We take web accessibility seriously here at Kanopi. It’s a key part of being an inclusive organization, which is one of our core values.
It’s also because we need to be. And so do you.
Let’s start with the fact that it just makes good business sense.
According to CDC stats, 27% of adults in the U.S. alone are permanently disabled (which itself is just one small portion of the entire disability spectrum). If your website doesn’t address their accessibility concerns, you’re essentially denying them the opportunity to become your customer, member, subscriber, applicant, or whatever your website goals may be.
It’s also worth mentioning that, depending on the nature of your organization, you could even face potential legal liability if your website isn’t properly accessible.
Since many of the considerations regarding website accessibility are design considerations, our design team has created an Accessibility Checklist that we apply to everything we create. It’s based on the A11y Project plus our own team’s experience, and it’s meant to help ensure our designs meet the standards set forth by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
The A11y Project provides the most comprehensive explanation of WCAG. So, to quote them verbatim:
The WCAG is a shared standard for web content accessibility for individuals, organizations, and governments. There are three levels of accessibility compliance in the WCAG, which reflect the priority of support:
A: Essential — If this isn’t met, assistive technology may not be able to read, understand, or fully operate the page or view.
AA: Ideal Support — Required for multiple government and public body websites.
AAA: Specialized Support — This is typically reserved for parts of websites and web apps that serve a specialized audience.
As A11y points out, this list by itself won’t make your site fully accessible to everyone, but it will go a long way toward improving the overall user experience.
Kanopi Design Accessibility Checklist
Color Contrast
We check text contrast to prioritize readability, and meet a minimum WCAG AA-compliant 4.5:1 contrast ratio.
We also ensure that color contrast for non-text items (graphical objects, for example) meets the minimum standard 3:1.
WCAG guidelines require that text can be resized up to 200 percent without losing content or functionality, and without relying on assistive technology. This rule does not apply to captions or images of text.
We choose fonts that work well at both large and small sizes. They feature clear, distinct letterforms that are easy to read in many situations. This helps accommodate the variation found across different mobile devices.
We use a minimum size of 12 points or 16 pixels for all body copy.
Animation & Motion
While most mobile and desktop operating systems now include ‘reduce motion’ settings, websites themselves should also allow for further controls. WCAG also states that users should always be able to exert some control over how they experience animation in websites.
This is why the websites we design, build and support allow users to play and stop animations as it suits them. We also use motion strategically, so it enhances the experiences for some users without impeding the experiences for others.
Layout Design
We make sure all user interface elements in our designs are sized and spaced to make interaction (i.e. via ‘tap’ or alternative interfaces) as simple as possible for users with reduced motor functionality.
In addition to being compliant with WCAG guidelines regarding text spacing and other interface elements, it also aligns with more general design best practices — in this case, Jakob’s Law.
Accessibility benefits all users.
We’ve found that adhering to accessibility guidelines not only opens your websites to potential new users, but it creates a better user experience for everyone.
These are just a sample of the user benefits accessible websites provide:
Reduced friction points within the website experience
Easier to consume and engage with content
Better mobile experience
Wider audience reach
Reduced bounce rates
SEO benefits
Higher conversion rates
Feel free to borrow this checklist for your own organization, or formulate your own list that best reflects your user research. And if your website needs to be more accessible, a major redesign might be the right step. If you’re not sure, we’re here to help.
If you’re interested in learning more about accessibility, check out these posts:
Note: As per our Accessibility Expert Candice Dexter, we should note that these checklist items apply to more than one rule each; but we’re focusing here on its primary compliance rule.
Color Contrast
Check for:
We prioritize fonts that perform at large and small sizes We test text contrast to prioritize readability, and meet a minimum AA-compliant 4.5:1 contrast ratio.
We also ensure that color contrast for non-text items (such as graphical objects) meets the minimum standard 3:1.
We prioritize fonts that perform at large and small sizes that have distinct, easily identifiable letterforms. A minimum size of 12 points or 16 pixels is used for all body copy.
We stick with fonts that can be easily read in a variety of scenarios, to account for the variation that can occur with mobile devices.
Users should always be able to exert some control over how they experience animation in websites. While most mobile and desktop operating systems now include ‘reduce motion’ settings, websites themselves should also allow for further controls.
The websites we design, build and support give users the ability to play and stop animations as it suits them. We also use motion strategically, to enhance the experiences for some users without impeding others.
We make sure all user interface elements in our designs are sized and spaced to make interaction (i.e. via ‘tap’ or alternative interfaces) as simple as possible for users with reduced motor functionality.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates over 15% of the world’s population — or 1.3 billion people — self-identify as having a disability.
That’s why creating inclusive and accessible websites isn’t just a nice-to-have in today’s online world; it’s an absolute necessity.
As hospitals, universities, and nonprofits strive to meet the needs of everyone who visits their websites, it becomes all the more crucial to understand the diverse challenges folks face when attempting to interact with inaccessible content (and the impact this can have on customer acquisition, applications, and fundraising.)
Here at Kanopi, we’d argue that to understand what people with disabilities need from your website, you should develop accessible personas — detailed representations of your different website visitors, particularly those with disabilities.
This blog explores why accessible personas are essential, how they help design better user experiences and the best practices for developing them. Let’s get started!
What are accessible personas?
We’ve written about them before here, but simply put, a persona is a fictional yet data-driven representation of your target customer, written as if the persona were a real person. It’s documented in a way that lists everything from demographic information to hobbies, to pain points, and motivators.
A persona is a tool you can use to create sales and marketing materials that have a specific target user in mind, rather than a generic one. They are designed to guide content writers, designers, and developers in crafting websites that can be easily accessed and navigated by everyone, regardless of their abilities.
But what many personas lack is taking accessibility needs into account. We can’t forget or ignore that site visitors can have various impairments, including permanent, temporary, and situational disabilities (see below for more on those). This is particularly critical in healthcare, where users come to a website with any number of accessibility needs and need information quickly and easily.
Example: a persona for a UCSF Department of Urology patient
By focusing on different disability types — such as mobility, visual, hearing, cognitive, and neurological impairments — organizations can better anticipate the needs of folks who may face barriers when interacting with their websites.
Dyslexia alone affects 20% of the population and represents 80–90% of all those with learning disabilities. It’s the most common of all neurocognitive disorders. Limiting all capitalization and breaking up large walls of text to add white space are just a few design solutions that help ensure your site content is dyslexia-friendly.
It’s also essential to consider the three different types of impairments:
Permanent impairments, like blindness or permanent mobility limitations.
Temporary impairments, such as an eye injury or recovering from surgery.
Situational impairments, like those faced by a person in bright sunlight or within a noisy environment.
There’s a strong business case for developing accessible personas.
Improved usability for everyone
Accessible personas help organizations understand the unique challenges faced by people with disabilities, leading to more inclusive and user-friendly web design.
The insights drawn from accessible personas ensure that accessibility isn’t an afterthought but an integrated part of the design process.
By considering different abilities, you create a better experience not only for folks with disabilities but for everyone — whether they’re navigating your website with a keyboard, voice control, or even in a noisy or visually cluttered space.
Then there’s the issue of ethics. Put simply, ensuring your website is accessible to people with disabilities means equal access to your site’s content for all, not just a few.
Enhances content, UX, & design
Creating accessible personas encourages teams to focus on key aspects of accessibility, such as content clarity, navigation ease, and intuitive design.
For instance, a persona with a hearing impairment might require captions for videos and a visual indicator for sound cues.
Additionally, a person with a visual impairment might need large text options and high-contrast colors.
These solutions — along with many more outlined in our content scorecard — help ensure that everyone who visits your website can read, navigate and use your content as intended.
Fosters empathy & inclusion
Developing personas based on real-world impairments fosters empathy among strategists, content writers, designers, and developers.
When teams are guided by detailed personas that represent real-world people, you can create a stronger emotional connection to your organization’s accessibility goals.
This empathy can shift the focus from mere compliance to a genuine commitment to creating more inclusive and usable digital experiences for everyone.
Disabilities can vary widely in terms of permanence. Some folks might have lifelong disabilities, like blindness, while others might have temporary conditions, such as an eye injury.
Situational impairments — like a noisy environment or bright lighting — also affect how people interact with your website.
Account for diverse impairments
A disability can impact someone’s senses and abilities differently, including:
Mobility: People with limited motor control may require options to navigate your website without precise mouse movements. Ensure your site provides keyboard navigation, large buttons, and clear visual cues for all clickable elements.
Visual: Permanent impairments like blindness or color blindness and temporary issues such as cataracts or eye injuries require solutions including alt text, high-contrast colors, and adjustable font sizes.
Hearing: People with hearing impairments need captions and transcripts for videos and visual cues for audio content.
Cognitive & Neurological: People with cognitive impairments benefit from clear, simple language, step-by-step instructions, and tutorials that help them navigate your website easily.
Embed accessibility in Drupal
Once you’ve designed your personas, make it easy to implement how you’ll meet people’s needs.
The Drupal A11y Project Checklist created and maintained by developers at Kanopi offers helpful, integrated guidance on interaction methods, navigation, and structure for individuals, organizations, and governments.
Practical solutions for a variety of impairments
Avoid taking a one-size-fits-all approach. Different solutions assist different impairments. For example:
Mobility Impairments: Ensure folks can navigate your site using their keyboard or screen reader. Avoid requiring precise mouse movements, which can be difficult for people with motor impairments.
Visual Impairments: Craft high-contrast color schemes and resizable text options, and use descriptive alt text for images and videos. These features benefit people with blindness, color blindness, and even temporary impairments like eye injuries.
Hearing Impairments: Use captions, transcripts, and visual cues to replace audio information. Additionally, provide clear, concise language to ensure understanding.
Cognitive Impairments: Simplify language, use step-by-step instructions, and minimize complex interactions. Visual aids can be beneficial for people with cognitive or neurological impairments.
