Modernizing a dental website
A website makeover that creates a bridge rather than a barrier for dental patients.
Project
Re-design a dental website.
Role
Researcher, designer and architect
Time
8 weeks
Objective
Modernize website while ensuring a familiar experience for existing patients
Restraints
Stakeholder request to change sitemap as little as possible
What needed to be resolved
Pinpointing the focus of the redesign of Alpine Meadows Family Dental (AMFD) website began with essential improvements requested by stakeholders and customer relations staff, who voiced patient frustrations with the current site. These frustrations were primarily centered around three key areas:
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First, there was a need to better present the In-House Membership Program to patients and increase enrollment. This program is a crucial advantage offered by the clinic, and particularly beneficial for retaining patients without insurance.
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Second, stakeholders had a goal to increase total booked dental appointments. Initially the stakeholders resisted an online appointment booking system, expressing concerns that it would eliminate important interactions between patients and employees. However, I highlighted the significant statistic that 77% of patients prefer a provider that offers online booking. A compromise was reached to instead offer a online Appointment Request. This system still allows office staff to reach out personally to ensure an appropriate appointment is made. This feature still needed to be intuitive and consistently visible on all pages, ensuring a seamless experience for users looking to schedule visits without navigating away from AMFD's website.
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Third, the overall modernization of the website was a significant focus among staff and stakeholders. The new design would have to reflect the office's commitment to using top technical tools and creating a welcoming and modern environment that mirrors the physical feel of the office.
How it was solved
To address the three focus items highlighted by stakeholders and customer service staff during the redesign of the Alpine Meadows Family Dental website, specific strategies were implemented:
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Enhancing the In-House Membership Program with a dedicated area of the website created specifically for the In-House Membership Program. This section includes detailed information about the benefits and savings associated with the program. As well as strategic placements of calls-to-action (CTAs) buttons and including it as a separate item in the menu, ensuring that information about the membership program is readily accessible from any page. This approach aimed to increase visibility and make the sign-up process as straightforward as possible.
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Streamlining the Appointment Request with a button that is to be visible on every page. This allows patients to initiate an appointment request from anywhere on the site without interruption to their browsing experience.
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The website also underwent a complete design overhaul to reflect a modern, clean aesthetic that aligns with the latest web design trends. The new design features high-quality imagery, more legible typography, and simplifying the whole website. We will delve deeper into the specifics of these enhancements, which are based on research conducted by marketing companies, in the research section of this case study.
"The Percentage of Users Who Admit to Correlating a Company’s Credibility With its Design is 75%"
When approached by stakeholders of AMFD to update and modernize their website, I knew that the redesign could not be based solely on their requests. The new design needed to become a useful tool for both new and returning patients. Anticipating that I would be presenting some changes beneficial to patients but not necessarily prioritized by stakeholders, I committed to preparing a good concept pitch with thorough study of the market and user needs. It would also, require backing my design decisions with statistics and research to support the proposed changes. You can find the Research Study Plan here.
The content audit was conducted first, in collaboration with stakeholders and customer relations staff, providing insight into some known user pain points and company goals. Next, I conducted a thorough competitive audit, which gave me a good understanding of what dental websites currently offer and how they stack up against the latest web design trends. Additionally, I researched these trends further by consulting studies and results posted online by marketing companies that have conducted their own research.
These three research methods provided a comprehensive overview not only of what is wanted but also of what is needed in an effective dental website.
Research methods
Content audit
In person
A content audit was conducted in person with customer service employees and stakeholders at Alpine Meadows Family Dental. They were asked questions such as:
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What kind of roadblocks are your patients encountering when navigating your website?
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What current website features do your patients and staff like?
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What features do you, as staff, and your patients feel are missing on the website?
Their input was valuable and highlighted user pain points, such as the poor choice of typeface, repetitiveness, and concerns about the landing page featuring an overly large video.
Additionally, there were requests from stakeholders to change the site map as little as possible while still emphasizing the Membership Program and online appointment requests more significantly. This change aims to facilitate more appointments and increase enrollments in the In-House Membership Program.
Competitive audit
Online
Five dental websites were researched for the Competitive Audit. All five are direct competitors, have offices within 30 miles of AMFD, and offer the same dental services.
