Before committing to a particular aesthetic or theme for your website’s design, there are a few functional elements that you need to consider. Rather than focusing all your energy into the creative side of website design, it is also important to prioritise a user-friendly interface.
Here are a few features to include in your website when providing your website visitors with a convenient user experience!
Simple Navigation Bar
At the very top of your website should be a navigation bar for your website visitors to use. This bar should be uniform across all of your website’s pages, and serve as a way for your visitors to jump from webpage to webpage seamlessly.
Your navigation bar should be treated like an archive of all your website’s most frequently visited and important pages, such as an ‘About Us’ page, ‘Services’ page, as well as a ‘Contact Us’ page. You can also add tabs underneath the navigation bar for easier access (e.g. list the pages to all your different services under the ‘Services’ category in the navigation bar).
Convenient Search Function
Some of your website visitors may prefer to quickly search up what they are looking for, instead of scrolling through pages of information through your navigation bar. To provide such visitors with this option, add a robust website search bar onto your website.
Your search bar should operate based on keyword searching. For example, in the case that you are a chiropractic clinic, a search for ‘back pain’ should lead to pages on your website with this term in them. Searching this term should lead your website visitors to your service and treatment plans, as well as any additional information you may have on ‘back pain’.
Online Booking System
One of the more advanced features you can include in your healthcare clinic’s website is an online booking or contact system. An online booking system can save time for both potential patients and your employees and make the booking procedure convenient for all parties involved.
For example, rather than having to call or email back and forth, patients can book their desired times based on availability on an online timetable booking system. This also means your employees do not have to manually check for availability every time a potential patient reaches out. Although a little complicated to implement, an online booking system is sure to have a large pay off in the long run.
Mobile Accessibility
Most website visitors these days will not be accessing your site on a computer and instead, may be browsing from their mobile phones or tablets. As a result, it is necessary to make sure your website is mobile-friendly.
To ensure your website is mobile-friendly, check that your images can still be displayed in a cropped format on a phone, and that you can still click on links with touch screens. Also make sure to direct any phone numbers to the instant call function on phones, and link your location to a mobile map (like Google Maps).
Different Forms of Medium
Using different forms of mediums can help to actively engage your website visitors with information about your health clinic. Rather than sticking to old-fashioned writing and text, you can include short videos and images to provide your website visitors with alternative ways to absorb information about your services.
In some cases, a video may be even more helpful in showing your treatment and consultation methods. Having a short clip of all your practitioners introducing themselves in your ‘About Us’ page may also reassure your potential patients that your clinic is trustworthy and patient-centred.
For those who are looking for a successful example of a healthcare clinic website, here is one which includes all five of the above features! Implement these features in your website and it is sure to attract many more potential patients!