Neurological impairments: Avoid extreme flash and strobe of visual content, parallax effects, and scroll-triggered animations, considering the needs of the 50 million people worldwide who have epilepsy and the 1.8 million adults worldwide who have bilateral vestibular hypofunction (BVH).
Where to start for creating your own accessible personas
The UK Government Digital Service (GDS) has developed seven different open-source accessibility personas that you can use as a reference to get started. However, the GDS also notes that creating accessible personas is not a substitute for including people with access needs in your user testing.
Guidelines from Microsoft’s Inclusive Design methodology provide a comprehensive approach to developing accessible personas as well.
Accessible personas not only humanize your site’s users but also help prioritize and align content, UX, and design solutions to better meet their needs.
At Kanopi, we create personas from many different sources, including:
While it may seem like a daunting task, taking small, incremental steps can improve your site’s accessibility over time. For example, you could start by focusing on your website’s forms.
For people facing medical issues, quickly finding the right healthcare provider is essential. Increasingly, patients are browsing hospital websites to find the information they need. With 82% of patients using search engines to find a healthcare provider, hospital websites have become essential to the patient journey.
As a result, your hospital needs to offer a robust, user-friendly hospital website design that exceeds patient expectations. This guide will explore how to optimize your website design through the following sections:
Here, you can gather inspiration and key insights for your hospital website build or refresh project.
What is the hospital website user journey?
The first step of designing an effective, engaging hospital website is to understand how your website fits into the overall patient experience. With the right strategies, your website can turn casual internet visitors into long-term, loyal patients of your healthcare facility. This is best illustrated through the steps of the hospital website user journey:
Awareness: Users discover your website through a Google search, social media post, recommendation from a family member or friend, referral from another website, etc.
Research: Visitors browse your website to understand your offerings, including your specialties, healthcare professionals on staff, appointment booking process, and other services and resources.
Decision: Users determine whether to become patients and schedule an appointment. This will depend on whether your website answers their questions and offers a convenient, simple booking process.
Empowerment: Your hospital empowers patients to take control of their health through updated patient records, clear next actions, and ongoing two-way communications between patients and healthcare professionals.
Retention: Patients decide whether to remain at your healthcare organization or leave for another institution. The online experience you offer them, such as the patient portal and online payment process, plays into their decision.
As you can see, your hospital website plays a significant role in a patient’s perception of your institution and their satisfaction with their care. Your job is to facilitate each patient’s journey to make it as easy as possible for them to find the services and resources they need.
Put yourself in your patients’ shoes: When using a hospital website, what features, resources, and design elements would you expect to see?
94% of website first impressions are based on design, and 61% of website users will go to another website if they don’t find what they’re looking for within about five seconds. That means you have limited time to capture your audience’s attention and help them complete their intended actions.
To provide a positive experience for your community and encourage retention, we recommend taking a patient-first approach to healthcare web design. To do so, keep in mind the following things visitors want to be able to accomplish through your website.
Users want to:
Therefore, you should:
Find information quickly.
Avoid popup ads.
Use card design or content grids to make all homepage information immediately visible. Avoid carousels, which can lead to visitors missing some crucial information.
Limit multi-level menus to a single tier for each main category. This avoids overwhelming users with too many menu options.
Use your website without facing accessibility barriers.
Don’t use animations or auto-playing videos—they can be distracting, slow down performance, and are inaccessible for some audiences.
Use sufficient color contrast. The WCAG recommends a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Check your website’s contrast with WebAim’s free Contrast Checker.
Access simple, actionable next steps relevant to their needs.
Create distinct pathways for each primary user group, such as current patients, new patients, donors, healthcare professionals, etc. Use calls to action (CTAs) that speak to different user needs to help visitors navigate your site.
Design your website around your users’ needs by keeping patient-centered content at the forefront of your site and content intended for healthcare professionals in a lesser position.
Include just a handful of homepage buttons/calls to action (CTAs) to keep the next actions straightforward.
See proof of your hospital’s credibility.
Use authentic, unposed images—not stock photos.
Include credentials in your healthcare professional directory, including educational background, certifications, awards, etc.
22 stellar examples of effective hospital web design
We’ve rounded up top hospital website design examples and the stand-out features that make each example successful. Explore each website to gather inspiration for your hospital’s website design.
The site is highly accessible; the Colorado Health Foundation worked with the web design experts at Kanopi to increase the site’s Lighthouse score (a measure of page performance and accessibility) to 95/100.
We also worked with the organization to streamline the top-level menu to the most important items, simplifying the user experience for visitors.
The homepage content cards simplify the user journey by speaking to visitors’ FAQs.
Kanopi worked with UCSF to organize and reinvigorate their website, identifying user personas and reformatting the site for a more intuitive user experience.
Micro-interactions, transition animations, and soft shapes add visual intrigue without distracting or overwhelming users.
Imagery focuses on showing real people, adding authenticity and relatability to the site.
The homepage buttons saying “Find a doctor,” “Appointments and referrals,” and “View our treatments” make it easy for patients to find what they’re looking for.
A simple internal search function offers a convenient way to research conditions and treatments.
The site is available in multiple languages, making it accessible to a wider audience.
Privacy incidents are highlighted directly on the homepage, empowering patients to understand potential threats to their personal data.
Treatment options are arranged by age, making it easier for visitors to find relevant information.
The hospital offers convenient online mental health webinars and courses for community members to feel more empowered and take control of their mental health.
The hospital’s credentials are highlighted right on the homepage: “#1 in California and Los Angeles, ‘Best Hospitals’ National Honor Roll, 35 consecutive years”
Users can translate the website into 10 different languages.
Visitors can search by location, provider, medical services, and clinical trials to find the practice that’s right for them.
The homepage CTA speaks directly to patients who may feel a sense of urgency, saying “When your illness or injury can’t wait, the choice is clear.”
The online Patient & Visitor Guide answers common patient FAQs to help visitors feel more comfortable with their stay.
The site highlights the hospital’s commitment to health equity, including information about its roadmap and initiatives to achieve health equity.
Features of successful hospital website design
Now that you better understand what your audience wants to see from your hospital website, let’s summarize the specific features your site should have to fulfill their needs. Successful hospital websites have the following elements:
Information about location, parking, and other logistics
Security features for sensitive information (strong password requirements, two-factor authentication, etc.)
Insurance information
Adapt these features to your organization’s unique branding and tone to create a consistent website that appeals to all user needs.
Work with Kanopi to optimize your hospital website
A hospital web design and development project is a major undertaking, and you need an experienced developer on your side to create a finished product that exceeds your audience’s expectations. Kanopi Studios is a reliable healthcare web design partner that will help you create the effective hospital website your community deserves.
Our services include:
User and stakeholder research
User persona development and testing
Content audit and strategy
Healthcare website design focused on user-friendliness and accessibility
Website development and maintenance
Hospital web design case study: The Linked Immunisation Action Network
Our partnership with the Linked Immunisation Action Network offers a helpful look into how we approach hospital and healthcare web design. The organization came to us needing to improve their website’s performance and usability—two important site aspects that are heavily impacted by design.
Focusing on high-traffic areas (the homepage and Tools and Resources section), we updated the backend code and fixed form and plugin issues. We also redesigned the Tools and Resources section to streamline user pathways, improve search functionality, and enhance visual design to increase engagement.
As a result, the site saw both desktop and mobile speeds improve as well as an accessibility boost. Read the complete case study here and explore our other recent healthcare projects to see how we take website design from ideas to reality.
Wrapping Up
Remember: Investing in effective web design support upfront will help your organization achieve a high return on investment (ROI) for your project. It’s worth it to work with an expert who can guide the process from start to finish and implement best practices.
Looking for additional healthcare web design support? Start with these additional resources:
Webinar: Website Best Practices for an Aging Population. Kanopi’s Cliff Persaud discusses the challenges and opportunities facing healthcare providers, and how they can ensure their website design meets the needs of aging patients.
Higher ed institutions have several Sysiphean tasks to overcome, such as rising tuition costs, concerns about the value of an education, and other obstacles. The good news is that you already have a useful tool to enhance trust and credibility—your higher ed website.
75% of consumers say they judge an organization’s credibility based on the quality of its website design. With a positive and forward-thinking higher education website, you can gain the trust of your audience and strengthen your online presence.
At Kanopi, our designers keep their eyes and ears open to understand the unique pressures and requirements of the higher education web design landscape. We work with higher education clients to build websites that better tell their universities’ stories. Leaning on our experience, we’ll review the best higher ed website designs in 2025 and the best practices represented in each example.
1. University of Arizona | Optimized user experience
What to know about this higher ed website design best practice
The user experience is the way visitors interact with your higher education website. Browsing your undergraduate majors, signing up for your newsletter, submitting a donation using your online giving form—all of these activities fall under the umbrella of user experience.
Higher ed website design is focused on simplifying the user experience to facilitate streamlined user journeys for every visitor. This means that every visitor can find the information they need quickly and easily, whether they’re a prospective or current student, faculty member, parent, donor, or community or business partner.
What we love about the University of Arizona’s website
The University of Arizona homepage immediately offers tailored resources for one of its most important user groups: accepted new students. New students can view the next enrollment steps, such as paying the enrollment fee, signing up for new student orientation, and exploring scholarships.
Arizona’s website also offers an “I am” drop-down search option for other visitors. Visitors choose the descriptor that best matches them and are sent to a webpage with specific resources for their needs.
These customized experiences that speak to specific user groups are becoming increasingly common as universities learn more about their target audiences.
Next steps to take
To help visitors move through your content more easily, your college or university website should:
Use concise, powerful calls to action (CTAs). Your CTAs should address common user questions and concerns to help connect individuals with the necessary information.
Offer clear navigation. Keep your website menu short and straightforward, with a limited number of items. This keeps your navigation uncluttered and easy to use.
Be mobile-friendly. Ensure your site has an effective mobile-responsive design to offer an equally positive user experience across all devices.
Offer clear next actions for each visitor segment. Give visitors a variety of prompts to help them move through your website content. For instance, similar to the Arizona website, take a look at how the Georgetown University website offers quick links for different visitors:
Identify five to seven user groups or personas within your higher education audience to determine which user journeys to prioritize on your website.