The research revealed several gaps in the market that are noteworthy:
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Dental websites need more images. Services, treatments, and technical dialogue can be long and overwhelming. Better patient education would be achieved with appropriate images or videos.
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To make patient reviews appear more legitimate, they should be posted in real time and, preferably, be linked to something like Google. Reviews without these features were perceived as potentially fabricated.
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Membership programs are not sufficiently highlighted, nor is online signup offered, causing users to scroll past or miss this important feature.
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Creating a sense of familiarity and trust with patients by highlighting the dentist and dental team is crucial.
The full Competitive Audit Report can be found here.
Web design trends
Online
For the market research, I utilized two main companies: Practice Edge (a Health Care marketing specialist), and Sixth City Marketing.
The articles "Dental Marketing 101: Strategies for Promoting Your Practice Online" and "Dental Website Design Trends: Making a Lasting Impression on Patients" from Practice Edge provided a solid foundation to start building a digital structure that would include essential features for dental office websites. Meanwhile, Sixth City Marketing supplied valuable statistics for dental and general website redesign items.
The following eight items stood out and are applicable to the AMFD website overhaul:
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We need to highlight the services rendered by AMFD and the state-of-the-art technology used for treatment and procedures.
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Before and after photos of dental work done at AMFD would instill confidence and trust in the dentist.
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Feature the dental office and the team, with a special highlight on the dentist, to showcase friendliness and familiarity, making patients less anxious about meeting a new dental team.
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FAQ sections are a good way for patients to quickly find answers to common dental questions.
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Requesting an appointment needs to be clear, easy, and available throughout the website.
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When patients are choosing a dentist, they are mainly looking for competence and referrals, so reviews and testimonials should be legitimate and updated.
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The website needs to be responsive and accessible on mobile devices since 58% of traffic to dental websites comes from mobile devices.
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Clearly show where the office is located geographically and how to get there using map apps. Ensuring patients can keep their place on the AMFD website, while checking navigation information, makes it even more user-friendly by removing the frustration of having to find their place again.
"Our patients often don't know about our Membership Program or how it works. Maybe it could look different on the website?"
After a thorough research phase, in order to present a strong concept pitch before undertaking a comprehensive website design, I identified three key areas to focus on. These areas align with both the stakeholders requests and the research findings.
These three pain points will set the website on the right path and offer exciting features for future enhancements:
Membership program
Currently, the Membership Program for AMFD is represented by a repetitive banner that lacks information, causing users to wonder and lose interest.
Appointment REquest
Users should be able to request an appointment at any time during their browsing, no matter where they are on the website.
Website trends
Video placement takes up valuable space, typeface legibility needs improvement, repetitiveness, and unclear calls to action are areas that need to be addressed.
AMFD's new website aims to boost membership and appointment conversions while reflecting the office's atmosphere
Before
After
Shaping the solutions
At the stakeholders' request, the decision to reduce the video's size on the landing page while keeping the site map unchanged was strategic, aimed at maintaining familiarity and enhancing engagement without overwhelming patients.
Website analytics showed that AMFD patients do not visit their dentist's website for entertainment but rather for research or data-gathering purposes. The same applies potential future patients looking for a new dentist.
While brainstorming ideas for AMFD's new landing page, the idea arose to use a Bento grid to easily display all the information visitors seek at a quick glance. However, that approach did not turn out to be an ideal solution, as it led to a cluttered layout that overwhelmed users rather than guiding them.
We ultimately opted for a more streamlined design that balanced aesthetics with functionality, ensuring that key information was accessible without compromising user experience.
The original website's color scheme was considered during the design process. However, the black was made more saturated for better contrast; and a light gray and almond color was added to soften the harshness of the black, white, and bronze.
Since users had previously experienced difficulty reading the more decorative fonts on the original website, the typography was updated to more legible options—PT Sans (Regular & Bold) for body text and Oswald for bold headers.
All photos on the website were evaluated and updated to grab users' attention and create a better visual hierarchy. Careful attention was paid to the placement of visual elements, ensuring that the design was both aesthetically pleasing and functional. This holistic approach aimed to create a more engaging and user-friendly experience, allowing the content to shine.
Usability Study
To gain deeper insights into how users would interact with the website in real-world scenarios, I employed high-fidelity prototypes for a usability study. My goal was to ensure that the website not only met users' current needs but also adhered to the stakeholders' requirements.
