Posted on April 20, 2009

Web 2.0 ophthalmology website

Eye Health Northwest & Glacial Multimedia Prepare for WEB 2.0 and where differentiation meets the demographic on the Internet. See site HERE – www.eyehealthnorthwest.com

Eye Health Northwest and Glacial Multimedia Inc have teamed up to create a one of a kind website for comprehensive ophthalmology. Based primarily around well thought out web 2.0 technology, the new EyeHealth Northwest website will feature a variety of unique attributes and web 2.0 technology designed for better interaction with patients.

Because understanding eye care and vision correction can vary from age to age and procedure to procedure Eye Health Northwest developed the idea of segmenting their website into three main categories.

LASER VISION
CATARACT & PREMIUM LENS IMPLANTS
GENERAL EYE CARE & OPTICAL

Each of these three websites will be pulled together by a minimalist yet, simple landing page. The three main websites containing the content are related by design style but offer three different color schemes for each practice segment.

1. The design nature of the website was uniquely designed at a screen resolution of 960, strategically placed between 800 and 1024. Although many web 2.0 websites are going in the direction of a pre 1024 design size it is clearly obvious that many computers are still viewing websites at 800×600. Instead of completely alienating the users with lower screen resolutions we can keep them seeing the whole website while the 1024 users will see at least an expanded view filling more of their screen.

2. The design nature of this website includes unique usage of icons and pushes the filter iconization design and development. Most of the icons were custom developed with the core idea of relating an image to the content or action associated with the button. People thought large buttons were out of style for a while but some of the WEB 2.0 style icons are large and very nicely crafted. Relating imagery to navigation will make surfing the site much more intuitive. Because the buttons are larger in nature the visitor will more easily find the information they are seeking or they might be intrigued by some new information that catches their eye. Nobody is using iconization more in ophthalmology website design than Maxim Havlicek, Art Director of Glacial Multimedia. “Having well designed icons for directing patients to the right information can lead to better conversion rates and a beautification of the website”.

3. Usage of the all new AJAX Technology is an excellent component of web 2.0 and surprisingly vacant from 99% of ophthalmology websites today. AJAX grants developers the ability to contain vast amounts of topics on a page in a module style layout while displaying one topic at a time. The graphics can move in this module to grab the surfer’s attention on the suggested topics. This can be extremely useful when providing basic answers to your LASIK researching prospective patients. Eye Health Northwest website will utilize this concept to promote their path to LASIK concept as well using this on secondary pages to minimize scrolling for users.

4. Advanced MAP and geotargeting capability provided by google has now been applied to the website and it is functioning unlike any system on any ophthalmology website. When a patient arrives at the website and sees the MAP section they will be prompted to choose 1 of 11 locations. The map system will automatically recognize their location by IP address and map a route from where they are located. By seeing a complete overview of the city patients can choose directions to any office from any location. The technology is closely similar to the GPS technology on the Apple iPhone.

5. Patient testimonials are critical to new prospective patients. Testimonials have been downplayed over the years by web designers too lazy to do the job right. The EyeHealth Northwest team understands the value of happy patients and will be using this concept in 2 ways new with web 2.0 approach. First, The programming capability coming with this website will enable a user generated patient testimonial module to be running on the website. Patients will be directed to the website to write a testimonial and submit this for the community to read. Interested patients will be able to conduct a search by age, sex and other factors that they may have in common with other patients. Just imagine…A concerned astigmatic patient can now hear the story of another and may just become more relaxed about the procedure. The second testimonial method covered on this website is more for the passive learner or the type of surfer that prefers to watch video experiences. A modern style video player will feature over 15 different patients discussing their experiences with EyeHealth Northwest and the outcomes of their surgical experiences.
6. The usage of self-evaluation tests will be prevalent throughout the website to try and give patients a better idea as to what their options may be. The tests act as a method of engaging discussion between the coordinators and the patients. All patients filling out these tests will be called and scheduled for a more comprehensive evaluation.
7. The LASIK path concept created specifically by the EyeHealth Northwest team members Kellie Christensen and Michele Bryant features a new and simple way for patients to understand the steps toward laser vision correction. The path concept is complete with a uniquely designed landing page covering the steps to better vision. On the landing page you will find sophisticated java script rollover functionality, completely spiderable by the search engines. Within each step of the path you can rollover the icon to learn more. As a user if you are interested you can click through for a more comprehensive discussion of the aspects of the step. The path concept has also been employed on the cataract and premium lens implant website as well.