2. Stanford University | Use of AI as an organizational practice
What to know about this higher ed website design best practice
Students and faculty have greater access to user-friendly artificial intelligence (AI) than ever before. Website visitors want to know how your university approaches AI in the classroom and helps students prepare for an AI-centered workforce.
According to an Inside Higher Ed survey, almost three-quarters of students say that their universities should prepare them for AI in the workplace, either “a lot” (27%) or “somewhat” (45%).
What we love about the Stanford University website
Stanford makes their position on AI usage clear with a webpage on Generative AI Policy Guidelines. It clearly states the circumstances under which instructors can use AI to support learning and situations where students should not use AI tools.
Next steps to take
To meet the demand for information about AI usage, your higher education website should highlight:
Student use of AI. Spotlight opportunities for students to learn more about AI in their field through research and hands-on application.
Institutional AI policies. Include a webpage outlining your university’s approach to student and instructor use of AI in academics.
Research and development. Feature any news or research updates from university professors in the field of AI.
Potential and current students want to know that your university is on the cutting edge of these technologies that will profoundly impact their daily lives, so your AI information should be easy to find on your website.
3. Kenyon University | More resources for underrepresented members of the student community
What to know about this higher ed website design best practice
Higher education institutions have increasingly emphasized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to ensure all students feel welcome and to expose all students to different cultures and backgrounds. Students themselves are noticing a difference—over half of students surveyed in the fall of 2021 said they perceived a noticeable difference in diversity on campus.
However, there’s still more progress to be made. That’s why colleges and universities have emphasized creating streamlined user pathways that connect students of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, disabled students, first-generation college students, and other underrepresented groups with the resources and information they need.
What we love about the Kenyon University website
The Kenyon College Diversity & Inclusion page exemplifies how you can bring your school’s commitment to diversity to the forefront. The page states the school’s commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive learning environment and offers a variety of resources for underrepresented students. This gives current and prospective students an easy way to access the support they need to reach their full potential.
Next steps to take
To help underrepresented students feel supported at your school, you should update your university’s website in the following ways:
Provide tailored information for first-generation and international students to simplify navigating the application process.
Include the link to your school’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion in your main website menu.
Spotlight mentoring opportunities or affinity groups for underrepresented communities.
4. University of Waterloo | Clarity on DEI initiatives
What to know about this higher ed website design best practice
In addition to helping students access the resources they need thrive, universities are clarifying their stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies amid changes to higher ed acceptance policies.
What we love about the University of Waterloo’s website
The University of Waterloo offers a clear Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, & Anti-Racism (EDI-R) strategy page detailing the organization’s strategic goals. Waterloo takes its commitment further by magnifying diverse student voices in the content creation process through its Amplify podcast.
The podcast focuses on giving students a voice to discuss their experiences as university community members who hold marginalized identities. It also provides plenty of quick links to resources for students in need, such as counseling services and student associations.
Next steps to take
To help your university community understand your policies, create a dedicated webpage outlining your approach and goals. For example, similar to the Waterloo example above, the McMaster University website features an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) strategy roadmap with a clear framework, action plan, and definitions.
5. Western Washington University’s Department of Design | Interactive design
What to know about this higher ed website design best practice
Interactive design helps your university website stand out from the crowd, blending the functional and the aesthetic to create a more well-rounded user experience. 94% of users’ first website impressions are related to design, making this a key aspect of your nonprofit’s website strategy.
What we love about the Western Washington website
Check out Western Washington University’s Department of Design website homepage above. The interactive homepage actually allows visitors to rearrange elements on the page to create their own design. This is a unique way to show visitors what the school is about while providing an engaging and memorable user experience.
Next steps to take
Consider what makes your university or department unique and how you can represent your school’s personality visually. For example, does your college offer summer programs? Try a scrapbook style design to emphasize the blend of learning and summer fun. Animation and illustration styles could also help you present different aspects of your university in a more engaging way.
6. University of Wisconsin-Madison | Rich interactive experiences
What to know about this higher ed website design best practice
Interactive experiences put website visitors in control of their online experience. They can engage with information and resources that interest them most or appeal to their unique needs.
What we love about the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s website
Interactive timelines are an effective tool for showcasing continuity and allowing users to explore areas that interest them.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s interactive timeline is an excellent example of a rich interactive timeline experience. Users can scroll down the page to read about the school’s history and select images to learn more about specific events or notable people.
Next steps to take
If you have an idea for a creative interactive element but are unsure how to bring it to life, reach out to an experienced design partner like Kanopi for support. These experts can turn your vision into reality and ensure your creative idea fits seamlessly into your website’s overall look and feel.
7. Adelphi University | Improved usability and accessibility
What to know about this higher ed website design best practice
The best university websites know that an inclusive website is a fully accessible one. Accessibility means a website is usable and understandable by everyone, regardless of age or ability.
Accessible higher ed websites consider the wide range of human experiences when designing and structuring pages and content. From long-term accessibility issues, such as color blindness, to users with short-term impairments like a broken arm, accessible websites offer visitors an enjoyable and user-friendly experience.
What we love about the Adelphi University website
Along with a page explaining their web accessibility policies, Adelphi University offers a form for users to report accessibility issues. Users can provide information about the web address where they encountered the problem and explain the issue they experienced.
Next steps to take
To improve your site’s accessibility, you can:
Follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as you develop or redesign your website. These guidelines were created to establish a universal standard for website accessibility.
Test your website’s accessibility manually. This crucial step helps you note any instances of poor accessibility that automatic testing resources might have missed. To conduct thorough manual testing, try navigating your website with just your keyboard or zooming in to 200% to assess usability in that format.
8. Georgetown University | Focus on mental health and wellness
What to know about this higher ed website design best practice
In the past few years, college students’ mental health struggles have hit crisis levels. Financial worries and school stress have always been major contributors to poor student mental health, but the pandemic added a new dimension to the crisis. Many students switched to hybrid or fully virtual class schedules, leading to increased feelings of loneliness and isolation.
The mental health declines prompted by the pandemic are still in effect today. 44% of students reported feeling depressed in the past year, and 95% of college counselors said that mental health is a growing concern at their school.
What we love about the Georgetown University’s website
Georgetown University offers a webpage with mental well-being resources and counseling options for student, faculty, and staff mental health resources. The page even offers guiding questions to help visitors find the right resources.
Next steps to take
Ensure your own higher education website showcases your mental health resources. By adopting an empathetic, understanding tone, prospective and current students will feel more comfortable using available resources.
9. University of South Alabama | Creating opportunities for personalization of the online experience
What to know about this higher ed website design best practice
Personalization is increasingly essential for all forms of marketing, including higher education outreach. According to EAB, 93% of students said receiving a personalized message from a college would encourage them to explore a school further.
College websites are heeding the call for more personalization by taking steps to personalize both their website’s public-facing and gated versions.
Public-facing personalization
The public-facing side of your website includes all content that any visitor can access without a login.
The best higher ed websites leverage data analytics to track user behaviors and serve more relevant content on the front end. For example, let’s say you have a visitor who previously visited your university website to start an application but didn’t finish the form. On their next visit, your site can serve CTAs that remind them to apply before your deadline.
Gated content personalization
Gated content is any content on your website that requires a login to access.
When current students log into their profile on your college website, they should be able to access a customized dashboard with information relevant to their needs. For example, a student in the journalism school should be able to see the deadline for advising registration and upcoming student organization meetings.
What we love about the University of South Alabama’s website
The University of South Alabama’s website offers an easily accessible portal for students to log into popular applications that support their student journey. Website users can also toggle between a student view and a faculty and staff view, depending on their needs.
Next steps to take
Determine which types of personalization you’d like to offer through your website, whether public-facing, gated, or a combination of both. Ensure your website offers robust security credentials to keep student information safe when logging into gated content. These measures include:
10. Loyola University Maryland | Charming microinteractions
What to know about this higher ed website design best practice
Microinteractions are the small moments and design elements users experience on your website that engage them more deeply. This encompasses everything from hovering over a button and watching it get larger or change colors to interacting with an in-depth infographic.
Think about the satisfaction and joy you experience when using Facebook’s reaction buttons or sending an iPhone message with an animation. These small interactions engage and delight users, making digital browsing a more enjoyable experience.
What we love about the Loyola University Maryland website
The Loyola website includes a few simple button microinteractions. For example, the homepage CTA button shows a different message when users hover over it, changing from “More Than Ready” to “Discover the Loyola Difference.” In addition, an arrow appears pointing downward, letting users know that when they click the button, they’ll be sent further down the homepage to learn more about the college.
Additional CTAs use the school’s white and green color scheme to make buttons pop on the page through color-changing microinteractions.
Next steps to take
Evaluate your website to determine whether you want to incorporate microinteractions into your content. We recommend using these elements sparingly so they don’t distract from other aspects of the user experience.
Even though these microinteractions represent small moments, they can significantly impact your visitors’ experience using your website. By optimizing even these brief connections, you ensure every interaction users have with your website is a positive one.
11. Rice University | Interactive student tours
What to know about this higher ed website design best practice
Campus visits and tours have a major impact on whether students decide to attend your college. In fact, 69% of high school students said that a good campus visit could make them significantly more interested in a college they weren’t entirely interested in, and a bad experience can turn them off of a college they were very interested in.
Because many colleges accept students from around the country and worldwide, virtual tours are widely used in the sector. These tours offer a glimpse at university life for students who can’t attend an in-person tour.
What we love about the Rice University website
Rice University’s virtual tour is full of unique elements and microinteractions, starting with the rocket ship animation that appears when you hover over the “Launch Map” button.
Next steps to take
Creating a virtual tour experience is a major undertaking, so we recommend connecting with a higher ed website developer who can manage the project efficiently, especially if you want to create something as unique and robust as Rice’s virtual tour.
Some colleges also use services like YouVisit, which creates virtual tours using HD video production and 360-degree images.
