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Turn your radiology Web site into a facility asset

Radiology Administrator's Compliance and Reimbursement Insider, November 1, 2007

A radiology Web site can do wonders for your business by serving as an information portal for patients and physicians. But if your site isn’t planned and designed properly, it might not do much for your facility. Worse, the site could languish and drain your organization of time and money, said Nancy Speroni, MEd, director of radiology Web development at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who spoke at the American Healthcare Radiology Administrators annual meeting in Orlando in July.

“As radiology departments expand their reach outside traditional service areas, one of the most cost-effective ways to communicate is through a Web site,” said Speroni.

An effective Web site strikes a good balance between delivering the organization’s message and meeting its customers’ needs, she said.

Productive sites include everything from directions to registration forms, marketing messages to communications with customers and physicians. Conversely, poorly designed sites include confusing graphics, ineffective layouts, and dismal content. This frustrates visitors and drives potential customers away.

The key to ensuring that your site is a workhorse and not a time-waster is solid planning and a six-step process to ensure quality.

Designate the right staff members to carry out your Web site creation from brainstorming to completion. The group should include a:

• Creative designer
• Project manager
• Information architect
• Editor
• Content developer
• Writer
• Production lead
• Technical lead html coder
• Server
• Programmer

With the team in place, begin the six-step building and review process, said Speroni. It’s important not only to take the steps, but also to follow them in the proper order.

Step 1: Setting the vision

Set goals and objectives, write the mission statement, determine your target audiences, assess your competition, and establish a domain name.

To have a successful site you must decide ahead of time what you want to accomplish and how you will go about meeting that goal. People want to know how the site will look, said Speroni. But if you skip straight to construction, you might as well build a house without an architect.

With this in mind, develop a mission statement. It will guide you through the process and help insulate you from the whims of, and potential sabotage by, individuals within the organization.

It’s also important to find out what stakeholders in the organization want from the site up-front. Once you determine your goals, consolidate your list.

The most important questions to ask during this phase of the Web process is:

• What are your goals?
• Who is the target audience?
• Why do you need a Web site?
• What will the Web site do for the organization?
• What features will you need on the site?
• How will you measure return on investment (ROI)?

Take the time to consider others in your marketplace. You need to know what your competition is up to. Compile a list of competitors and outline information about their Web sites.

The list need not be exhaustive. The Web makes it extremely easy to find information, but “don’t go crazy focusing on a huge number of competitors,” said Speroni. Choose more than six and you’re wasting your time, she said.

Write down what you like and what you don’t like about the sites. Find out how their sites are doing. Also, focus on where their Web sites might head in the future and how much of their audience you want to capture for your own.

At this stage, you should select a domain name—the online address for your site.

Determine how to demonstrate ROI, said Speroni. A Web site requires a significant investment of time, resources, and money. You need to prove that it provides tangible benefits to the organization in return.

Step 2: Get ready to build the site

Determine site features, gather your content and organize it, plan site navigation, and establish button names.

With the direction decided, now determine what information to make public, said Speroni.

It’s okay to use existing material, she said, but keep in mind a lot of print materials need to be repurposed. Web writing is very different from writing for a print publication, said Speroni. People look at Web pages quickly, scanning for information they can use. Most do not read in-depth articles. Therefore, boil down content for quick-read visitors clicking through.

Also, include information about awards or accolades your facility received. “It’s always a good idea to toot your own horn on your Web site,” said Speroni.

This is also the time to come up with art for the site and names for the various navigation features. (See tips in related sidebar below.)

Step 3: Web site production

Design the site and put it together.

With planning complete, it’s time to build the site. When entering the production phase, your site should reflect the tone you hope to convey, said Speroni.

For healthcare facilities, the image is typically that of a trusted advisor. Develop the site accordingly, said Speroni.

“The key is to make your site user-friendly and to direct users through the site so that they’re looking at what you want them to,” said Speroni. This is not the time for flashy graphics developed by somebody’s 14-year-old nephew, she adds.

Become versed in the technical language used by Web developers, said Speroni. You need to communicate to the Web developer which features your site cannot do without and prioritize pie-in-the-sky features—such as using Flash or having a database—based on your organization’s goals.

