7 best healthcare website designs 2024

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the development of telemedicine, medical technologies, and eHealth has accelerated. At the same time, patients are increasingly looking online for reliable medical information and reputable healthcare providers.

An incredible 89% of US patients will google their symptoms before visiting their doctor, and across all Google searches, one in 20 is health-related––resulting in 1 billion health searches every day. This shows that healthcare websites play an increasingly important role in patient outcomes.

Healthcare organizations that offer impactful, creative, and easy-to-navigate websites help patients gain access to medical advice quickly and easily. The right website can also increase the company’s chances of onboarding new customers and retaining current ones.

We’ve searched the internet to create a list of our top seven healthcare website designs. These may serve as inspiration for your site.

Healthline: easy-to-digest content

There’s a good reason why Healthline is one of the most viewed health websites in the world, attracting almost 200 million visitors every month.

Healthline has a clean layout, a black-and-white color scheme, and plenty of white space, making the content easy to read and navigate. Importantly, Healthline provides easy-to-understand content by removing medical jargon and detailed analysis to provide users with the information they need the most.

The website includes a main drop-down menu that lists common health conditions to allow users to quickly find the information they need. They also highlight wellness topics––such as nutrition, sexual health, and mental well-being––alongside health challenges to promote positive health.

The directory feature includes an A–Z list of health conditions, with popular topics highlighted. There’s also a search bar allowing patients to sort through the extensive content through personalized searches.

WebMD: symptom checker tool 

Another of the web’s most visited healthcare sites, WebMD offers people access to healthcare information. With thousands of articles on the site, patients have the opportunity to learn about their health and receive healthy-living advice via a simple search.

WebMD’s symptom checker tool allows patients to enter essential information and access relevant advice. Visitors can receive medical feedback wherever they are which could lead patients to visit a medical center in emergencies. Please note, though, that any symptom checker is a supplement to medical care. It does not replace visiting a doctor in person.

The website also breaks content into easy-to-read sections. Key stories are highlighted at the top, healthy-living articles are placed as quick links, and common conditions are listed with links to more information. Illustrations and lifestyle images throughout keep the content interesting for readers.

HealthMatch: a clean design

HealthMatch helps patients find clinical trials relevant to them simply and effectively. Through a simple, clean design, it’s easy for users to immediately navigate to the eligibility checker to discover whether the service may be relevant for them.

HealthMatch’s homepage only includes strictly relevant content so as not to overwhelm users and to communicate their core messages. The main navigation allows website visitors to navigate to additional pages for further information, and a drop-down menu includes articles on common health conditions, as well as a healthcare blog with reliable advice that’s backed by research.

The use of white space throughout keeps the overall design clean and simple for maximum impact.

Maven: calming colors

Healthcare organization Maven is focused on delivering better health outcomes for women and families. It provides support for fertility, pregnancy, parenting, and pediatrics.

Maven’s simple design breaks up key pieces of information into sections. Larger areas of text highlight key sections and an image slider populates sections with fresh content. A search bar on the main page allows visitors to quickly navigate to the most relevant content for them.

The website also makes good use of white space to break up content and a calming green color scheme. In color psychology, green is often associated with health, growth, and peacefulness. The organization no doubt intentionally used this color scheme throughout the site to communicate feelings of calm and positive health. This may help put users at ease and boost their overall experience of visiting the website.

Mayo Clinic: video content

Mayo Clinic is known globally for its research and medical residency programs, and for being the top-ranked hospital in the US.

Mayo Clinic’s website stands out among the rest. The use of bold video content in the homepage header helps tell the story of the organization and draw users in. It’s a smart move, given video content is significantly more engaging than images alone.

The high-quality header video immediately conveys the message of science, research, and medicine in a few seconds. Video content throughout the website further tells the organization’s story and creates an interesting narrative.

Arkansas Surgical Hospital: patient centricity 

High patient centricity appears to be the hallmark of the medical provider Arkansas Surgical Hospital. The website is designed to speak directly to patients and communicate the organization’s focus on delivering great outcomes.

The homepage highlights key patient-centric statics, dedicated content helps prospective patients fully understand their options, and a patient portal helps patients manage their procedures simply. A series of video testimonials also help to build trust with future patients and further tell the story of patient-centricity.

Through its website, Arkansas Surgical Hospital communicates quality care for patients, creates feelings of reliability, and stands out among the rest.

Northwestern Medicine: key performance indicators

To help communicate its message quickly and effectively, Northwestern Medicine’s website highlights a range of key performance indicators (KPIs) on its website. These include the center’s ranking, physician numbers, employees, and the number of medical specialties. These impressive measures help to build a sense of authority and trust among prospective patients.

Quick links in the main header image also allow visitors to navigate to the relevant website sections to book appointments, find doctors, and see locations.

These top examples of healthcare website design show that many factors play a role in effectively communicating information online. Let’s consider the most important elements when creating a healthcare website.

User experience (UX) design

UX design focuses on creating positive and meaningful user experiences by understanding user needs through research and data analysis.

UX design is crucial for a healthcare website because it ensures users have a good experience while accessing vital information efficiently. In the healthcare domain, where user needs are often urgent and sensitive, following UX principles can enhance the accessibility, navigation, and overall usability of an online medical product.