12. Rhode Island School of Design Alumni | Real-time updates
What to know about this higher ed website design best practice
College and university websites are embracing their role as digital resources for learning more about their schools and providing ongoing updates on everything from recent news to research developments.
Social media feeds, blog post updates, and news articles help keep higher education websites fresh and relevant. They show visitors that the university keeps up with current events and contributes to important conversations.
What we love about the Rhode Island School of Design website
One example of this higher ed web design best practice is the Rhode Island School of Design’s alumni website homepage news feed. The feed is a scrolling carousel of recent news updates and blog posts that alumni community members may be interested in.
Next steps to take
By using your higher education website to feature news and current events, you can make it a helpful resource for your university’s community and a wider audience of alumni, sponsors, researchers, and prospective students interested in staying up to date with your institution.
How Kanopi Can Help With Your Higher Ed Website Design
Working with a website design agency helps your college or university stay updated with effective, usable design best practices. At Kanopi, we offer web design services for colleges, universities, and other higher education institutions.
We understand that a strong university website design starts with knowing your target audience, balancing their varying goals, and serving each segment equally. Here’s a glance at the elements we assess and optimize through our process:
Research and Discovery: We conduct qualitative and quantitative user research and testing. Then, we use our findings to create a vision board for your website to ensure we accurately capture your goals and strategy.
Content Strategy: We audit your existing content, assess your tone and style, and help create a more inclusive strategy that prioritizes accessibility.
User Experience: We craft user personas for your primary audience groups and create journeys and pathways that speak to each persona.
Website Design: We ensure your higher ed website has a top-of-the-line design that optimizes every user interaction.
Your website can effectively connect stakeholders to opportunities that interest them and help them feel welcome in your university community. Use this guide to stay current with the best practices that resonate most with prospective and current students and other core audiences.
For more information on college and general web design tips, check out these additional resources:
Higher Ed Website Design | Kanopi Studios. Learn about Kanopi’s higher ed website design process that we leverage to help clients create effective and sustainable websites.
Airline travel is more popular than ever—the industry set a record in 2024 with nearly 5 billion passengers. Clearly, people are ready to explore the world. Is your airport’s website ready to meet their needs with a positive user experience?
This guide explores everything you need to know about airport web design, including:
Let’s start by reviewing a few commonly asked questions about airport web design.
Airport Web Design: FAQs
Why is it essential to have a quality website design for my airport?
In general, passengers are happy with their air travel experience—an Ipsos survey found that the vast majority of passengers were satisfied with their air travel experience, and only 3% reported being “very dissatisfied.”
A high-quality airport website is an essential component of providing a positive experience for travelers. Clearly outlined lounge locations, dining options, baggage options, and more on your site will help your airport maintain high passenger satisfaction.
What do users expect from airport websites?
Today, most airline travelers are digitally savvy. They want a web experience that helps them get need-to-know information as quickly and painlessly as possible. Here’s what visitors expect from airport websites:
User-friendly, fast-loading browsing experience: Over half of website users will leave a site if it takes more than three seconds to load. Therefore, your airport’s passengers will expect your website to load quickly and offer a streamlined user experience. This is especially important if your airport’s Wi-Fi isn’t high-speed—offering a website with fewer loading issues is imperative.
Updated, accurate flight information. Whether they are travelers themselves or seeking flight details to facilitate airport pick-ups, your website’s users expect to see accurate real-time flight information.
Mobile-friendly capabilities and a positive app experience: Your website should look great on desktop computers and mobile browsers and apps. After all, most travelers don’t want to pull out their computers to view your website. Plus, the top five most used U.S. airline apps have collectively seen their monthly active users grow to over 9 million, demonstrating customers’ interest in using apps to manage their travel.
Accessibility. Over 70 million American adults and 1.3 billion people worldwide live with disabilities, so your site needs to accommodate a wide range of accessibility needs. Your content, navigation system, and forms must be inclusive and accessible to everyone.
How can I balance function and visual appeal on my airport website?
You may be tempted to design your airport’s website with all the latest bells and whistles, from interactive maps to eye-catching animations. However, it’s essential not to lose sight of providing a functional and convenient website, especially for first-time travelers, users with disabilities, or older customers.
That’s why we recommend starting from a less-is-more approach to airport web design. At Kanopi, our web design experts are well-versed in balancing form and function to produce websites that exceed user expectations. Our process includes the following steps:
User background research. We perform deep audience research to understand your stakeholders’ perspectives and needs. Then, we conduct stakeholder workshops, competitor analyses, content and technical audits, and sitemap creation and testing to plot the right strategy for your website design.
Website design. Kanopi focuses on telling every brand’s story through colors, typography, imagery, and motion that reflects your mission and vision.
User experience testing. We create core personas that reflect your audience to ensure your website meets their needs. Then, we test the site to ensure a positive experience before deploying updates.
Ongoing support. We maximize your site’s success through ongoing performance enhancements, conversion optimizations, and security reinforcement.
This process results in a streamlined user flow that effortlessly guides users through your website to the information they need. The user flow for airport websites involves the steps visitors take to navigate from flight details to transportation information, and other key details they need to make their travel experience more comfortable, like shopping options.
Kanopi worked with this organization to design an intuitive navigation system based on users’ most pressing needs. The top-level main menu lists items by priority, from flights to transportation, parking, shopping and dining, maps, services, and travel tips. The website doesn’t need flashy design elements or avant-garde technology to help users get from point A to point B as efficiently as possible.
Features of Compelling Airport Web Designs
To summarize, here are the features your airport website will need to facilitate the passenger experience:
A simple tool for checking flight status
Parking booking and information about available lots
Maps
Ground transportation options
Information about shops, restaurants, and lounges
These features might vary depending on your airport’s unique services, but in general, these are the essential items visitors will seek on your website.
Integrate real-time, accurate data into your airport website.
Certain aspects of air travel can be unquestionably stressful. Figuring out the best route to make a tight connection, trying to find your new gate number when it’s been unexpectedly changed, circling the pickup area multiple times due to delayed flights—these inconveniences can put a damper on the passenger experience.
However, with real-time data, you can turn your airport website into a helpful resource that lessens or eliminates many of these pain points. Live flight updates, baggage claim statuses, and real-time parking information can help travelers better plan their journeys.
You can automate these processes using specific technologies for your website, such as APIs for flight data, which provide real-time and historical flight tracking information. We recommend working with a developer to determine the best tools to add to your site to expand its functionality and help customers access the necessary data.
Prioritize accessibility.
As mentioned above, accessibility is essential for airport websites. Accessibility makes your website easier to navigate for all users, meaning it should be a top priority in your airport web design strategy.
Start improving your site’s accessibility by keeping these tips in mind:
Follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These guidelines are the industry standard for designing a fully functional and accessible website. They include specific requirements such as implementing alternative text for images and videos, logical navigation, keyboard accessibility, use of color, and more.
Conduct automated and manual tests. Automated testing tools like Lighthouse and WAVE are a great place to start your accessibility testing because they can point out major accessibility issues that should be addressed immediately. However, we also recommend conducting manual testing to replicate the user experience and highlight issues that automated tools may be unable to catch.
Use color theory to drive engagement.
Studies have shown that up to 90% of customers’ first impressions of a brand come from color alone. Therefore, the color scheme you choose for your airport website will play a significant role in passengers’ opinions of your airport.
Here are some of the most popular shades for airport websites:
Blue: Conveys trust, reliability, and peace. In our research, airport websites overwhelmingly choose blue color schemes.
Use accent colors based on your brand’s palette to add small color pops throughout your site. For example, the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport website leverages neutral background colors with a reddish-orange accent color for text and buttons.
Keep it as simple as possible.
Remember, a key aspect of the airport user experience is ensuring visitors can access information quickly. They may be in a rush to catch a flight or pick up a loved one, and they need to know exactly where to go and what to do.
Simplify your site by taking these steps:
Ensure your main menu only includes the essentials, like the features listed above.
Use white space effectively to reduce clutter and allow your design elements to breathe.
Offer an internal search bar at the top of every page so users can quickly find the specific information they need.
Prioritize passenger cybersecurity.
Research by Bridewell found that 55% of aviation organizations experienced a ransomware attack in the previous 12 months. Accidental loss or disclosure of data was ranked as the top threat to civil aviation.
Reassure passengers that your airport will do everything possible to keep their data secure. Take the following security measures on your website as part of your overarching cybersecurity efforts:
Run regular security checks and deploy updates and patches as soon as they’re available.
Require strong passwords and multi-factor authentication for any login portals.
We already discussed how fast-loading websites maintain audience attention, but what steps can your airport site take to facilitate better performance? We recommend following these tips:
Compress images and consider converting them into performance-optimized file formats like WebP or SVG.
Use a content management system (CMS) or plugin to leverage caching on your site. This ensures that pages load faster on subsequent visits.
Strip unneeded code from content if you’re copying and pasting from a platform like Google Docs into your CMS. This action often carries over a lot of unnecessary characters that can slow down your site’s load times.
Keep your CMS, plugins, and modules up to date and upgrade to new versions as soon as possible.
Level up the passenger experience with AI chatbots.
An AI chatbot functions as an internal search tool for your airport website. Visitors can communicate with the chatbot to find information or resources they’re seeking. If the chatbot can’t answer the question, it can direct users to your website’s customer service information to connect with a staff member.
Globally, mobile devices make up over 60% of internet traffic, making optimizing your airport website for mobile devices essential. Incorporate these strategies to improve your website’s mobile experience:
Use large fonts and easily touchable buttons. Test different font sizes to find the right fit and ensure buttons are appropriately spaced so users can easily tap them on mobile screens.
Ensure your menu is hidden and expandable on mobile devices. Use a collapsible mobile menu to keep your homepage uncluttered on phone screens.
Leverage a user-friendly app. Offer passengers an app to access the same need-to-know information your website offers, like flight details, parking information, and security wait times.
