Christi Williford | From a design perspective, one key principle is simplicity. This means keeping layouts uncluttered to avoid overwhelming users. When designing for simplicity, a few key principles can make a big difference. Leave plenty of whitespace — aim for 20 to 30% — to keep the design open and organized. Keep paragraphs short — about 3 to 4 lines — and use headings or bullet points to break up longer text.
Make important elements stand out with bigger text or bold colors, and ensure consistency in fonts, colors, and spacing to create a familiar, easy-to-navigate layout. Align text and images neatly for a clean, professional look, and use contrast to highlight key information. Always design with users in mind, ensuring they can easily find what they need. These guidelines focus on visual appeal and ease, which help to keep the design user centered.
Elena Haskins | When we think of being champions of health literacy, intuitiveness and ease are at the heart of why we’re all here. That ethos shouldn’t be any different for your website. Can users get the info they need ASAP? Are they confused about the message you’re trying to share? Can they guess where to find the right information without scratching their heads?
To make a website intuitive for visitors, you must first understand what information is most important to your users. Talk to them in interviews and surveys to see where their priorities lie, and look at your current website metrics. Make sure you’re using language that they use in your navigation, call-to-actions, and headers. Set up similar pages using the same layouts to ensure consistency so users don’t have to guess every time they engage with your site.
When users aren’t sure where to find information because it’s not clearly labeled or the wording is unfamiliar, we start to lose them. When users don’t feel like tools are for them, they lose confidence in your ability to help them and look for support elsewhere.
CW | User accessibility is another important thing to keep in mind up front. There are several inclusive design best practices that ensure people with disabilities have a positive experience with your site. For example, check your color contrast and use colors that are easy to see against each other. You can use WebAIM’s Contrast Checker to ensure your colors are compliant.
Don’t forget to add alt text (like “Person reading a book in a cozy room”) to images, so screen readers can describe the content to visually impaired users. Also, make sure your site is keyboard-friendly, allowing users to navigate with just the tab key. This is crucial for those who can’t use a mouse.
Use clear, descriptive headings (like “Contact Information”) instead of something vague, and label form fields clearly to help users understand what’s needed. Likewise, make sure the call-to-action buttons clearly tell users where they are about to go. Saying “Learn more” is too generic.
These practices make your site more inclusive and user-friendly, ensuring everyone has a positive experience. Accessibility isn’t just about following the rules; it’s about creating a site that everyone can enjoy. For more guidance, check out resources like WebAIM, the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, and the Inclusive Design Principles site. They offer great tips and tools to help you make your website accessible to all.
EH | In terms of accessibility, there’s many things that we can do to make sure that everyone can interact with our site safely and with the best experience.
When it comes to words on the page, using plain language is important for the user experience — avoiding medical jargon and sticking to simple words, for example. Treat your website as you would your health literacy education materials. Avoid long paragraphs, make sure the content is scannable, and utilize lists and bolding.
Use error identification in forms to support the needs of people with cognitive impairments and learning disabilities. Avoid flashing content to protect folks with epilepsy and photo sensitive conditions. Provide captions and transcriptions to make your site accessible to people with hearing and cognitive impairments. Make sure the headline matches the navigation item to help folks with cognitive impairments. And use color combinations that work for people who are color blind.
Finally, visual aids are vital from a UX standpoint. It’s important to carefully select images, infographics, and videos that help convey complex information more effectively and enhance overall comprehension. Use alt text for those using screen readers so they can engage with visual materials as well.
These are best practices that should be used for any type of digital experience, regardless of the audience. You never know if someone has an impairment or disability, and we want to create a space for them to engage as well.
IHA | How can an organization determine if its current website is health literate?
EH | A well-designed site not only looks good but also makes health information accessible and easy to understand. An important thing to remember is you are not the user. You may interact with the site, but the best way to see if your site is health literate is by conducting user testing and speaking with real customers or web visitors.
Ask users questions about what frustrates them on the site, what features they primarily use on the site, and what’s missing for them. Have them try to find different kinds of information and observe them doing so. Avoid yes or no questions or broad ones (like “Do you like ___?” or “What do you think of the site?”), because people won’t know how to give useful feedback that can help diagnose areas to fix.
From a data perspective, sync your site to an analytics tool like Google Analytics, and see which pages people are spending time on. Where are they starting? What is the bounce rate (the rate at which someone leaves your site)? How long are people spending on your site? This can point to pages that might not be most clear or literate.
You can also perform an audit of the site. Try to do basic tasks and locate specific information to see if it’s as intuitive as you first thought. What questions are coming up? Could the content on the page be misinterpreted? Do you know where you will be taken when you click certain buttons? Try to answer those questions to identify gaps.
