We all know that websites come in a variety of styles, colors, and layouts. People build sites that they feel represents the brand or purpose that they want to highlight on the Web. The truth is; not everyone gets their website design right. And that is especially so when it comes to the sites for medical practices.
You might think that the website for a medical practice doesn’t need to be anything “special.” But, there are certain considerations you need to make before you build one. If you’re about to embark on such a project, let me highlight the ways that you can make your new website easy to use.
Source: Flickr
Make your content accessible
Most people seldom realize that they have a legal obligation to make their websites accessible to all individuals. It’s rare, but it’s possible you could open yourself up to legal action for disability discrimination.
Put it this way: your medical practice will have an entrance that lets wheelchair users enter the building with ease. If someone with impaired vision wanted to look at your site, how will you cater to their needs?
The good news is that it’s straightforward to make your site accessible to all. Examples include:
- Choosing good color schemes. Dark text on a light background is easier to read than white text on a dark background;
- Responsive web design. Content resizes to a readable style if viewed on smaller devices;
- Using “alt” tags for images. In a nutshell, you can give your visitors a text account of what each image is; and
- Offering plain text alternatives. Useful for screen reading devices that can’t interpret Flash or Javascript content.
Offer simple site navigation
Does your current website have a complex array of sections and pages? If so, your content needs to go on a diet! One of the routes to successful medical website design is by using simple site navigation.
To accomplish that task, you need to put yourself into the mindset of one of your site visitors. What information will they want to see the most? Once you’ve compiled a list, create a simple to follow navigation structure on your site.
A by-product of that approach is you will have less content to maintain. And that’s a good thing in anyone’s book!
Make your contact information accessible on every page
Perhaps the main reason someone will go to your website is to find out where you are and how to communicate with you. It’s for that reason that you should make your contact details available on all your site’s pages.
I recommend putting them both and the top and bottom of each page. Just make sure that you do so in a way that fits in with the general theme and layout of the site.
Make sure patient portals comply with the law
Do you want your patients to have access to their medical records? If so, you need to ensure the way you offer this service complies with privacy laws in your country. After all; the last thing you want is a lawsuit because your site was easy to hack!
By following the above tips, you’ll end up with a useful medical practice website.
