Almost 12 months work has gone into the re-development of the Barnsley Hospital website. Its no secret that the current version of the site (actually v3) is in need of attention and while not exactly ‘broken’ its in dire need of a re-structure and re-design (although the existing design does have its fans).
Without further delay, here are some images of the new site concept (click for larger versions) WARNING LONG IMAGES AHEAD!
Disclaimer: The following content is a mixture of dummy/example text and images alongside some real information. For live and up-to-date information about Barnsley Hospital visit the website.
New Homepage & Footer
New Top-Level Section
New ‘Service’ Page (Audiology used in this example)
Please Give Us Your Feedback!
This re-design has taken a lot of time, work and effort by the Trust Media & Communications team and we would love feedback from patients, visitors, staff and members.
Please leave comments on this preview using the comment box below or if you’d like to contact the designer directly you can do so using:
- Kimb Jones – kimb@nhs.net or call ext 4583 (hospital switchbord: 01226 730000)
I find the footer area a bit oppressive.
I can see that you’ve tried to grade it in different shades of black/grey. Id try to use the blues from the navigation bar instead.
Aside from that I like it. Especially the way you’re pulling important info in the header area so that it’s (forgive me) above “the fold”
We have had a few comments about the ‘size’ of the footer and I’m taking them into consideration. I think one of the issues is when looking at a ‘zoomed out’ view of the design the footer takes up more space than the content area!
Obviously in a real-use-scenario this would be different and when I have some navigable HTML mock-ups this will hopefully be less of an issue.
Kimb Jones
Hello site looks OK however what about Blind and Partially sited visitors to the Web-site take a look at Harrogate web-site they have audio output too.
Hope that helps link below
http://www.hdft.nhs.uk/
Hi Edward, thanks for the feedback
Improved accessibility practices are part of our new web strategy but will not be 100% ready when the site launches. However the new site will adhere to all screen-reader standards and readability standards.
I’m hoping to write about our accessibility plans in detail as soon as the initial development is out of the way.
I love the big footer. As someone who has created sites for local government and the NHS I can understand how this can be an incredably usful tool for incredably complex multi service providers such a hospital. Its functionality outweighs its mass, and the design still gives it beauty, but makes it notciable to the user that they are no longer in the main page of the site.
Love it!
Posted extensive comments over on Forrst: https://forrst.com/posts/Re_design_of_NHS_Foundation_Trust_Website-Tpf#comment-498629.
On the size of the footer – it is unfeasibly large when you look at the whole thing, but I don’t really mind it being epic. I do think it needs to have different content in there though. Much more to do with navigating the wards/departments/services – the reasons I might go to the hospital for – and less about the hospital and its administration itself. Not an easy information architecture challenge, but one I’m sure you’ll relish.
Good stuff so far.
Kimb – here’s the re-post from Forrst …
I like it overall – nice, clean easy to see things – so don’t be put off by this list. Mostly detail detail things, and some stuff I would question for consistency and feel, but reet good start.
So, going down the page:
Members: is this restricted? How do I register?
Facebook / Twitter: as in go to the F/T pages or like/tweet?
Menu: stands out nicely, but no visual indicator there that I am on a start page. I might add a Home link and have it highlighted (or differentiated in the same way as you would highlight, eg, About Us, when I click on that link)
Big picture (nice) taking up loads of space (could be nice) – will this be a slideshow? Will the slides link to different sections/articles? Would you be styling text on there like the text over pics in Hospital News section?
Find a service: replace tick with search icon?
Can’t quite believe the 01226 number is so prominent – I assume that switchboard services are scaled to handle the volume? Big push to get Barnsley online – I’d be inclined to give Find a Service full line (ie, drop / move “or call”) and play down the numbers
Separate the 999 and NHS Direct numbers more clearly. Currently looks like someone should call 999 for health advice and reassurance. Probably I would order them NHS Direct then Emergency. NHS Direct phone number in blue looks too close to the link colour. Similar ordering/ambiguity in footer.
generally thoughout the underline on links look odd to me with the serif font. Particularly in the “We are an amazing hospital” paragraph I’d be tempted to use a highlight colour for styling links instead.