Take a look at this example of a non-mobile-optimized website vs. a mobile-optimized one:
As you can see, the non-mobile-optimized version contains tiny fonts, small buttons, and poorly-spaced items. In contrast, the mobile-optimized site has a vertically-oriented layout, large fonts, and easily-tappable buttons for a better mobile experience.
Incorporate multilingual capabilities.
Your airport likely sees thousands of multilingual travelers annually, especially if you’re an international airport. Ensure your site can be translated into multiple languages based on your passengers’ most common languages.
You can manage this process using multiple URLs for different languages or a plugin to facilitate multilingual capabilities. If you choose to use a plugin, consider working with a developer to create a custom solution catered to your needs. A custom plugin is also more likely to run smoothly and load quickly on your site, enhancing performance.
5 Inspiring Airport Web Design Examples
San Francisco International Airport: Best airport website for simple navigation
As mentioned above, the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) website is a stellar example of streamlined navigation. When SFO reached out to Kanopi, the airport needed to revamp its website presence to offer an outstanding online guest experience.
The previous SFO website was cumbersome and difficult to use, running on an outdated version of Drupal. The organization needed a modern, flexible, and engaging website to support its business goals and provide a better customer experience.
The Kanopi team collaborated with SFO to:
Conduct user experience research and stakeholder interviews.
Redesign the site with a diverse, technically-optimized visual approach.
Make the navigation more intuitive.
Better highlight vendor information.
Provide personalized flight details.
Infuse the website with the Bay Area’s rich and unique culture.
The result? SFO now has an award-winning website with a user-friendly interface, responsive layout, and modern navigation.
A call to action is a button, menu item, or link that helps different users navigate your website and find the specific information they’re looking for. The Changi Airport website’s homepage contains a variety of useful CTAs that help users navigate smoothly through their website journey. These include:
The internal search function right at the top of the page that encourages users to search for specific information
The “I Am” button CTA, where users can select the description that best fits their needs
The quick links buttons that link to multiple common next actions users may want to take
These CTAs provide easy access to key information that makes passengers’ experiences much smoother and stress-free.
Jacksonville International Airport: Best airport web design visual style
The Jacksonville International Airport’s website stands out in terms of visual design and signature style. The website includes a variety of user-friendly and engaging design elements, including:
A fun airplane homepage animation and microinteractions that include buttons popping off the page
Easily accessible parking information and security wait times
User-friendly service locations map with multiple filters and overlays to find the right information
The website’s calming blue color scheme, detailed flight information, and regularly updated news articles provide a sense of authoritativeness.
Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport: Best airport website for accessibility
Both airports and airlines are legally required to comply with various physical and digital accessibility standards, including offering accessible websites and other digital resources like information or check-in kiosks. The Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport’s website offers a useful example of an accessible airport website in practice.
This website scores 96% on Lighthouse, a tool that measures accessibility. Key accessibility components that stand out on this site include:
Images have alternative text
Buttons have accessible and specific names
Links are distinguishable without relying on color alone
Touch targets are sufficiently sized
Form elements have accurate associated labels
The site also offers a streamlined, expandable menu and multilingual capabilities for six languages, making the content more accessible for international passengers.
London Heathrow Airport: Best airport website for audience-focused language
The Heathrow Airport website has much to offer when it comes to catering to the passenger experience. The website includes audience-focused language and various tools that make the travel experience more comfortable. These include:
These features help reassure first-time travelers or international passengers that they can access the resources and information they need to make their trips more enjoyable.
How Kanopi Supports Airport Web Design
Our website designers and developers at Kanopi Studios have extensive experience creating optimized corporate and commercial websites, including airport websites.
Our Technical Expertise
Our experienced developers ensure your airport website includes all the technical elements it needs to serve your audience effectively, including:
Flexible layouts that allow content editors to update their sites independently without needing to contact a developer
Creation of personalized dashboards for airport passengers to access content related to their travel itineraries
Location data that enables users to customize the content they see based on their home country
Development of client-facing dashboards for a user-friendly content administration experience and editing workflow
We can help you build a new website from the ground up or optimize your existing online presence, even if it contains custom or complex code. Our developers are highly experienced and skilled at working with existing code and reformatting your site to better suit your current needs.
Contact our team today to discuss your airport website’s goals and see how the experts at Kanopi can help.
Wrapping up
Ultimately, your airport website should reassure passengers that they will have a positive experience, equip them with the resources and information they need to have a smooth journey, and encourage them to continue using your services for their travel needs. If you need support to bring your airport website’s vision to life, research web design and development partners and request proposals to explore your options and find the right consultant for your needs.
Looking for more information about designing a top-tier website? Start with these additional resources:
In today’s highly digital world, most patients do their research before they make an appointment with a healthcare provider. In fact, Google sees over 1 billion health-related searches per day. In 2024, popular health searches ranged from questions about diseases (“Is strep throat contagious?”) to general health tips (“How much water should you drink a day?”).
What does this mean for your organization’s healthcare website? Accurate and accessible healthcare information is more crucial than ever. Whether your organization is a health institute, medical school, or hospital, your website is an essential resource for your community.
This guide reviews top healthcare website design examples and the features and best practices that make these resources effective. Here’s what to expect:
The Benefits of Engaging Healthcare Website Design
Although not every search result will lead to a doctor’s appointment, users will still engage with your organization online in some way. Make the most of their virtual visit with a great design that meets their needs and establishes your organization as a credible source. With thoughtful design, your healthcare website can:
Grow brand awareness: A robust, well-designed website establishes your organization as a credible and knowledgeable source new users can turn to.
Build trust among current audience members: When visitors see that your website is professional and comprehensive, they’ll trust your organization more. One healthcare website study found that “website design, clear layout, interactive features, and the authority of the owner have a positive effect on trust or credibility.”
Offer your audience convenience: A comprehensive healthcare website gives community members access to a 24/7 resource that’s available with just a few clicks.
Your website should give current and prospective patients confidence in your quality of care. Its design should emphasize your medical expertise and put their minds at ease.
Best Practices for Healthcare Website Design
Put yourself in a patient’s shoes. What would they expect from a professional healthcare website? Speed, responsiveness, credible content—all of the above! How your website delivers on these expectations defines your site’s performance.
An effective healthcare website incorporates the following elements:
User-friendly, patient-centric design
An easy-to-use internal search function
Accessible design
Heightened security for sensitive information
Responsive design
A mobile-friendly interface
Accurate, informative content
Fast load speeds
As a best practice, regularly reviewing and updating each of these elements is essential. For example, your organization must always keep its sensitive information secure. Bolster your infrastructure with updated security measures to protect against attackers and mitigate system vulnerabilities.
Accessibility is another must, as healthcare sites, in particular, have users with various needs. Your site must follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and accessibility best practices so those with temporary or permanent disabilities can easily access the content.
Researching organizations that thrive in healthcare web design can help you better understand what makes a great website.
However, truly impactful design should always represent your organization’s specific audience. For example, a university healthcare website will have student health services and resources, while an urgent care might provide interactive symptom checkers.
Let’s review top healthcare website examples and the best practices that make them great.
1. Clear FAQs: San Francisco Health Service System
Great design anticipates needs. The San Francisco Health Service System’s homepage excels at providing relevant, helpful prompts to guide visitors. Its FAQs encompass the six most common reasons why a visitor may need their services. Each FAQ then directs visitors to an accompanying page that provides them with useful information.
This design is also mindful of visitors’ time and mental state. People searching for medical assistance might be feeling stressed or anxious, making it critical that you answer their questions and concerns quickly.
2. Comprehensive internal search: Mayo Clinic
As the number one hospital in the U.S., the Mayo Clinic provides accessible web design that assists visitors’ road to recovery. One feature worth spotlighting is its comprehensive internal search that prompts visitors to find the right resources for their circumstances.
For example, a visitor may enter “kidney disease” into the search bar. Then, the results page would direct them to related articles such as Chronic Kidney Disease or Lupus. From there, visitors can discover the diagnosis and treatment options, or make an appointment.
3. High performance: The Linked Immunisation Action Network
The Linked Immunisation Action Network (Linked) is a healthcare organization that helps identify challenges and best practices to improve immunization programs in middle-income countries. Because it often works in areas with poor internet access, the organization must offer its audience a high-performing, fast-loading website.
To improve its site performance, Linked turned to the web design experts at Kanopi for help. We updated the homepage to reduce load times by replacing the hero carousel with a more streamlined version. We also enhanced the Tools & Resources section with straightforward content pathways, filters to improve internal search, and improved visual design.
As a result, the site’s desktop and mobile performance improved—the mobile performance jumped by an average of 13 points, which is crucial for practitioners working in the field.
4. Accessibility and navigability: The Colorado Health Foundation
The Colorado Health Foundation (CHF) is a state organization devoted to improving the health of all Coloradans. To make its services equally accessible to everyone in the state, it needed to improve its site’s user experience and ensure its mission was front and center.
CHF worked with Kanopi to make these necessary changes. We used discovery work and heatmaps to understand how users navigated the site. Then, we made strategic navigation fixes based on the areas users interacted with most. We streamlined the main menu to just six primary items to reduce complexity.
In addition, we helped the organization create a data display to demonstrate accountability in their pursuit of racial justice to achieve health equity. This element helps increase audience trust in the organization’s mission.
Because of our enhancements to navigation and design, the site now scores a high 95/100 on Lighthouse (a report that measures a site’s accessibility level).
5.Spotlighting personnel: Global Brain Health Institute
The Global Brain Institute’s fellows directory is a great example of connective design at work. Its comprehensive directory spotlights interprofessional leaders that are experts in brain health and dementia prevention. The page allows visitors to search by name, and filter by topic, region, or cohort, so visitors can connect with fellows and/or apply for the fellowship. This well-designed page acts as a promotional tool as well since visitors can observe the caliber and variety of the fellowship body.
6. Useful CTAs: The Cleveland Clinic
The Cleveland Clinic’s welcoming design assures visitors that their organization is ready to meet their needs. Just below this home page tagline, visitors can access three main resources to meet their needs—doctors, directions, and appointments.