CW | To ensure a website is health literate, it’s important to focus on clarity, simplicity, and accessibility. This means using plain language, avoiding jargon, and keeping the content easy to read — typically at a 6th- to 8th-grade level.
Visually, the site should include clear images and infographics, with a clean and consistent layout to help users navigate without confusion. Accessibility is key, so it’s crucial to make sure the site works for everyone, including those with disabilities, by checking things like color contrast and enabling keyboard navigation.
As a graphic designer, my process involves conducting a quick visual audit to assess design consistency, testing usability to ensure easy navigation, and considering user feedback to identify areas for improvement. I then suggest changes to simplify content, improve layout, and enhance overall user experience, with a focus on continuous testing and iteration to keep the site user-friendly and effective.
IHA | As a design team, how do you implement a health literate website design once you’ve done the assessment work?
CW | Once we’ve assessed a website for health literacy, the next step is to chat with the client about our findings and what needs to change. We’ll prioritize improvements based on their goals and budget to tackle the most important issues first. Then, the web designer gets into the nitty-gritty, adjusting the design while considering any platform limitations and ensuring the site works well on all devices. If necessary, we might bring in a health literacy writer to simplify the content and consult with healthcare professionals for accuracy.
With the design tweaks underway, we test everything thoroughly and gather user feedback to ensure the site is both health literate and easy to use. Finally, we prepare for launch, double-check that everything’s working smoothly, and continue to monitor and refine the site to keep it effective and accessible. This way, we ensure the site is clear, user-friendly, and compliant with health literacy standards throughout the entire process.
We then create a checklist for improvement, which might include simplifying language, organizing content more logically, using clearer headings, ensuring easy navigation, and incorporating helpful visual aids.
EH | As part of the design process, we conduct further user testing to gather feedback and make iterative improvements. We do this by giving users tasks, observing them operate on the site, and seeing how they react. For example, we must verify that the navigation we create is as intuitive as we expect. Can users find information easily? Are our visual aids as effective as we intended in conveying complex information? This way, we ensure the website meets the needs and preferences of users while driving the traffic and user behavior the organization needs as well.
CW | Remember that the goal is to ensure that users, no matter their health literacy level, can easily navigate and grasp the content. It’s about creating an intuitive, user-friendly environment.
IHA | What tools and resources should organizations look to for support as they seek to improve the health literacy of their websites?
CW | As you’re rewriting and redesigning your website, you’ll want to refer to readability analyzers such as Hemingway Editor, Grammarly, or Flesch-Kincaid Readability Tests to assess your written content. Similarly, you can check that your website meets accessibility standards by utilizing tools such as WAVE, AXE Accessibility Checker, and Tenon.io. Some great resources for best practices regarding web design and health literacy include PlainLanguage.gov, NNG (Nielsen Norman Group), and Usability.gov.
IHA | What recommendations do you have for healthcare organizations looking to outsource some or all of this process?
EH | We’d recommend connecting with a UX designer. UX stands for user experience, and their whole focus is to ensure websites are seamless and easy to navigate for users.
If you are hiring a web designer or UX designer, one question you can ask is, “How do you make sure your sites are user-friendly?” If they don’t mention anything about real user research (actually talking to your users) and user testing (collecting feedback from real people and then making changes based on their feedback), then keep looking.
Also, make sure the designers are talking about how they weave in accessibility. This should be a valuable part in their process — not viewed as an add-on. Ask, “What considerations do you take when making a website accessible?” Accessibility and health literacy go hand in hand when it comes to website design. They should be thinking of different kinds of accessibility — not just for visually impaired people.
CW | Start by looking for a web designer with solid experience in the healthcare sector. They should understand health literacy, patient engagement, and accessibility, which are key for your audience. Make sure they have a user-centered design approach, focusing on creating websites that are intuitive and easy to navigate. It’s also crucial they know the ins and outs of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliance and can handle sensitive health information properly.
Before diving in, ask potential providers how they incorporate health literacy into their designs, and request examples of their past work in healthcare. This will give you a sense of their expertise and style. Don’t forget to ask about their process for ensuring accessibility. Following best practices is essential to making your site usable for everyone.
Before you even start talking to providers, it’s helpful to clarify your goals for the website. Know what you want to achieve, whether it’s better patient education, smoother appointment scheduling, or something else. A quick audit of your current site can also highlight areas for improvement, helping you communicate your needs more effectively. And, of course, define your budget and timeline upfront to avoid any surprises later.
Taking these steps will set you up for success and help you find the right partner to create a website that truly meets your needs. If you’d like to explore this further, we’re always happy to have a conversation and see how we can support your goals.