Quick Links seem to be floating a bit. Perhaps a tinted background strip might help (like the top menu, but not necessarily as vivid).
Find us … looks like a static map. Consider using something that isn’t Google Maps for that if it is. I always expect to be able to zoom it just as if it’s on Google Maps when I see those.
Body font in Visiting times is serif, whereas it’s sans serif everywhere else
Special arrangements: “arranged with ward staff” … be nice to link that to a directory of Ward contact numbers.
I’d be tempted to get rid of all that Foundation Trust stuff from the bottom and shove it to the About Us section. I’d rather see some kind of directory that gave me information about / links to the wards/departments/services – stuff that I might go to the hospital for, rather than about the hospital.
Contact in footer: is there no contact via email/contact form?
Maybe a search box in footer?
YouTube? Should that be in the header with Facebook/Twitter too?
On a separate … What’s the Twitter account that corresponds to this site? @barnshospital or @nhsbarnsley.
Also – some in-context links to other relevant sites, eg NHS Choices / NHS Direct would help visitors get to places they need to when the hospital isn’t the right place. Maybe even something that points them to GP surgeries, or helps them identify whether they should go to GP or hospital or somewhere else. Not self-diagnosing their medical condition, but more about helping them choose where they need to go first?
(Where) would signposts/pointers to (preemptive/reactive) health initiatives advice get prominence? Ongoing campaigns like Stop Smoking, but also seasonal ones or ones that are time-relevant, perhaps because of an epidemic scare (eg, swine flu)?
Finally – don’t know if you have an A&E, but some real-time stats on queue length / waiting times for that on the homepage would be awesome.
Hey Jag, great post
let me elaborate:
This is information on being a Foundation Trust member, you can find out more here - the future plan for this is to have a user area where our FT members and governors can log in and get access to useful information.
Neither, this will be a ‘middle’ page with info on our facebook/twitter feeds THEN you can click though to them. Future news articles will of course have ‘share’ buttons.
If you check the other screenshots above you’ll see how this will work – I only posted the homepage on Forrst.
It will be used as an ‘information area’ – where important content will sit. For example when the new site is launched I will make it a link to a guide and feedback. As yet we don’t know if a slideshow is useful so holding back.
Good call
Indeed they are. One of the major complains with the old site is the small phone number. You’d be surprised how much feedback I got from users who accessed the site just to get the switchboard number.
I see what you mean, perhaps the number is a little large – this can evolve.
Yeh, I see this now. They are a little squashed. Its really important people know the difference.
I’ve played around with this, dashed underline and highlight for example, changing it it took away from the idea that the ‘blue underlined’ text is links to areas within the website. For example the words ‘low infection rates’ will take you to a section on this – by making it highlighted it didn’t appear ‘click-able’.
Yeh, these aren’t final
I’m thinking icons and better styling.
I’m using this: http://24ways.org/2010/finding-your-way-with-static-maps idea for the footer with a more expansive page on the click-though.
Sounds like a good idea, copy isn’t final on that yet however.
Again, this is just mock-up stuff. Although a lot WILL remain the 4 columns will be more ‘useful’ by the time the design launches. The idea of Ward info is great! I struggled to fill the mock-up with anything that was anywhere near real info.
There IS but its not general contact – the only email forms we have are for feedback/complains/compliments and of course any press enquiries.
If I can find room
No, we don’t have enough content yet – its in the strategy, along with a Flickr page where we share our professional photos.
Its: @barnshospital the @nhsbarnsley one is the PCT.
These were missed off the mock-ups, check the current site for an idea of where they will be located!
Generally the PCT would organise these with our support so we would probably use the ‘news’ area and the aforementioned ‘info’ area at the top to link though to news/media.
We do, and this is already on the cards
Heya Kimb
Glad the feedback was helpful, and thanks for taking the time to reply to individual points. Exciting to see this evolve (no pun on the blog name intended), and great to see that the Trust is being proactive about getting user input. Keep up the good work.
Jag