These sections are known as CTAs (calls to action) and invite visitors to take the next action to complete their website journey. For instance, if a visitor clicks “Locations & Directions” they are led to a page where they can enter their location and find one of the 310 clinics that is closest to them. Google Maps then provides visitors a glimpse of their route so they can best prepare.
7. Inspiring testimonials: Boston Children’s Hospital
Your healthcare organization probably does some incredible work. Take a page out of the Boston Children’s Hospital’s book and highlight your work through inspiring testimonials. Their web design is personal as it introduces visitors to children who have recovered from necessary procedures. Each child is pictured and has a link for visitors to learn more about their story.
Visitors who find themselves on this page are most likely parents who are anxious about their child’s health. This design approach makes them feel hopeful and increases their trust in this organization’s capabilities.
8. Incorporating visitor feedback: CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website design thoughtfully acknowledges user experience. Its built-in survey encourages visitors to provide feedback so that the CDC can offer the best online experience.
Additionally, the CDC’s web design policies take user communication preferences into account. Their policies stipulate that they are committed to using plain writing, so users can find what they need without having to interpret medical jargon.
9. Bold, consistent branding: National Women’s Health Network
A well-branded site makes your organization stand out and boosts your credibility. The National Women’s Health Network is a great example of effective online branding at work. The site’s colorful collage of women highlights its target audience and invites visitors to explore the organization’s mission, vision, and values.
Colorful titles also help break up the content and guide through the homepage’s main sections. This way, visitors can assess the homepage quickly and easily without excessive scrolling or losing interest.
10. User-friendly content: BetterHelp
As the world’s largest online therapy service, BetterHelp sees many visitors who desire to connect with licensed professionals. Its user-friendly design addresses visitors’ desires through clean, organized page content.
The first three home page CTA options give visitors a choice to find help for themselves or their loved ones. Then, the visitors are directed to complete a questionnaire that recognizes their needs and offers relevant help.
11. Member-exclusive benefits: Eye Recommend
Many healthcare organizations thrive on member involvement, including Eye Recommend. Eye Recommend is a professional group for independent optometrists in Canada. Its goal is to empower members with technology, services, and resources to expand their clinics.
Eye Recommend partnered with Kanopi to strategize the best ways to bring valuable, exclusive content to their members. Ultimately, we helped their team create a convenient online job marketplace where members can easily browse open positions. Members can filter listings by location, allowing them to find roles within their local area. Features like this, in addition to a user-friendly internal search function for the organization’s full website, provide clear value to members and improve the user experience.
12. Data-driven storytelling: The Gates Foundation
The Gates Foundation, founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, is one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world. Its website tells the story of the organization’s initiatives, including fighting poverty and disease and sparking innovations worldwide.
The foundation’s website leverages many powerful case studies and impact statistics to illustrate its international positive impact. Users can easily browse through examples of the organization’s work, categorized by location and strategy used.
Maintaining Your Healthcare Website Design Over Time
An effective healthcare website isn’t static; it must change and grow over time to continue meeting your community’s needs.
We’ve compiled a list of the most common healthcare website design maintenance considerations, adapted from our guide to website maintenance for nonprofits. Ask yourself the following questions to continually assess your website and maintain it over the years:
Design
Is your design outdated?
Does your design effectively adapt to mobile screen sizes?
Is your design cluttered or visually inconsistent across pages?
Content
Are your multimedia elements, like photos and videos, functioning properly?
Is your content accessible to all audience members, following the WCAG guidelines?
User journeys
Do you have clear user pathways for your core audiences?
Does every user have clear next actions they can take on your website to find the information they need or get involved on a deeper level with your healthcare organization, whether through volunteering, donating, etc.?
Are your navigation elements (like your main menu) and CTAs aligned to drive user engagement?
Security
Does your website have any security vulnerabilities that need to be addressed?
Does your website align with healthcare legislation including HIPAA and HITECH?
Does your website leverage advanced security features like SSL to maintain compliance?
Scalability
Can your website’s network effectively scale up and adapt to heavier traffic loads?
Is your code optimized to facilitate fast load speeds?
Does your website have caching mechanisms to improve load speeds for subsequent visits?
Technical elements
Do you need to conduct any of the following technical maintenance tasks?
Does your website accurately reflect your healthcare organization’s current priorities?
Does your website have content and messaging that appeals to every audience persona?
Does your blog content promote your organization’s mission and goals?
Do all website pages reflect your organization’s branding, voice, and tone?
Approach website maintenance as a continuous, ongoing process, rather than a major task you complete every so often. It can be helpful to work with a professional web design firm to support your website over time so it doesn’t lose traffic or face security issues.
Work with Kanopi to Bring Your Healthcare Website Vision to Life
We do more than just security patches and software updates—our designers and developers act as strategic partners to support your website with a clear growth plan and adaptive execution. Whether your site is a new online resource or an established healthcare website, we can provide the ongoing, reliable support you need to reach your goals.
Check out our work with the Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, for an example of how we leverage our design expertise for our healthcare clients. The department needed a website that reflected its rich history of scientific and clinical advancements. However, it was saddled with an overly complicated configuration of 80+ domains for different topic areas and a proprietary CMS that didn’t offer an easy way to navigate between these domains.
Through deep discovery work and prototypes, we evaluated how users interacted with the site to identify key improvements to the user experience. We migrated the site to Drupal, simplifying domain access and preserving consistency. We also infused the site with human-led imagery and mobile accessibility.
The ROI of Great Web Design. What can a great website do for your organization’s budget? Read this article for an inside look into how effective web design can dramatically boost your ROI.
Cleaning a frat house the morning after a homecoming party.
Evaluating proposals to choose a new website design & development agency.
If you’ve ever had to perform the latter task on behalf of a mission-driven organization, you know firsthand that it can seem every bit as difficult as the others on that list. It’s one of the most critical investments an organization can make. Done correctly, it’s also one of the most time-consuming.
As with most things, there are best practices you can adopt that will guide you to better results. UK-based creative digital agency Crucible recently published an insightful blog post with tips on how to effectively evaluate a web proposal, which we highly recommend reading.
On top of the standard evaluation criteria, mission-driven organizations frequently have additional factors they need to consider. In this post, we’ll share the most important questions your organization should be asking as part of your due diligence.
1. Does the agency understand your mission and goals?
A strong proposal begins with a deep understanding of your organization:
Rather than just pitching generic services, look for signs that the agency has taken the time to truly understand your organization’s goals.
This includes both the full scope of work and the broader purpose of your website — whether it’s to inspire action, increase donations, or engage members/leadership.
The best agencies will ask thoughtful questions during the proposal phase and reflect your priorities in their responses.
2. Do your values align?
For mission-driven organizations in particular, this is fundamentally important:
Does the agency demonstrate a commitment to causes similar to yours?
Are they mission-driven themselves, or do they approach projects solely from a commercial standpoint?
An agency that shares your values will often bring more passion and insight to the project.
3. Are they specialized in your field (but not too specialized)?
However, sometimes when you work with an agency that specializes exclusively in one specific vertical, you end up with a cookie-cutter design; this is why it’s also important to make sure their experience isn’t too narrow. Diversity in an agency’s portfolio is a sign of broader expertise and fresh ideas.
4. What’s their track record?
Take a good look into their history and stability:
How long have they been in business? An agency with many years of experience often brings a level of expertise that newer firms lack.
What are their employee and client retention rates? High retention is a strong indicator of a reliable, well-run agency.
What social proof validates their experience? Look for client testimonials, case studies, and ratings on platforms like Clutch.co, where reviews often provide detailed insights about an agency’s reliability, communication, and impact on similar projects. Have a gander at ours, for example.
5. Can they deliver the basics?
Before you fall in love with a proposal, ensure it meets your foundational needs:
Timeline: Is it realistic for your organization’s schedule?
Budget: Does it align with your financial constraints?
Scope: Does it comprehensively address your requirements?
Think of this as the Maslow hierarchy of needs for your project. After all, for your website to shine, first it needs to work!
6. Whom will you be working with day-to-day?
This is a big one. You’ll work most closely with the agency’s design & dev teams, not their sales or marketing reps. So, ask to meet the people who will actually handle your project:
Project Manager: Your primary point of contact.
Designer: The person responsible for the website’s look and feel.
Developer: The individual who will bring the design to life.
Also ask how they intend to handle staffing requirements:
Full-time employees tend to have a more vested interest in the agency’s mission, and are familiar with their team members and internal processes; this often allows them to work more efficiently.
Relying on contractors allows the agency to hand-pick specific skill sets for your project needs — but as hired guns, they may not be as invested in the project or the overall mission.
One more point: if they plan to use full-time staff, clarify if they’ll need to hire additional people. If so, ask how long their onboarding process usually takes. Not that this should be a dealbreaker; but knowing these things at the outset prevents surprises down the road.
Again, even the most beautiful website can fail if it doesn’t perform well. Run their sample websites through tools like Google Lighthouse to evaluate:
Accessibility: Does the website work for users of all abilities?
SEO Performance: Will it rank well in search engines?
Code Quality: Is the website fast, secure, and maintainable?
8. Can they provide realistic references?
Any agency can provide glowing testimonials. Instead, try asking for a reference about a challenging project:
What went wrong, and how did they resolve it?
Did the client remain with them afterward?
Their answer will reveal a lot about how they handle obstacles and maintain relationships. It’s the reason this question is a standard part of job interviews.
9. What happens after launch?
Websites aren’t static. They need ongoing care to function optimally and ensure longevity — and provide maximum value for your investment. That’s why it’s essential to ask any prospective agency these questions:
Do they offer post-launch support or enhancements?
Will they help your site evolve as your needs change?
F.W.I.W., here at Kanopi we believe that a website should look and work great on launch day — but it should look and work even better years down the road. Continuous support is not an add-on for us; it’s a core service. This is why the websites we design, build, and support regularly last 10 years or more. Just thought we’d put that out there. 😉
Strictly for the Drupal
Since this post is all about questions, we have one for you:
Is your organization looking to build/rebuild in Drupal?