By prioritizing user-centricity, UX design fosters trust, encourages engagement, and empowers patients and medical professionals to find essential resources effortlessly. This ultimately leads to better patient outcomes, improved communication, and a more reliable platform for delivering critical healthcare services.

User interface (UI) design

Seamless user experience design depends on having intuitive, visually appealing, and functional user interfaces. User interface (UI) design is focused on the visual, interactive elements of the design, such as typography, colors, buttons, animation, and images.

UI is critical as it impacts how users navigate designs, whether they can find what they need, and whether they can quickly digest information. If a website looks good, visitors are more likely to come back for more. Drop-down menus, for example, can help users quickly navigate a website and find the medical information that’s most relevant for them.

In the healthcare sector, where users often seek urgent information, a well-designed UI enhances accessibility, simplifies navigation, and allows the swift retrieval of critical data, leading to better patient care.

Information architecture

Information architecture (IA) is a key aspect of a healthcare website. It refers to organizing content and information within a product. The critical aim is to ensure users can get the information they need quickly and intuitively.

This can be done by developing wireframes and prototypes to test whether people can easily move through your website and navigate to key content. User testing, tree testing, and card sorting are excellent methods to test the information architecture of a digital healthcare website. 

User research will give you the critical feedback you need to make improvements to ensure information can be accessed seamlessly.

Accessibility

People with disabilities, senior citizens, low-literacy individuals, and those facing socio-economic barriers are most likely to experience accessibility issues with eHealth. Making your healthcare website accessible is important to provide a positive user experience to those who require additional attention.

One simple way designers and developers can build accessible healthcare websites is to follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These guidelines were set by the World Wide Web Consortium and have been widely adopted globally. 

To offer an accessible experience, companies have to offer multiple options. To make video content accessible, for example, captions are essential. Alternative color schemes, navigation assistants, and spoken content are also common options that can help users access your products.

Mobile-first and responsiveness

Web visitors are increasingly using their mobiles to access the internet. It’s been found that 92.3% of internet users access the internet on their mobile phones, and 55% of website traffic comes from mobile phones.

Designing websites mobile-first means considering how the layout and design will work on mobile screens before considering larger layouts. This ensures the web experience is satisfying for mobile users.

Responsiveness––which refers to a web page shrinking and expanding depending on the screen size––also ensures that users can access websites effectively regardless of whether they’re using a mobile, tablet, or desktop.

Branding and visual identity

Regardless of whether a website is for a medical device, a hospital, or a healthcare blog, the brand and visual identity should be easy to recognize. It should also be relevant to the type of service or product.

Offering a strong visual identity can help users understand what you offer and the emotions you want to evoke. Designing with color psychology in mind, for example, can help users feel safe and calm when they’re navigating your site. Strong visuals, such as illustrations, can communicate medical technical concepts quickly.

Reviews and testimonials

Making healthcare decisions can be intimidating for many patients. Given that health is of critical importance for people, trustworthiness, reliability, and high standards are paramount.

Highlighting key positive reviews and testimonials can communicate trustworthiness to prospective patients and help increase conversions.

Online appointment scheduling

For those healthcare providers that see patients in person or virtually, enabling online booking can create faster processes in clinics, while giving patients control over their scheduling––being able to book anywhere, anytime.

Your patients gain more autonomy and flexibility and the organization can better distribute resources to answer more challenging queries.

Blogs and content marketing

Writing blogs can be an excellent way to bring potential clients to your website. To encourage new visitors, apply search engine optimization (SEO) methods to your site. This ensures the website and its content are friendly to search engines and findable in relation to certain search terms.

Keep in mind though, that providing useful content patients are interested to know and can benefit from, is an essential aspect of SEO. Consistently provide value and you may see an uptick in website visits.

When it comes to designing healthcare websites, there are other specific considerations. Companies that work with protected health information in the US must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

If a website is used to collect, store, or deal with personal health information, it must be HIPAA-compliant. This helps ensure that personal health information is kept private and safe from data breaches. To comply, organizations must implement various security measures to promote patient privacy and data security.

The entities that must comply with such regulations include medical practitioners, health plan organizations, and hosts of electronic health records.

In a world that’s increasingly digital and on demand, healthcare websites need to offer accurate and simple-to-understand information.

With many patients searching online for health information, better healthcare website design plays an important role in health outcomes.

Paying attention to design principles, data privacy requirements, UX, branding, and more can help patients find what they need quickly––benefiting not just the user, but health organizations too.

When designing a medical website, it’s helpful to begin with a few examples of healthcare website design as inspiration. Taking into account design principles, user experience, information architecture, and accessibility can ensure your website is helpful and valuable for patients.

Online templates specifically designed for medical practices can be a useful starting point for those who don’t have a dedicated design team.

Remember to test your design with multiple users from your target audience to ensure you address their needs and deliver a positive user experience.

To ensure your website is HIPAA-compliant, there are a range of steps you must take, including:

• Understanding the HIPAA requirements

• Using HIPAA-compliant hosting software

• Having an up-to-date SSL certificate on your website

• Conducting regular risk assessments to keep data safe

• Encrypting all personal information

• Employing strict safety measures when transferring data

• Restricting access to only those who need to access the data

• Providing compliance training to the team members in your organization