Running head: REDESIGN 1

Website Redesign Proposal

Ally, Juliet, Kristina, Julia, Kaylie, Kalena

University of Kentucky

Authors Note

This paper was completed for Elzaba Mathews CIS 111 class.
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Introduction

A website that is functional and easy to maneuver is key in the 21st century. In the

healthcare field this is even more important because people like to have a good idea of their own

health issues and effective ways to fix them. This idea is what led us to investigate the Eastern

State Hospital website, which we found to be very ineffective and needed our help in a redesign.

By redesigning the website, it will attract more patients to want to come to the hospital for their

treatment, which will increase profit for the hospital. To make the Eastern State Hospital website

more effective, it needs to be updated and the aesthetic needs to be improved in order to attract

more potential patients.

Discussion

Updating

In the healthcare field, the relevancy of information is essential. The field of medicine is

always changing and even just a year can be the difference between many people dying and a life

saving treatment being discovered. A websites credibility also depends on its timeliness.

Websites that are more recently updated with current information will be more trusted. A patient

will be more likely to favor a hospital whose information is up-to-date with the modern

technologies and procedures. Eastern State Hospital lacks greatly in this area, as the last

publication done by a staff member was back in 2009.

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Image of most recent publications done by staff from Eastern State Hospital website.

This means there are 8 years of information and research that have not been accounted for. There

are also multiple links that are not working and need to be updated. To improve credibility,

Eastern State Hospital should update their website around every 6 months to account for new

information and make sure all of the links and references still work.

Evidence when trying to click on external tabs they are inactive.

Aesthetic
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Nothing sells a website like a first impression. Aesthetic is key to engaging viewers and it

makes the information seem worthwhile to read. If the layout and organization is laid out in a

way that is pleasing to the eye, viewers are more likely to read through the information

presented. When first visiting the Eastern State Hospital website, your eye is drawn to a large

sketch of the hospital from a birds eye view. Through the drawing, you gain no insight into what

the hospitals outside or inside really looks like, giving it no purpose on the site. On the website,

there are no pictures

portraying doctors or

patients. Eastern State

Hospital should add a

slideshow to the homepage

containing pictures of

health professionals and the

features of the hospital that

are high quality and attractive to someone looking for a treatment center. By actively being able

to see staff members working, it brings a sense of community to a large hospital and makes the

staff seem more accessible to the patients.

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Home screen of Eastern State Hospital website, including sketch of

grounds.

An example of what their home page should look like is the University of Kentuckys healthcare

website. It shows high quality images of doctors and patients which make the website more

credible. Pictures like these are what need to be added to make the website more relevant

appealing to the eye.

UK Healthcare website that uses effective slideshow and photography of patients.

Another aspect of the website that needs to be improved is the amount of white space.

While it is necessary to include white space to relieve the viewers eye, the hospital uses it in an

ineffective manner. It makes the website seem like they do not have enough information and it

looks unappealing. There is a lot of white space not only between the sentences, but also on the

sides of the page. The font of the website should be bigger and pictures should be added to

relieve some of the blank space.

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Eastern State Hospital employment page with excessive white space.

Currently there is a lack of color in the website which makes it appear drab and boring.

Eastern State Hospital should include more color and stick to a color scheme, such as blues or

yellows. Visiting a hospital can be stressful, and according to Susan Gunelius, author of the 2017

article How Color Psychology Affects Blog Design, blue has been known to promote calmness

and ease. Yellow is typically associated with happiness and while visiting a hospital isnt

necessarily a joyful experience. Having yellow and blue in the website makes the hospital more

appealing and welcoming which would be beneficial for the patient viewing the website. There

are also tabs on the website that have overlapping text and a lot of irrelevant information. The

text needs to be fixed and the tabs that do not contain important information, such as the

Stormwater Plan tab, should be deleted.

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Tabs on side of screen including irrelevant information and overlapping text.

Safety

Securing a website from hackers is important in establishing credibility. If hackers are

able to easily change the website, invalid or incorrect information can be added, which can cause

problems with potential patients. To fix this problem, the security for the website needs to be

improved. According to John Rampton, a lot of important and secure information is sent to

administrators, so enforcing users to have safe and hard to guess login information can keep the

hackers away. Also, backing up and updating the website is crucial. It keeps records of data in

case it does get hacked, as well as updates the software used so it is harder to retrieve classified

information (Rampton 2015).

Cost

If this company wishes to have a website that is functional, organized, and appealing to

viewers, a redesign must be in place. While these issues need to be fixed, there is always the cost

to consider. Instead of redesigning pieces of this website, the whole website should be scrapped

and reformatted. The amount of issues needing to be fixed individually would lead to a lower
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cost to just start fresh. The University of Kentucky Creative Graphics and Web Design rates

would estimate the cost to be initially $830, then an additional $90 every six months. This final

cost would include a one-time consultation fee, $65/hour for two hours, which is where the web

design team and representative from the hospital will discuss how the final project should look

and how the reformation will happen. Most the cost will go towards the actual redesign of the

website. The Creative Graphics team charges $70/hour for development and design time. With

our knowledge of website design, it is estimated that ten hours for this project will be sufficient.

The additional $90 every six months is for upkeep and project management. The overall cost of

this new website may seem expensive, but can help the hospital bring in much more revenue.

Conclusion

Healthcare websites can open the door into the medical field for the public. It is

important for people to be able to access information quickly and easily. To improve Eastern

State Hospitals website, it would need to be updated and the aesthetics such as color and

photography would need to be edited so the website can fully reach its potential. By creating a

professional looking website, it should attract more potential patients which would overall

increase profits for the hospital.

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References

Gunelius, S. (n.d.). How Color Psychology Affects Blog Design. Retrieved April 19, 2017, from

https://www.lifewire.com/color-psychology-affects-blog-design-3476215

McGee, J. M., Minter, K. S., & Estes, J. C. (2015). Creative Graphics and Web Design.

Retrieved April 19, 2017, from http://www.uky.edu/AuxServ/creativegraphics/

Rampton, J. (2015). 12 Tips to Protect Your Company Website from Hackers. Retrieved April

19, 2017 from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241620