Of course a website must look attractive and succeed in communicating important information to prospective customers, to existing patients, and to everyone with an interest in knowing more about the doctor, the clinic or the hospital behind the website.

So what more can it be? What more must it be?

The modern health website is responsive to the interests and needs of the people it is built for.  Consumers of Internet content are used to slick, engaging and entertaining websites when they shop online, arrange holidays, and book restaurants. Should health providers be complacent about people accessing medical or dental websites, supposing that they will settle for boring just because it is about health?

Of course not. They will expect to discover what they find elsewhere: websites that are easy to navigate and to read, with little effort needed in panning, scrolling, or resizing. And they will want your website to work equally well on their tablet or mobile phone.

The modern health website is dynamic and alive, regarding not just its home page but every page as a landing page. Every page is thus designed to engage with the people who land on it, welcoming their arrival and measuring their response to what they find. Specific calls to action encourage users to return, and follow-up responses to enquiries are prompt and professional. The website becomes a cornerstone of the efficient and effective relationship between patients and consumers and their health professionals.

The modern health website is interactive, conceived with imagination and built with panache. By this we mean interesting and functional design elements that do not merely exist for their own sake but as reflections of the essence of the health business they promote. For example, before-and-after pictures that are so often to be found on cosmetic or orthopaedic websites can be rendered as graphic animations that morph from the old and the tired to the new and the vital.

Other interactive tools to perform related tasks include videos, calculators, interactive appointment booking systems, questionnaires, and mobile apps – all of them reflecting the purpose and vitality of the business they promote.

Great health websites serve as signposts to vitality: designed to launch partnerships