The study revealed that users encountered difficulties with several aspects, including:
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Button design and placement
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In-House Membership order confirmation
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Reading the In-House Membership chart
However, the most significant challenge was:
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Navigating the Bento grid and menu
Although the Bento grid layout was intended to present a large amount of information efficiently, it proved to be confusing and distracting for users, despite prior research suggesting it as an effective solution.
While the Bento grid is a rising design trend, it did not meet the needs of our users. A more traditional website layout was ultimately the better option for Alpine Meadows Family Dental's mature and traditional user base.
Polishing the imperfections
"It's almost impossible to skim. My eyes have to bounce back and forth to every section and intently read the sections. And I don't retain any of the information."
- quoted from user study
In light of the user study findings, it became clear that changes were necessary to better align the website with user expectations and needs. The original design, while innovative, posed challenges that hindered ease of use and accessibility. By rethinking the layout and design elements, we aimed to create a more intuitive and user-friendly experience that would resonate with the website’s audience and support the practice’s goals.
The following five issues where addressed and updated. Creating a more intuitive and user friendly website:
Dropdown menu instead of an overlay
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Allows user to quickly see available options without having to navigate from their current page
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Keeps users focused on the page without obscuring content
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More traditional method to navigate
Traditional landing page that scrolls instead of a Bento Grid
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More intuitive for users
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Guides users through linear content, providing more structure
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Enhances user comprehension and engagement
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More responsive to different devices
Improved button design
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Appropriate button sizes ensures users can more easily interact and see CTA
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Improves visual hierarchy
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Colors are more intune with the overall look and feel of the website.
Remove any confusion on the In-House-Membership benefits
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One continuous background creates more unity in information
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Highlighting the "without" and "with" plan benefits draws attention to the differences in plan coverage and highlights benefits
Functionality of overlays
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Ensure that overlays include "X" as a clearly visible way to close out
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Align overlay headings with text in the Process Flow
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Provide an order confirmation statement at the completion of an order
End results
The redesign of the Alpine Meadows Family Dental website successfully improved several key areas:
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The In-House Membership online ordering process is now intuitive and accessible, making it easier for patients to navigate and complete their membership selections.
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The color scheme has been updated to offer a more calming and welcoming experience, aligning with the practice's caring approach.
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The choice of new fonts has significantly enhanced readability and overall site aesthetics, ensuring a more pleasant and user-friendly experience.
The pivot away from the Bento grid allowed us to focus on improving usability, accessibility, and the overall user experience. This shift resulted in a more intuitive and welcoming interface that better meets the needs of the practice's patient base.
A critical decision during the redesign process was to forego an online appointment booking feature, based on stakeholders' concerns about maintaining the personal experience that patients value when interacting with the staff. It was also important for the staff to retain full control over the doctors' schedules. To balance these needs with modern user expectations, we implemented a "Request an Appointment" feature instead. This solution allows patients to initiate the appointment process online while preserving the personal touch and control that the stakeholders desired.
As we look to the future, we plan to continue refining and expanding the website to further enhance the overall user experience. Our focus will include optimizing additional sections of the site, ensuring that every aspect reflects the same level of care and attention that went into the initial redesign (see prototype here)
The future of Alpine Meadows Family Dental
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Before and after photo gallery
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Showcase the dental team, with a special focus on the dentist
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Live reviews that build trust and credibility
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FAQ page and information for new patients
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Where to go from here?
The future of Alpine Meadows Family Dental's website will focus on a few if the features suggested by the marketing company Practice Edge. These next steps will enhance the patient experience even more, build trust between the dental office and patient, and showcase the practice's expertise. Here are the next four key steps we hope to focus on in the future:
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Visual Storytelling: Implement a dedicated gallery to showcase Before & After photos, allowing potential patients to visualize the impact of great treatment from a good dentist.
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Building Trust: Create a section highlighting the facility, staff, and dentist, fostering a sense of familiarity and comfort for new patients.
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Social Proof: Integrate a system for displaying live patient reviews, building trust and credibility.
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New Patient Support: Develop a comprehensive FAQ section specifically geared towards new patients, addressing common concerns and providing essential information.
