Revamping a Healthcare Website to Revitalize Patient Care
Overview
Our client is a healthcare organization that provides high-quality, cost-effective, patient-centered care to adult and pediatric patients. They had a digital presence that fell behind in serving their target audiences and their internal processes, so they contacted Velir to perform a wholesale redesign of their website. They wanted to modernize the site by updating the technical platform powering it and aligning their sitewide information architecture, content, and design strategy to effectively meet business and patient requirements.
Challenge
After several years of operating with the same website, this healthcare organization realized that their site wasn’t effectively meeting the needs of their internal and external stakeholders and that the site’s codebase had long past its best-by date. They knew it was time for a significant refresh of their site, so they contacted Velir with two main goals in mind. One — modernize their site for their patients and their staff. Two — create a more intuitive, seamless platform for their content authors to use.
To perform this revamp, we identified that we needed to update their existing digital experience platform Sitecore (to version 10.2) to give this client the right foundation for their new digital presence. We also knew that we needed to collaborate with the client’s team to redesign all aspects of the new site to serve their patients and providers.
The client’s challenges included:
- Updating their site’s antiquated user experience to reflect their modern brand identity and position in the healthcare industry
- Improving their site’s structure to increase search functionality and content discoverability
- Streamlining their outdated content authoring process so content authors could create and publish new pages efficiently
- Integrating their mobile site, which was a separate entity, into the overall site to reduce the overhead for their marketing team to manage content updates
- Upgrading their outdated version of Sitecore to one with the latest features and functionality
Approach
To transform this client’s website, we divided our website redesign into four key phases: Discover, Envision, Design, and Development.
Discover
In the Discover phase, we gained valuable insights into user preferences and organizational requirements through user research and stakeholder interviews. We also gathered business requirements from the client, methodically defining them to align with their overall objectives.
Envision
In the Envision phase, we defined the new site’s visual strategy. We achieved that through workshops with key stakeholders to capture the essence of this client’s brand. We eliminated outdated content via a thorough content inventory we created, which we also used to identify content in need of a refresh.
For crafting the new site’s design concept, we conducted creative workshops where we leveraged both research and the established visual strategy. Through this process, we formed a single design concept to depict the new website’s look and feel. Additionally, we crafted a new information architecture (IA), and this IA was used to validate our list of future state content.
Design
During our design process, we created new page templates and wireframes, which were rapidly developed with our internal development accelerator. Velir’s development accelerator features pre-set wireframes and components, while still offering clients a high degree of flexibility to meet each client’s unique needs. To ensure we achieved a fresh, innovative design approach, we also took inspiration from other leading healthcare providers when devising our design concepts.
This meticulous design process streamlined our content migration process with easy component mapping between the old site and the new site. Our proactive approach ensured a smooth transition of content to the new site, which minimized potential disruptions and enhanced the project’s overall efficiency.
Development
Our development for this client’s new website emphasized mobile readiness. We created mobile-optimized pages and components to enhance the user experience across all devices as we folded the client’s mobile site, which used to be separate, into a single digital experience. Once we finished development, we conducted demos and user training sessions to guarantee a successful transition of the site to the client’s team. This facilitated a smooth handoff to the client and left them well-equipped to effectively manage and maintain their new site.
Our approach included:
- Revamping the client’s overall design to better align with their branding
- Elevating content findability through taxonomy, tagging, and IA enhancements
- Developing a user-friendly design language to enhance this client’s overall user experience
- Utilizing Sitecore 10.2 to leverage composable options and support containerized environments, promoting a composable infrastructure with Sitecore XM and Personalize
- Identifying and resolving technical and content-related search engine optimization (SEO) errors to maximize the new site’s search visibility
Solution
Our comprehensive redesign of this client’s website resulted in significant improvements in the user experience for patients and content authors. It also better aligned their digital experience with their mission and brand through a modern design that reflects their commitment to excellence in healthcare.
One of our standout achievements with this website redesign was implementing a revolutionary new site search feature. This search allows users to easily identify physician information and locations, as well as other data such as conditions and treatments. By streamlining the search process, the site ensures patients can quickly find the information they need when they need it.
Results:
- A dramatically improved user experience for patients and content authors
- A modern aesthetic and experience that better reflect the client’s brand identity
- A dynamic new site search that lets users quickly identify physician information and locations, and find information by conditions and treatments