Brief

Rowan’s brief was to bring his business into the current moment in terms of online presence, as the current site needed an update. Among the brief was the need for a strong SEO build and good accessibility due to a number of elderly patients.

After researching existing websites around gynaecology, it was clear that there was a balance that wasn’t being met by any of the competitors; professional and discreet.

Branding

Colour scheme & logo

As a sensitive health topic, the light pink colour schemes and real-life images of smiling women currently draping the majority of medical sites creates an almost creepy demeanour to the whole experience. 

This was avoided through a more universally medical deep turquoise colour scheme and lighthearted, non-suggestive illustrations. The main highlight colour is similar to that of the scrubs of nurses, usually a comforting presence in otherwise stressful times. 

This is transferred into the logo, accompanied by Garamond Serif and Lato Sans as the heading and subheading respectively. The white-on-green colour scheme with the white outline heads a distinguishably medical brand, it’s friendly, concise and consistent of the style.

Design

The site was to house all the information around Rowan’s expertise as well as all the explanatory content about different conditions and treatments of women’s health that he had written for the project. This began with a homepage which forms the basis of this structure.

Large imagery, colourful and dynamic sections, top-level links to news articles, and animated text holders and buttons all play a part in giving the introductory page sufficient flow and set the expectations of the rest of the site.

The decision for the grid layout throughout the conditions, treatments, and locations pages was to show as much information as neatly as possible. Hover animations provide movement to the design, revealing extra information when needed while keeping the interface minimal when not. On mobile devices all the information revealed on hover is constantly visible to keep users as informed as they are on larger screen devices.

Accessibility

To combat the accessibility problems faced when creating platforms for older users, larger text was used throughout, especially for mobile screen sizes, and the call-to-action button to book an appointment is always visible in the menu bar. Always looking to provide a clean route to contact Rowan, this button is also emphasised in a number of sections throughout the site which have the primary colour as their background to make them stand out against the rest of the page.

The flow of the platform is clear and easily navigable to aid older patients in the all-too easily confusing digital realm, with search functionality for easily accessing specific information.

SEO

Another project that required search engine optimisation, and one that required specific focus on search terms based on location. Rowan wanted to be accessible as THE medical professional for women's health in the area around his practice in Maidstone, Kent. Therefore research was taken into competition, including his old practice’s website, and how they deal with location-based search terms. It was important to include the area names in the metadata, as well as creating a location on Google Maps, in order for these SEO efforts to gain traction.

After 3 months of publishing the website, rowanconnell.com sits very highly in the results pages for his name, and nearly as much on broader keywords.