Content-first redesign

Total Hearing Care

Designing a website based on UX content
Research -> Strategy -> Design

Overview

A private audiology practice was frustrated with their existing website. On the one hand, users anecdotally found it pretty easy to use. On the other hand, the client felt that the site didn't reflect the brand and that the vendor was slow to implement even minor changes. They wanted to move the site in-house, but without a full-stack digital team, they found themselves hitting some roadblocks.

What I did

Analyzed the competitive landscape
Conducted generative research and promoted understanding of users
Created content strategy and guidelines, based on user insights, that can inform user-facing content across all channels
Audited and prioritized content
Designed content informed by content strategy, UX writing, consumer health informatics, and instructional design
Designed an accessible, responsive website that respects users, reflects the brand, enhances SEO, and is technically easy enough for the client to maintain without a full-stack development team

Impacts

The site is still in development, so site analytics are not yet available. We're hoping to see an increase in traffic, enagagement, and conversion (increased numbers of appointments coming from the site).

Some impacts I can highlight:

Benchmarked the current experience (NPS, UMUX-Lite) so we can measure success of the new experience
Brought the reading level from grade 16 -> grade 6
Reduced page word counts, added progressive disclosure layers and scannable headings
Increased brand consistency and user experience across all channels by clearly defining brand and content guidelines
Increased efficiency by centralizing brand assets and guidelines

Where it was:

Screenshot of the previous website home page. Blue, white, orange with a city skyline.

Screenshot of content from the previous website. Describes the company's mission.

Screenshot of content from the previous website. Describes a type of hearing loss.

Screenshot of content from the previous website. Describes a type of hearing test. Includes a stock photo of two humans participating in a hearing test.

Where we ended up:

Screenshot of the new home page on a laptop screen. Photo of a woman. Blue, dark blue, and white color palette.

An image of the Our Mission page from the new website design. Two women pictured.

Illustration showing where in the body hearing loss can occur

Mobile content from the new website that describes advanced solutions to everyday hearing problems

At Total Hearing Care, we are:

Friendly

Welcoming, inviting, and human

People should feel like they are welcome and that they belong to a community of care.

Caring

Respectful, attentive, and willing to listen

People don't care about Total Hearing Care. They want Total Hearing Care to care about them.

Professional

Knowledgeable, trustworthy, and experienced

Information on a page can only do so much, and it should lead patients to seek advice from a Total Hearing Care professional.

Helpful

Empowering, service-oriented, and tied to a specific patient action or goal

Help patients take control of their hearing health -- whether that's finding the right information or connecting with the right service.

Case study

Key
Takeaways

01. Hearing care in the U.S. is a complex intersection of sociotechnical realities.
02. The patient is not always the one using the website -- hearing care is a friends & family affair.
03. Brand voice and tone can distinguish small clinics from big box retailers.
04. Thoughtful content design can support and empower patients without overwhelming them.

01.

Hearing care in the U.S. is a complex intersection of sociotechnical realities.

Patients are often frustrated and overwhelmed by the time they decide to take action.

Healthcare is expensive

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Patients are consumers

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Due in part to the fragmented, profit-oriented structure of the U.S. healthcare system, a major shift has occurred in the last decade: patients are now consumers. This means they apply other consumer behaviors to the management of their health -- product/service research, trust dynamics, aesthetic bias, etc.

It also has resulted in shift in healthcare delivery -- from a paternalistic dynamic to one where patients are seen as partners. There are many potential benefits to this shift toward patient empowerment; but, as we've all seen in the pandemic era, this dynamic also can create difficult realities to navigate.

A key tenet in consumer health informatics: patient empowerment through accurate, appropriately targeted information. It just so happens that this dovetails perfectly with UX content strategy and design.

Technology comes at a price

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Hearing technology, like other tech, has made some significant advances. Devices are smaller, smarter, and more connected than ever before. The most personalized devices also more expensive, and this sticker shock contributes to delayed action.

It also means that the benefits of the technology are most available to those who have the most means of access, while the costs are born by those with the least.

There is a growing list of cheaper hearing devices that provide amplification only, and the price point attracts those looking for relief -- but these devices don't offer enough relief for most types of hearing loss, so it's money wasted on top of additional frustration.

Additionally, as hearing devices become AI-enhanced players in the broader IoT ecosystem, this brings up issues of algorithmic biases, data privacy, and security.

Retail landscape is changing

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Increasingly, big box players are leaning into the hearing care market -- namely Sam's Club and Costco. Costco, in particular, seems to be actively honing its position, with website updates every 2-3 weeks.

