developing a turnkey clinic website and listed the main trends in medical web design in 2020. Following them can easily turn your web resource into an effective business tool.
But, of course, everything changes over time, so stay tuned for new publications. We promise to keep you updated – check out our blog and stay connected!
And remember that developing a medical website is a very difficult task requiring a special approach. It is not enough to know what is popular today. You must be able to apply such knowledge in practice. If you are unsure of your capabilities, we are ready to advise and help you at any project stage.
If you read more articles please visit