The overall experience of a patient browsing you site can determine how they feel about your biotech brand when they leave, and whether or not their experience was gratifying and positive enough to return.

In order to ensure a customer is getting exactly what they came to your website for, you need to know where your visitors are coming from and what information they are seeking. This will help them feel comfortable around your website. You should propose and communicate well why your unique proposition will benefit your visitor and why your website is the best place for them to be.

In an article written for Zoomedia, Maren Connary, discusses the discipline of User Experience (UX).  She has categorized it into three sections providing patients with the best experience from your biotech company’s website. Here’s my summary for biotech brand managers:

1. Research.
Research helps as an overall base point for your website structure – whether you’re constructing individual interviews, survey’s, or topics where your audience can include their feedback can help you provide a meaningful website experience.

2. Information Architecture (IA)
When the needs are established and categorized, a website Information Architecture (IA) can evolve. Information Architecture can be defined as the “art and science of structuring, organizing and labeling information to help people find and manage information” (Lou Rosenfeld & Peter Morville).

This process can help build content structure for your site and also provides key words and phrases critical for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

3. Interaction Design
How your website influences the way people interact with it is based on another attribute of design. How will your website influence the way people interact with it? Not only the look and feel of the site, but what it can do for the viewer.

Test your ideas by building a model and learn from frequent prototyping. Do take the time to interview key audiences, whether patients or investors, to create a model of information based off of their responses – this will create a website that targets the needs of those you are trying to reach.

Click on the following link to read the entire article, “Designing a Positive Online Experience for Patients”