Web sites typically develop in phases, so decide ahead of time on the important items, which should appear first, said Speroni.

Design for the customer. Keep in mind you are not the customer, so what you think works might not be what the customer needs, said Speroni.

Think how others will interpret what’s on the site. For example, take care when listing organizational names. A facility might refer to its radiology department as radiology operations. But a visitor to the site might think of operations as surgery. Therefore the title should be swapped out for something that is likely to be clear to the user.

“You’re a business, and you have to think like your customer,” said Speroni.

Step 4: Usability testing and quality assurance

Determine whether your site functions as it should.

When it comes to developing a Web site, usability testing is often the step that gets the axe, simply because it can be an expensive process and almost nobody budgets for it, said Speroni.

However, a little bit of usability testing is better than none. Figure out which areas of your site work and which ones don’t before sending customers to deadend pages or broken connections. This shouldn’t be a hugely expensive endeavor.

Then watch three to eight users go through the site, said Speroni. That way you determine the problem points before the site goes live.

And listen when people have difficulty using certain features, she said. Don’t dismiss it as their problem. If they’re having trouble, it’s likely others will too.

Step 5: Search engine optimization

Take steps to get the name of your site out there so customers will use it.

You can develop the best Web site in the world, but if nobody visits the site, it won’t do your organization much good. To get good traffic, market your site, and focus on search engine placement.

To boost your site, request links from other reliable sources. If a Web site has a lot of reputable, high-ranking sites linked to it, then Google picks it as a valuable site, said Speroni. With this in mind, try to get as many links as possible, she said.

Another tip she offers is to place your URL on all outgoing e-mail. Tell anyone and everyone about your site.

Step 6: Tracking and maintenance

Keep your site running and demonstrate its value.

Once your site is up and running, you need to ensure that it remains relevant. Check all your links regularly and update content continually. And listen to your unhappy customers; they give you critical information, said Speroni.

In addition to keeping your site in top form, you should also be tracking its performance. Check to see who is using your site, how long they’re staying, and what information they’re accessing.

After taking these six steps to establish a relevant, effective Web site that can boost your radiology business, you want to be certain to maintain what you’ve worked so hard to build.

The don’ts of Web design

It may seem like a good idea to include flashing symbols and complicated graphics on your Web site, but experts say flashy gimmicks just confuse and frustrate visitors.

Consider to following pitfalls when designing a radiology Web site, according to Nancy Speroni, MEd, director of radiology Web development at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who spoke at the American Healthcare Radiology Administrators annual meeting in Orlando in July.

Avoid clever names for buttons. Use clear ones. A straightforward approach is typically best.

Steer clear of inconsistent content. Establish a style guide for the site.

Toss out confusion. Keep the Web site organized. Try to categorize your site by disease. Many sites do this because people typically look for content related to their specific interests and their specific illnesses. Keep in mind why potential customers came to visit your site to begin with.

Do not include your facility organizational chart. This information has little value to visitors.

Try not to get too fancy with graphics. Flying, floating graphics or unexpected navigation features may look good, but they’ll just confuse your visitors. Keep it simple.

Avoid surprises. If you fail to tell users when a link takes them to a separate Web site or causes them to download a huge PDF file, you risk jarring and annoying customers.

Do not use color inconsistently. If you incorporate color, use it sparingly and make sure it has a meaning. For example, use it to mark certain common elements on your site.

Be careful about choosing difficult-to-read typeface. Certain fonts appropriate in print are difficult to read on the Web. Speroni recommends sans serif fonts such as Verdana, Helvetica, and Arial. Don’t go below 10-point size.

Dodge designs that slow the site down. Nobody wants to wait 10 minutes for a page to load. Choose features that will load quickly and let a visitor access the site rapidly.

Sidestep Flash. Some designers get carried away with Flash. Although it is useful in small doses, don’t go -overboard.

Don’t let visitors get lost. Failing to design the site to drive customers where you want them to go is a big mistake. Your site should have a “scent,” drawing people to the locations you want them to visit. Fail to do this and your site will lose its effect.

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