Anyone who has spent any time browsing the Apple App Store or the Android Apps on Google Play will be familiar with the problems that face people looking for health or medical apps:
Look After Your Eyes, the consumer-facing website we designed and built last year for the College of Optometrists, has been named website of the year by MemCom, an industry body for membership marketing professionals.
The site was produced for members of the public who are interested in their eyes and eye health, and provides information on how the eye works, eye conditions, how to care for eyes and the role of the optometrist. The site also encourages the public to find their local optometrist using a postcode search feature.
We have been working with the Vitamin D Council for a few years now. In that time, we have helped them completely redevelop the way they produce health information and have supported them to become a self-funded membership organisation that generates significant revenue from membership subscriptions via their website.
This week sees the launch of a new responsive version of their website, which looks fantastic on desktops, tablets and mobiles. The logo, web design and illustrations were created by our friends at Design By Day.
(This post appeared originally on the Patient Information Forum website)
I am Managing Director of Minervation and many of you will know me through my work on the PiF website.
My interests include evidence-based health care, web design, information science, usability testing, social media and blogging.
I live in Bristol and work from home and from the Minervation office, which is based in central Oxford.
Back in 2005 we published our LIDA research saying that 98% of online health information was inaccessible, unusable and unreliable. Things have improved over the last 7 years, but information providers still need all the help they can get to make sure the information they produce is easy to use and understand and a reflection of best current knowledge.
We have been involved in the Patient Information Forum for nearly a decade; as members, supporters, conference speakers and website developers. We are keen advocates of their hugely influential work and were delighted to be chosen to help redevelop the PiF website earlier this year.
Building a highly accessible patient-friendly website in less than 2 months is no mean feat, but that’s exactly what we did recently for the College of Optometrists. Their brief dictated that we redesign and rebuild their public-facing website: ‘Look After Your Eyes’ to very tight deadlines.
“Journalists are all heavy drinking hacks with no idea about healthcare or scientific research. They just want to sell newspapers and further their own careers.”
– Quote from an imaginary Health Information Professional.
“Health Information Professionals are all boring, mousey nobodies who wouldn’t know a good headline if it smacked their bifocals off their face. They just want to push their side of the story and get more money for their organisation.”
– Quote from an imaginary Journalist.
These are clearly extreme versions of the truth, but it’s undeniable that these two professional groups haven’t always got on. Journalists and Health Information Professionals often seem to be at odds over key health issues, but surely if we can build good working relationships we can help each other and dramatically improve the quality of information that gets out to the general public?
The Patient Information Forum (PiF) is the membership organisation for consumer health information producers and providers.
PiF’s main aims are: