Does your hospital have a mobile-friendly website that customers can easily access and navigate when they’re on the go?

Perhaps at this point it is either nonexistent or not as good as you would like it to be. The first step in developing a mobile website for your hospital is to think like the people who typically visit your website i.e. patients, other providers, insurance companies etc.

The idea is to offer the kind of experience that deepens your visitors’ engagement and encourages repeat visits. Here are 5 tips to achieve that goal.

#1. Think like your customer

Think about your mobile site from the perspective of your visitor on the go. What kind of visitor might that be? It might be a patient looking for directions to your hospital. Or a provider looking for information about careers.

Children's Memorial Hospital offers a simple, user-friendly, logical flow of information on their mobile site

Is your site designed to provide easy-to-find location and directions? Are there large, visible buttons that point to careers, hospital news and important phone numbers?

Children’s Memorial Hospital (Chicago, IL) has a very well designed mobile website that makes it easy for users to consume and engage with their content.

#2. Analyze customers’ thought patterns

Think through the steps that your customers (or other stake holders) might take to gather information about your hospital. You will find that different visitors have different thought patterns. But you can still design one site around multiple visitor needs as long as you provide a simple, logical flow of information for each type of visitor.

#3. Keep the design simple

Don’t try to complicate your mobile site with a lot of information and fancy designs. Mobile visitors are usually in a hurry and so your messages should be brief and concise. Remember to include only the most pertinent information (think text message content, not brochure content).

#4. Design for speed

Keep in mind that websites load much slower on mobile devices than they do on regular computers. Therefore abandon rates tend to be much higher as well. Avoid using Flash, video and multiple images. These will slow down the loading process and no one has the time to wait for your site to load.

#5. Design for multiple devices

Currently there is no standard for ALL mobile devices so you want to make sure that your mobile site is designed based on the top mobile devices and screens out there i.e. Android, iOs, Blackberry, Windows Phone and tablets such as iPads.

Of course your mobile site won’t perform perfectly for each visitor but the best you can do is to at least try to ensure that your design gives them the best experience possible.

Bonus Tip

For a simple way to create a browser redirect code for your mobile site, Mobile Moxie has an easy-to-use tool that is readily available. Just visit MobileMoxie.com and search for the mobile redirect tool, follow the instructions and you’ll have the code that you need!

Over to you: Do you have a mobile site for your hospital? What other tips can you share to help others make their sites mobile-friendly?