And make no mistake about it, Drupalites, you do not want to mess around with providers who aren’t certified. Unless you enjoy living in a prolonged state of rage and tears while spending lots of money to fix problems caused by incompetence. (Did I neglect to mention that we’re one of just 100 Drupal Certified Partners in the whole wide world?)
In fact, we recommend that you check out the template & guide even if your site isn’t Drupal. Its structure and content will prove useful for anyone writing a website RFP.
You’re picking a partner, so make it a good fit!
Particularly for mission-driven organizations, evaluating a web design proposal is about more than picking the cheapest or fastest option. It’s about finding a partner that truly believes in your mission and will create a website that supports your goals. By asking these vital questions, you can ensure that the agency you choose is the right fit for your organization — which hopefully means you won’t need to push that rhino up the hill again for a very long time.
Need more guidance? Feel free to reach out — at Kanopi, we’re here to help mission-driven organizations like yours succeed.
It’s been a stressful, harrowing quest — but at last, after all the tears, sweat, occasional rage and countless revisions, you can gaze at your screen with contentment and relief.
After all, you’ve finally achieved a homepage design that’s nothing short of perfection:
The brand expression is subtle but dynamic.
Calls-to-action are irresistible as catnip to my two needlessly anxious cats.
All of which is served up with imagery worthy of the Louvre.
Now, all that remains is to design some engaging, human-centric service pages.
Sadly, this is where your weeping begins anew — as you now realize that functional issues have rendered your splendid visual design completely & utterly useless:
The lovely callout banners you’ve designed won’t accept more text without breaking.
Images are distorting and peoples’ faces are getting cropped.
The row that was built to hold four cards now needs to accommodate five.
Dear friends and readers, we’ve witnessed this scenario more times than we can count. And it’s exactly why, here at Kanopi, we focus on designing and building with web components.
The modular way to ensure your design works — always.
Strip away the visual styling and most web pages can be broken down into a few distinct content areas:
Navigation
Main headline
Body copy, including subheads, lists, and sidebars
Collections of images
Calls-to-action/pathways to take next steps.
These building blocks form the foundation of a reusable component library that can be combined and customized to create various types of pages. For example, a photo gallery page might only need a few components, whereas a longform article could require many. From the early stages of design and content strategy, we carefully plan the components a site will need and ensure they are designed to fit together seamlessly, enabling the creation of diverse and flexible layouts.
Design components from the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery website
Examples of components:
Page headers and heroes
Card rows
CTA banners
Media galleries
Testimonials
Subnavigation and link lists
Ideal for websites of any and all sizes.
This is true even if you’re starting with just a single landing page. After all, what if you need to duplicate that page with variations for different audiences? Does the page lead to a form and link to ancillary pages like privacy policy and terms? Starting with components gives you the power to scale faster and more predictably than figuring it out as you go.
Modular doesn’t mean boring.
One of the coolest things about designing with components is that they allow us to create variants. Variants allow us to extend a component with different presentation styles, such as alternative color schemes, distinct text formatting, or layouts that switch between columns and rows. Even with all these different styles, the basic structure of the content stays the same, making it easy to read. This balance lets us keep the message consistent while adding variety, so each component fits the content just right.
The hero component we developed for Exploratorium uses variants to open up a universe of options for media display and content formatting.
Even more component benefits:
1. They align design and development.
If there’s one thing computers are good at, it’s duplicating things. Websites are coded in reusable blocks, so designing and planning content in similar blocks leads to a smooth handoff to developers. And since components live in a central library, a change only needs to be made in one place to propagate through the entire site. This is much simpler and less error-prone than making the same change manually in a thousand different places, wouldn’t you agree?
2. They simplify accessibility and quality assurance testing.
Teams can conduct preliminary accessibility and QA testing on components as they’re developed — making later rounds of testing faster and easier. No need to worry about whether a link is large enough or colors contrast adequately if those considerations have already been built into the component and its variants.
3. They’ll save you a bunch of money.
Of course, I saved the best part for last: components make estimating more accurate by breaking design and development deliverables into manageable chunks. Throughout the project, they act as guide rails to keep efforts on track and within scope, while also serving as a framework for content strategy and copywriting.
Looking for examples? We’ve got plenty.
As I mentioned, here at Kanopi we design all our websites using components, so feel free to check out virtually any of our case studies. However, if you’re curious to see our coolest examples — the ones that showcase the true potential of component-driven design — check out these sites in particular:
If you’re ready to explore the potential of component-driven design, our team is here to help you create a gorgeous-looking website that also works seamlessly for your needs. Even if you’re just curious about how your site could be reimagined with components, we’d love to hear from you.
With 89% of patients in the U.S. Googling their health symptoms before going to the doctor, your hospital website is essential to serving your community’s needs and providing accurate, trustworthy information.
Your website serves as a virtual front door for patients and potential visitors, providing them with essential information about the hospital’s services, specialties, and facilities. A user-friendly structure and design instills credibility and enhances the patient experience by allowing easy access to critical details, such as appointment scheduling, contact information, and directions.
To develop your website effectively and ensure it supports your community, we’ve created this guide, which covers:
Before someone goes to the doctor, they’ll likely browse through a couple of physicians, make sure they’re in their healthcare network, scroll through times for an appointment— and do it all online.
People also turn to your website to answer medical queries, get updated on recent healthcare news, donate to your institution, and access an online health portal where they can update appointments and pay bills. A well-developed site helps to:
Craft a recognizable, highly reputable brand. If your hospital website doesn’t exist or contains outdated resources, it’s more than likely that people will take one look at it and deem your institution unreliable.
Differentiate yourself from other hospitals. A well-designed website communicates your commitment to patient-centered care, innovation, and technology, which can set you apart from competitors.
Build customer loyalty. To build customer/patient loyalty, your website needs to establish itself as a reliable medical web resource so that individuals can use it to make appointments, contact doctors, and pay bills.
Offer 24-hour patient communication and information. Your website provides patients with important information and resources outside of normal office hours.
Simplify marketing for hospital events and needs. Use your website to promote hospital events, streamline donation appeals, and attract more patients.
While it may feel daunting to get started with hospital web development, it’s a worthwhile investment. Improving your online presence is the first step toward attracting and retaining more patients.
Features to Include in Your Hospital Website
Whether someone is coming in for a quick check-up or a visit to the ER, your hospital website is an integral part of their journey. To ensure it serves your community to the best of its ability, your website needs these specific site features:
Simple navigation and menus
A list of services your hospital provides
Appointment booking tools
Contact details
Interactive advanced search functionality
Doctor/team information
AI-powered chatbots to answer patient questions and personalize the visitor experience
Top Hospital Web Development Examples and Best Practices
The best way to determine if your hospital website is up to par is to look at other successful sites. Review these hospital website examples to inspire your web development efforts:
1. Simple navigation: Global Brain Health Institute
The Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), an organization dedicated to protecting the world from brain disease and other health threats, wanted to ensure that visitors could easily navigate their site and locate different programs, services, and projects.
As a result, they worked with Kanopi to add a navigation bar that is logically organized and prominently placed throughout the website, so users can quickly find what they need. The site also features a fellowship directory that includes a search bar and filters. This is useful for medical students interested in pursuing a fellowship in a particular specialty, as well as for patients who want to learn more about the expertise of the hospital’s staff.
Why simple navigation is essential for hospital websites: As soon as someone lands on your hospital website, they should be able to find the content or service they seek. To ensure your site is easily navigable, consider mapping out the patient journey to better understand how people get to your site and what they do once they get there.
2. Clear CTAs: Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit academic medical center, known for its expertise in many areas of medicine and for providing high-quality care to patients. Their homepage features multiple calls to action (CTAs) that encourage visitors to schedule an appointment, donate, or learn more about a particular medical condition or procedure.
By including clear CTAs on their website, the Mayo Clinic helps visitors understand what medical services they provide, what treatments are available, and how to seek help if they need it.
Why clear calls to action matter for hospital websites: Carefully-placed CTAs let website visitors know exactly where and how to complete their intended action. As you create your own, consider the specific actions that you want visitors to take. Then, use clear and concise language to convey your purpose. For example, you might say “Schedule an Appointment Today” or “Learn More about Our Cancer Center.”
3. Patient-focused design: UCSF Department of Surgery
As a result, we helped enhance this website with a variety of user-friendly fixes, including:
Simple domain access with consistency across topics and departments
Human-led imagery of UCSF doctors and videos highlighting the patient experience
A mobile-first approach with a responsive design
Why patient-focused design is essential for hospitals: Your patients are the heart and soul of your hospital, and appealing to their needs will help you maintain high audience engagement. Patients should feel welcomed and comfortable using your website and signing up for your services. A friendly, patient-focused design helps foster a sense of community.
4. Consistent, bold branding: Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic is one of the top multispeciality academic medical centers in the country. To establish a strong, recognizable brand and reinforce their reputation, they included bold, eye-catching colors throughout their website.
Notice how all of the elements on their homepage are blue and green. When patients come across these colors in other mediums and materials, they’ll likely associate them with Cleveland Clinic.
Why consistency and bold branding is important for hospital websites: Consistent branding builds trust between patients and your hospital, which can be especially important in the healthcare industry where patients often have significant concerns about their health and well-being.
Adding color is a popular medical website design trend, with vivid and deep colors being sported on many successful hospital websites. Consider your site’s color palette before diving into web development to make sure your website branding is consistent throughout its pages.
5. Accessibility: Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai’s healthcare system prides itself on providing a wide range of services to diverse populations, including medical education, research, and patient care. To meet their patients’ varied needs, they prioritized creating an accessible website.
The accessibility tool in the bottom footer allows visitors to use a screen reader, navigate using their keyboards, and change the color contrast, if needed.
