Trends come and go constantly, from fashion to food, fitness to foreign places. They tend to lure us in, tempting us to adopt the “latest thing”, yet it’s important to consider if they will actually work with your brand and add value.
Before adopting the latest design trends for your physician website design, consider the following to help determine if they will actually serve a purpose for your business.
Is it aligned with your goals?
What is your website trying to do, and what are the future objectives that you want to reach? For example, if your goal is to raise brand awareness of a specific service and educate visitors how your service differentiates from other practices, you would most likely highlight this on your homepage. If you adopt a new trend-based layout change, such as a card layout with information presented in “bite size” chunks that are perfect for scanning, you should first determine if this will improve or hinder awareness. Talk to your designer about using in-page analytics and other tools such as heatmaps and A/B testing to guide decisions.
Does it fit your brand?
One trend will not fit everyone. Consider your brand personality and your target market before making any radical changes. Web design must align with both. Having a huge hero image on the homepage may work for sites like Airbnb, but it also could confuse your potential customers.
Does it have longevity?
While it can be difficult to measure exactly how long a trend will last, it’s possible to gauge a good idea simply by looking a little deeper. Ask yourself: Where did this trend come from? Was it inspired by another trend, and was that used successfully by brands? How long did that trend last? How many people have adopted this new trend? A little bit of research can greatly help to determine if the trend will still be around in years to come.
What are the pros and cons?
You need to weigh up and evaluate both sides of implementing any new trend. On the surface, all trends look shiny and new and it can be easy to only see the positives. However, when considering a new website design for doctors, it’s important to look at any negative side effects that a new design could have on the user experience. Adding video content to a prominent part of your website could detract visitors from finding important information, and in the long run harm your practice’s profits. It could also require additional resources to update and maintain it, resulting in higher costs.
What is your history like?
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Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and it can help guide our decisions for the future. Consider what changes you have made in the past to your website, and how customers responded. Were changes well received, or did they confuse customers? You can also run small tests to determine how a new concept might work within your current website. This helps to mitigate the risk of a full-blown website design. Look at in-page analytics to assess how your customers respond to the design changes.
Since the very beginning of the Internet, companies have constantly updated and redesigned their websites, hoping to achieve a fresh new look. Often, many think that new designs or trends will instantly be better than the old, but this isn’t always the case. So, before you start redesigning your medical website with the latest trend, consider the five points above to help you make an informed decision about whether it’s really right for your practice.
