My first Top 5: Learning from my first digital content development
Cromwell Harbour Medical Practice in Dunbar needed a refreshed website to keep patients informed. Prior to the Covid-19 Pandemic, I worked with the team to understand the needs of their website and asked for some key goals. The Medical Practice needed their website to be professional, easy to work and easily updated. As I began to understand their needs, we developed and tweaked the website continuously.
Here are the Top 5 ways we used a continuous improvement strategy to develop the website
Use the data - The website is hosted on WordPress, once the base website was live, I tracked the pages visitors were using the most, the frequency of visits etc. I re-arranged the menu to minimise the clicks to get to our most popular pages. This data is only accessible when the website is live, so we regularly analysed the data to understand what is the priority of our users.
Quality assurance - Throughout the Pandemic, information, guidelines and regulations were changing quickly. Messaging continued to change, and that meant monitoring and updating pages frequently. To minimise the messaging, we turned campaigns into blog posts, linking all content back to the relevant information source, and pinning the most recent blog post to the top of the homepage. If information or links were outdated, we updated and change pages each time. Quality is always better than quantity, so we made sure not to duplicate health information, by ensuring information was in line with the current guidance, advised by the client.
Keep it simple - My focus for the website was to communicate conflicting and volume of information in a simple way for users. As a result, we removed a lot of information from the website that was a duplicate of NHS Inform. Instead, we linked users to the NHS Inform website, keeping one central source. This also meant when the NHS Inform website was updated, we didn't have to continuously amend our articles.
Keep it accessible - A priority for this website was to make sure that information was accessible for patients and users. We used a restricted colour palette, large font and plain backgrounds to try and make the website as easy to read and use as possible. The data also showed us that users were accessing the website on iPads and iPhones more often than on desktop view. We used a design that translated easily into a mobile version, making sure the information and layout were not lost as the site was converted.
Keep it human - The website is designed and targeted at patients who come from and experience a whole variety of backgrounds. We kept the tone and language used in a calming and positive tone. The website reflected the values of the Medical Practice, ensuring a continuity of service across the practice.
