With hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors, uwmedicine.org serves as our bustling public gateway. Today, new primary care content, homepage, clinic pages and provider bios aim to give those visitors the information they need faster than ever before.
The changes are the first phase of a complete overhaul of UW Medicine’s site, which should wrap up by fall 2018, said Glenn Bieler, chief communications officer.
“We want to provide a modern digital experience for all visitors, whether they’re looking for information on patient care, education or research,” Bieler said. “The new site is designed to be both practical and engaging. Visitors can easily learn how to access UW Medicine for their personal care while also finding inspiring stories about the amazing and groundbreaking work we do every day.”
One click away
The clutter of the older site is being swept away, replaced with a clean appearance, concise copy and rich imagery.
Finding a doctor or clinic location, making an appointment, accessing the patient eCare portal and other common tasks and pages are all easy to find and navigate. The layout and structure of the new site, which will meet all accessibility requirements, reflect user data gleaned from years of analytics, thousands of survey responses and real-time user testing.
The new design makes us stand out from our competitors, said Melinda Partin, senior director of Marketing and Digital Strategy. But it’s not just about aesthetics. Behind the scenes, the site has been constructed on a robust enterprise platform.
“We’re now able to make updates and refinements to the website nimbly, in stride with emerging digital technology,” Partin said. “Rebuilding the site on a modern website platform enables us to offer personalized content, improve search engine rankings and integrate the site more effectively with digital marketing campaigns.”
Telling our story
A video featuring Dr. Lucy Hwang, a family medicine provider at the UW Ravenna Neighborhood Clinic, is a prominent feature on the new homepage. It’s the first in a series of day-in-the-life videos about our clinicians, researchers and educators. Provider bio pages will start to feature video interviews as well.
These personal stories will show how each of our pillars – patient care, research and education – advance our mission to improve the health of the public. The homepage also features the latest news and stories from UW Medicine’s new digital properties Right as Rain and the UW Medicine Newsroom.
“The wealth of staff, patient and research stories we have to tell as a brand is exciting,” said Bill Wardlow, creative director in Strategic Marketing and Communications. “We have a real opportunity to become a destination for high-quality digital healthcare content.”
What’s next
Due to the scale and complexity of the new site, the rollout is happening in phases. The redesigned pages and sections will run at the same time as the old site while additional content is migrated and redesigned. Visitors who navigate from the new site to content on the old site will see a pop-up window letting them know the page is still under construction.
Here’s the schedule for completing the project:
- Spring 2018: Urgent Care, Virtual Clinic, eCare and the appointment info page, Center For Women and Children, Mental Health Care, Cardiology, Vascular, Eye Care, Cancer Care, Neurosciences, Surgery, Transplant, Digestive Health, Urology and Men’s Health, Trauma and Emergency Medicine, Radiology, Laboratory Medicine, Pathology
- Summer 2018: Search functionality, new provider and clinic database, Orthopedic and Sports Medicine, all other medical services and individual entity content; billing, insurance and other patient resources
- Fall 2018: Education, research, about section and referring provider content.
See the new site for yourself at uwmedicine.org.
Guest Writer: Jake Siegel