These big players clearly have the transactional advantage with economies of scale, but they are also more likely to rely on proprietary hearing aids that can't be programmed or repaired by other practitioners.

How can smaller clinics compete?

Jump to the initial research report

02.

The patient is not always the one using the website -- hearing care is a friends & family affair.

Is the website serving the needs of all user groups?

Users

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Total Hearing Care's patients are typically 55+, but that includes 80s and 90s as well. These users show varying degrees of digital literacy, with many patients much more likely to pick up the phone and call the office than go to a website.

However, as a new generation ages into hearing loss, the digital interactions will most likely become much more important. It's an interesting mix of users because of this chronological element.

Furthermore, it's often not the actual hearing loss patient who comes to the website first -- think of a spouse or an adult child researching for their loved one in an effort to convince them to take action (because relationships are suffering).

Beyond the most obvious users, I also explored others: front-office staff, marketing staff, referring physicians, people who have occupational or recreational hearing protection needs.

Personas

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Journeys

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I then mapped those personas across a fairly standard consumer journey:

Awareness of hearing loss
Research my options
Discover a care provider
Take initial action
Buy
Become a loyal customer

Journey mapping was purposely lean and narrative for this project. The client is a small organization without a dedicated design team, and this was their first time working with the design process. I didn't want to overwhelm them, and I wanted to encourage them to continue refining patient journeys with their own insights.

Additionally, one important communication goal of this map was to describe patient experiences through a consumer lens. These are very experienced health care providers who spend hours and hours with each patient over several years (times hundreds of patients), so they have intimate knowledge of many patient behaviors. Still, lensing those experiences through a consumer journey yielded some interesting insights and some surprised reactions.

Accessibility

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New features from research insights

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Research turned up a few additional value adds that the clients had not considered for the website beforehand:

Zip code search
One major user task is to find which of 5 locations is nearest to them. Both patients and front-office staff who answer phone calls need to complete this task.

Insurance benefits research
The clinic researches insurance benefits ahead of time to uncover hidden savings for patients. This wasn't highlighted anywhere. Who among us enjoys spending extra time on insurance? This service could be a tremendous value-add to new patients.

Marketing to referring physicians
One major stream of new patients comes from physican referrals. They have a dedicated staff member who handles marketing to physicians. But, there were no web-based resources she could use in her efforts. I suggested a separate landing page for referring physicians, with content targeted to their most typical questions.

Other services
It came up that earwax removal is one of the most popular appointment types and one of the most popular SEO drivers. However, wax removal and other services (like custom hearing protection) were not mentioned prominently on the home page. The new design mentions these on the home page. "Did you know... we're more than just hearing aids"

Jump to the initial research report

03.

Brand voice and tone can distinguish small clinics from big box retailers.

How can a small practice compete with the big players?

Defining voice and tone

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I used three methods to help me triangulate voice principles:

Staff interviews included a thematic question, "What three words would you use to describe Total Hearing Care?"
Patients were asked the same question.
I used NPS as a signal of how strongly patient adjectives likely represented the brand voice.

The NPS score was really strong, so that gave me a good deal of trust in the patient perceptions of the brand. From there, I analyzed the alignment and identified the dominant themes as brand voice priniciples.

Tones were conceptualized as continuums between polar word pairs and then workshopped with the client stakeholders. Initial word pairs came from background research and my experience with consumer health informatics theories.

Brand and content style guide

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The generative research into voice and tone then informed the content style guide.

For now, given the workflows of the client, it was most convenient to create the style guide in Google sheets, so they could continue to develop it as the business grows.

It also leans heavily on existing standards (like AP style guide, plainlanguage.gov, etc.).

One thing they were immensely grateful for was a centralized source of color, typography, and logo information.

Broader strategy for site content

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Following in the footsteps of great sites like gov.uk, the content was kept broad and shallow for the core experience.

We did this to respect users' time, but also to avoid cognitive burden in decision-making. "What is an easy step I can take right now?"

Content outside the core experience will in an integrated blog with a CMS. Users can explore this content at their discretion, and the client's marketing staff can easily manage content marketing content.

At Total Hearing Care, we are:

Friendly

Welcoming, inviting, and human

People should feel like they are welcome and that they belong to a community of care.

Caring

Respectful, attentive, and willing to listen

People don't care about Total Hearing Care. They want Total Hearing Care to care about them.

Professional

Knowledgeable, trustworthy, and experienced

Information on a page can only do so much, and it should lead patients to seek advice from a Total Hearing Care professional.