Why accessible design matters for hospital websites: Having an inaccessible hospital website will not only turn away those who might need your services the most but paints your entire establishment in a negative light. Because of the industry that you’re in, maintaining full compliance with the ADA and WCAG is essential. You want your entire community to feel accepted and at ease with your services, especially when it concerns medical care.
6. Inclusivity: Northwestern Medicine
Northwestern Medicine has a number of hospitals, all of which are committed to providing inclusive care to patients of all backgrounds and demographics. Maintaining an inclusive website is important for Northwestern Medicine, as it allows them to better connect with their patients and provide them with the resources and care they need.
Their Patients and Visitors page is extremely comprehensive, with CTAs that address a wide variety of concerns and questions.
Why inclusivity is important for hospital websites: Your hospital website content needs to represent the voice of all of your users, whether it’s patients, frontline workers, researchers, or caregivers.
7. Mobile-friendliness: Johns Hopkins Medicine
Johns Hopkins Medicine is known for its world-class medical facilities, including hospitals, clinics, and research centers. As a leading healthcare provider, they needed to keep up with changes in technology by creating a mobile-friendly website.
Their mobile-responsive site design allows patients to schedule appointments, access medical information, and communicate with healthcare providers, regardless of the device they’re using.
Why mobile-friendliness matters for hospital websites: With over 60% of the global internet population using a mobile device to access the internet, your hospital web design must work on all different screen sizes. For patients or families already in the hospital or waiting room, the ability to quickly look something up on their phone or tablet is critical.
Most content management systems (CMS) can create a mobile-responsive site automatically. However, there are some easy ways you can ensure your site’s responsiveness. For instance, use large buttons, a vertical layout, and avoid large chunks of text.
8. Accurate, updated information: Yale New Haven Hospital
Yale New Haven Hospital provides a wide range of medical services to its local community. As with any hospital, their website needs to provide accurate and reliable information about their services, facilities, and medical personnel. That way, patients can make informed decisions about their care.
Perhaps most notably, Yale New Haven’s homepage features emergency room wait times, informing patients where to seek care and what to expect when they arrive.
Why accurate and updated information is essential for hospital websites: When it comes to healthcare, accuracy is non-negotiable. It’s critical that your web content is consistently updated and provides the most high-quality information available.
9. Streamlined user experience: Colorado Health Foundation
The Colorado Health Foundation (CHF) is a statewide organization that aims to improve the health and well-being of all Colorado residents. The CHF partnered with Kanopi to clean up their site’s navigation and streamline the user experience.
Based on our research and expertise, our developers instituted impactful changes. We condensed the main menu to a cleaner version focused on the items that matter most to users. We also improved the visitor journey by:
Ensuring consistent page layout
Incorporating translation support
Adding accordions to streamline page design with collapsable text
Building a data display to foster accountability for the organization’s racial and health equity goals
Enhancing accessibility with clearer fonts, tab navigation, and meaningful links
Why a streamlined user experience matters for hospitals: Patients visiting your hospital’s website may be rushed or anxious. A simplified user experience connects them with the information or resources they need quickly and seamlessly.
Tips for Hospital Website Compliance
Your hospital website will likely have multiple services that collect and store patient data, whether that includes a health portal, appointment tool, or bill payment.
HIPAA is an act created by the American government to protect patient data such as names, phone numbers, email addresses, social security numbers, and medical records.
HITECH extends HIPAA requirements to bring additional benefits and protection to patients. This regulation establishes that patients should always have access to their health information online, and if hospitals do have a data violation, patients should be notified immediately. Depending on the seriousness of the data breach, your hospital may also incur various penalties and fees.
To ensure your website and software solutions not only comply with HIPAA and the HITECH Act but go above and beyond to ensure data protection, you need the following safeguards:
Tech safeguards include encryption software, data backups, and firewalls. Assess the state of your current healthcare cybersecurity system to ensure you have the proper safeguards in place.
Physical safeguards include only granting access to material records or electronic devices with the aforementioned data after proper authorization.
Administrative safeguards include the guidelines your hospital sets up to ensure that internal procedures comply with HIPAA.
Once these safety nets are in place, add a privacy policy statement to your website explaining your commitment to HIPAA and HITECH compliance. Publicizing this statement will help you build trust with current and prospective patients.
How to Maintain Your Hospital Website
Hospital website maintenance is crucial to ensure your site remains a high-performing, accessible, and convenient resource for your audience. Follow these best practices to future-proof and maintain your website over time.
Adopt a continuous improvement approach
Traditional website design and development takes a linear approach, with a clear pathway from strategy to implementation. However, a growth-driven, continuous improvement approach involves an ongoing, iterative process of:
Strategizing new website innovations
Implementing website changes to test your hypotheses
Tracking results and adjusting your approach based on feedback
This perspective pushes you to constantly update your website based on evolving best practices. Plus, you can avoid major site overhauls, which can cost your organization time and money.
Update your website according to accessibility innovations
New accessibility innovations are released constantly, helping to improve the online experience for users with temporary or permanent disabilities. Intelligent eyewear, a hands-free mouse, and AI-powered assistants are just a few of the exciting innovations we’re seeing this year.
Your website maintenance process should include accessibility updates to ensure your site stays usable and functional for all users. Take the time to adjust to the impacts of the following potential changes:
New assistive technology. Innovations in screen reader technology, AI assistants, assistive voice solutions, and other accessible technologies change how individuals interact with your web content. Make sure your website is structured properly, with clear navigation and heading structures, so it’s compatible with all assistive technology.
Accessibility testing techniques. Alongside updates to assistive technology itself, the way web designers can test sites for accessibility constantly evolves as well. Stay up to date on the best automated testing tools available as well as techniques for manually assessing your site. Resources like Kanopi’s guide to accessibility testing can be a huge help because our developers use these tools every day to ensure the sites we build or refresh are completely accessible and compatible with assistive technologies.
Changes to legal requirements. Laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Section 508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act govern web accessibility in the United States. Keep this legislation in mind as you refresh your website for accessibility. If you want to expand into new markets in other countries, be aware of their accessibility legislation to remain compliant.
Here at Kanopi, we take a holistic approach to web accessibility, learning about your website’s visitors and their unique accessibility needs to build a strategy that works best for your organization. Learn more about our approach in this short video:
Conduct technical fixes
The technical elements of your hospital website play a major role in your users’ online experience. Technical issues can slow down your website and leave it vulnerable to security breaches.
To keep your website in top shape, prioritize fixing the following technical issues:
Broken links. Broken links can hurt your SEO performance and create a negative user experience. Use an automated tool like Semrush or Google Search Console to identify and correct broken links with mass updates.
Security risks. Run core updates for your CMS and plugins or modules, encrypt sensitive data, require strong passwords for CMS users, and enable two-factor website authentication. In addition, host regular security training sessions with your team to ensure everyone is up to date with the latest security risks and best practices.
Slow page loading speed. Measure page load speed using a free tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse. Common performance issues include large image files, unused JavaScript or CSS, and large network payloads.
Set up recurring technical reports to get ongoing updates about your site’s health. Continuously monitoring your site and fixing performance issues will help you avoid smaller problems snowballing into major complications down the line.
Update your content
Your website’s content equips your audience with the crucial medical information they need to make informed decisions about their health. Updated, accurate content helps raise your hospital’s authority level and gives more credibility to your institution.
In your website maintenance process, make the following content updates:
SEO updates. Use SEO tools like Ahrefs or Moz to keep an eye on your search engine rankings. If any of your website’s most important pages, like high-value blog posts or your homepage, start slipping in the rankings, make a plan to refresh the content to enhance its SEO appeal. For example, you could better incorporate the main keyword, add more engaging visual elements, or refresh the page with updated health information.
Audience shifts. Your hospital’s core audience and their content preferences may change over time. New people could move into your coverage area with new online medical needs. Or, audience members may begin expressing interest in different blog post topics than what you normally cover. Pay attention to metrics like blog post engagement rates, time spent on each page, and audience demographics to ensure your content aligns with your audience’s interests and needs.
Interactive content additions. Interactive content is on an upward trajectory right now as more consumers seek out these engaging online elements. Interactive content can also lead to 2x the conversion rate of passive (or static) content. Find opportunities to incorporate this content into your hospital website, whether through online health assessments, quizzes, maps, surveys, or polls.
These content updates and the website maintenance process in general are most successful when working with a dedicated web development partner that has expertise and experience in maintaining websites like yours. Read on for an inside look at how the Kanopi team approaches hospital web development support.
How Kanopi’s Hospital Web Development Services Can Help
Partner with a website support and development agency to ensure you’re doing everything possible to improve your hospital website.
Kanopi is a top partner for hospitals with a continuous improvement team that has helped develop over 150 active sites. No matter what stage your hospital website is at, our team can conduct a full website redesign project or build it from scratch.
Content management system support tailored to user needs—whether you use Drupal or WordPress as a CMS, we have experts who can customize each platform to align with your organization’s needs and branding.
Custom module/plugin development—if you can’t find the right tool to perform a specific action, our coding team can create it.
WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards to ensure that anyone can access and engage with your healthcare services as needed.
Custom integrations for an online health portal or other solutions that can expand your hospital website’s capabilities.
Responsive, mobile-first design because we know that your online hospital services should be accessible from any device, anywhere.
Technical SEO strategy and implementation so that if anyone looks up your hospital’s name, a specific doctor, or a program, your hospital website is the first option on the search results page.
Even after your optimized site is officially launched, we will continue working alongside your hospital to create a website growth plan. This ensures that your site is sustainable for as long as possible and will support your hospital as it evolves.
For more information on website development, check out these resources:
Drupal vs. WordPress: Which One is Right For You? Drupal and WordPress are two popular content management systems that hospitals depend on. Learn which one is right for your organization in this guide!
Inclusive & Accessible Forms. Need to collect information via a form on your website? Forms ask your users to provide personal data, so ensure those forms are inclusive and accessible.
Webinar: Website Best Practices for an Aging Population. Kanopi’s Cliff Persaud discusses the challenges and opportunities facing healthcare providers and how they can ensure their website design meets the needs of aging patients.
