Redesigning the CoxHealth Website

Phase 1: Strategy User Research, and Technical Requirements
 

User Research

Our user research included a quantitative survey to assess the look and feel of the site and qualitative usability testing to ensure their site allows for intuitive navigation. The survey drew responses from a pool of 630 respondents who answered questions regarding images, elements, and pages. In our user tests, we requested participants interact with the website to perform specific tasks like seeking a career opportunity or navigating the site as a current patient. This testing resulted in 20 completed evaluations with most tasks completed with a 100% success rate. 

What We Learned

Results found that testers appreciated content personalization features, such as the ability to save locations and jobs, but they found it challenging to turn off or opt out of this function. While users generally found the site to be aligned with CoxHealth’s branding and values, they noted the tone was occasionally sterile and impersonal. While testing confirmed that the site is largely easy to navigate and well-organized, users expressed a desire for a keyword search option to quickly find specific content within the site and an option to quickly navigate to job-related content.

Project Impact

This research provided feedback we applied to making changes across CoxHealth’s new site. For instance, we implemented personalization improvements such as including explanatory content that helps provide clarity and better aligns user expectations. Including an “opt out” of personalization button to help users identify how to turn off this feature. We also added “Careers” links to the navigation and footer and emphasized the importance of their team through words and images to highlight the value CoxHealth places on its employees. 

For more information on how we implemented personalization features, read our article on how we made improvements to CoxHealth’s patient scheduling software through Craft CMS integrations.

Technical Requirements

We worked closely with stakeholders to prioritize website features, deciding which ones bring the most value and how patient privacy can be preserved for each one.

This includes reviewing:

• Carefully monitoring how tracking scripts can be used and what data can be tracked
• Finding solutions to scrub and encrypt data to remain compliant and glean insights at the same time
• Auditing all 3rd party services for how they store information
• Recommending only services that can meet HIPAA regulations


Phase 2: Design

The design phase of the project focused on several core objectives that emerged from our strategic planning and user research. These objectives laid a strong foundation, guiding our decision-making throughout the design process to create a cohesive, user-centered experience.

Key objectives:

• Attract new patients
• Enhance health management tools for current patients
• Support the growth of CoxHealth’s service lines
• Provide resources for visitors and caregivers
• Aid in recruitment efforts for potential employees

Site Map & Information Architecture

We began the redesign by restructuring the website’s information architecture. As one of the largest healthcare providers in the region, CoxHealth’s site needed to serve a diverse range of stakeholders, both internal and external.

After conducting an audit of the existing site, we recommended ways to streamline navigation, prioritize patient needs, and consolidate information to create a more seamless and intuitive user experience. The result from this exercise provided us with a clear sense of the site’s scope and the features we would integrate into the redesign.

Wireframes & User Experience Design

CoxHealth’s website contains a wealth of technical, interconnected content that can be complex and overwhelming for users. Our challenge was to build a structure that could accommodate this breadth of information while incorporating key features like patient scheduling, physician locations, and a glossary of conditions. We tackled this challenge through three key approaches:

1. Information Structure and Clarity: We organized content into clear, logical groupings with scannable layouts and intuitive navigation. Content cards, large buttons, and sidebar elements were used to simplify information discovery and enhance the user experience.
2. Modular Design for Scalability: Since Craft CMS was chosen early on, we adopted a modular design approach. This allowed us to build reusable content structures throughout the site, making future updates easy and predictable while ensuring a consistent user experience.
3. Emphasis on Service Visibility: We prominently featured CoxHealth’s "big six" services, making it easy for users to find and connect with essential healthcare offerings. This approach not only supported patient acquisition but also helped users quickly grasp CoxHealth's core services.

User Interface Design

The UI design is built on CoxHealth’s refreshed brand identity, helping to expand brand cohesion into the digital space.  We used the Agenda typeface for bold, clear headings, which helped establish a strong visual hierarchy. The color palette was refined to meet WCAG AAA standards, ensuring high contrast for readability, and incorporating ample white space to avoid visual overload.

Rounded corners and overlapping elements, inspired by CoxHealth’s branding, were introduced to create a softer, more approachable design. Subtle animations, such as parallax effects and fade-ins, were thoughtfully applied to add a dynamic feel without compromising accessibility.

While CoxHealth had robust brand guidelines for print, they lacked a comprehensive digital design guide. We worked closely with their brand manager to expand these guidelines, ensuring future consistency across their website and other digital platforms.

Phase 3: Development

Our development team created several time-saving integrations for CoxHealth ranging from physician data to new job listings in order to keep the website content fresh automatically.

Physician and Facilities

The interactive “Find a Doctor” feature integrates with Kyruus Health to provide an up-to-date list of all medical providers connected to a CoxHealth facility. It includes each provider's available appointment times and allows for advanced filtering by location and specialty.

The site also synchronizes every CoxHealth facility’s location data to allow for browsing by map.

Condition and Treatments

We built a custom integration with WebMD Ignite to include relevant medical conditions and common treatments on the site and empower patients with knowledge. Conditions are also tagged to CoxHealth services and the locations that provide them.

Careers

We developed an integration with Symplr to keep an accurate list of all available job postings on the website, and include a quick apply button.

Content Migration

Finally, we imported content from their previous management system into CraftCMS, saving countless hours of admin time.

The Results

Hospital and Medical Provider Websites are inherently complex, but we find great satisfaction  breaking them down into manageable phases and executing each one with care and attention. As regular patients at CoxHealth facilities ourselves, we’re honored to be chosen as their agency partner.