Helpful

Empowering, service-oriented, and tied to a specific patient action or goal

Help patients take control of their hearing health -- whether that's finding the right information or connecting with the right service.

Tones in Action

As much as possible, be:
Carefully navigate times when you need to be:

As much as possible, be:

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Conversational
Engage patients in a conversation rather simply telling them what to do.

Supportive
We know this can be a challenging decision. We're here to listen and help -- not just sell you stuff.

Light
Avoid adding extra burden to the patient's thoughts.

Open
We want patients to feel like friends who can ask us anything, anytime!

Empowering
Patients should be partners in their own care -- relying on our experience, but not feeling like we're just "telling them what to do."

Transformative
Focus as much as possible on the desired outcomes, or the "after" picture of what their life could be with our help.

Carefully navigate times when you need to be:

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Clinical
Sometimes you can't avoid technical jargon, but make sure your audience has the resources to understand you.

Transactional
At the end of the day, we are also a business and we sell stuff. But, our patients shouldn't feel like that's our only goal.

Heavy
Sometimes there's no way around discussing heavy topics or detailed information, but strive to be friendly and personal as you do it.

Formal
As health care providers, we are bound by certain formalities. Sometimes those formalities have to take center stage, but they shouldn't feel like a burden to our patients.

Authoritative
While we should never make patients feel forced into a particular decision, there are times when experience or clinical expertise should be stated very plainly -- for everyone's safety and security.

Reflective
Not everyone likes having a mirror held in front of them, especially when they're struggling to deal with a condition. Try to balance discussion of loss with discussion of the opportunities for transformation.

04.

Thoughtful content design can empower patients without overwhelming them.

How do we get to the "right amount" of content?

Content Goals

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It was quickly clear that the primary challenge was not creating new content. The practice had tons of content, as seems to be common for direct competitors, but analytics showed that most of it was untouched by users.

Therefore, the key challenge was to understand users' goals and then prioritize, move, delete, progressively disclose, summarize, convert to illustration, and so forth. However, we didn't want to remove too much and create a negative competitive bias for comparison shoppers, so we had to strike the right balance.

After we had our user insights in hand, we audited content and pared it down to the most obvious essentials. Then we evaluated that content through user needs and learning objectives before creating the actual words and images. There were a few new pieces of content as well, but they were the minority.

User story

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Learning objectives

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For each page of content in the new site, planning included identifying the top 1-4 learning objectives using the following models to help frame the objectives:

"As someone interested in hearing care, after reading this page, I should be able to _____ , or I should know _____."

For example:
As someone interested in hearing care, after reading this page, I should understand why diagnosing hearing loss is a complex process.

UX writing

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Friendly, welcoming

Photos of actual staff and office situations help prospective patients see who they will be interacting with.

Language is kept conversational, supportive, and open.

The hero highlights that this is a women-owned business and an established part of the community, in contrast to a big box store.

Key motivations from user research are surfaced in the home page narrative: trust, support, community, value.

Google trends research showed that people are searching for specific manufacturers of hearing aids, so we include the ones we work with.

Decision-making was made to feel easy, for example: "Easy steps you can take"

Caring

We make a point to explain concisely how we personalize your hearing care.

"Hearing care begins by listening to you."

Helpful, empowering

Just enough information, with the option to dig deeper.

Scannable knowledge that uses scientific jargon sparingly.

The point of this information isn't to help you pass a test, but to empower you to communicate with your care provider and trust the information they're giving you.

We also want to encourage action.

Professional, knowledgeable

We describe our providers' professional experience and credentials, but in a way that's also friendly, welcoming, and from a patient-centered perspective as much as possible.

Keep the conversation going:

hill.damian@gmail.com

Content-first redesign

Total Hearing Care

Designing a website based on UX contentResearch -> Strategy -> Design

Overview

What I did

Impacts

At Total Hearing Care, we are:

Friendly

Caring

Professional

Helpful

Case study

KeyTakeaways

01.

Hearing care in the U.S. is a complex intersection of sociotechnical realities.

Patients are often frustrated and overwhelmed by the time they decide to take action.

02.

The patient is not always the one using the website -- hearing care is a friends & family affair.

Is the website serving the needs of all user groups?

03.

Brand voice and tone can distinguish small clinics from big box retailers.

How can a small practice compete with the big players?

At Total Hearing Care, we are:

Friendly

Caring

Professional

Helpful

Tones in Action

04.

Thoughtful content design can empower patients without overwhelming them.

How do we get to the "right amount" of content?

Keep the conversation going:

Designing a website based on UX content
Research -> Strategy -> Design

Key
Takeaways