The Long-Scroll Secret for Healthcare Website Design

Sometimes ideas emerge on the Internet without a final name. There’s a fresh design technique that you’ve probably seen recently on healthcare website design of home pages and landing pages. And, if you didn’t know the label, the various names include “long-scrolling,” “infinity scrolling” or "single-page" sites.

There are some technical differences among the various types of vertical construction. Nevertheless, this web design approach is important for medical marketing and healthcare communicators for several reasons:

• First, the long-scroll technique is popular with visitors. Social sites, such as Twitter and Facebook newsfeed, helped define the standard.
• The page presentation appears to load instantly. Internet users quickly abandon slow pages.
• Mobile devices, particularly smartphones, display long-scroll pages best on small screens.

Long-scroll healthcare website design examples…

For marketing-savvy professionals, perhaps the most important advantage of this technique is that visitor engagement increases. Consequently, when visitors stay on the page longer, the website is an effective tool that converts new patients. Click through here to experience some recent healthcare website design examples.

“Above the fold” versus “no fold.”

Although this design approach is enjoying a new popularity among users and designers, it is not a flash in the pan trend. It is more likely to evolve and expand than to disappear.

At one time, the era of newspapers set the standard. A spot “above the fold” was the premium position. Early healthcare website design followed that model. Therefore, the most important information would go toward the top of the first page.

First impressions are still important, but website users have become comfortable with—in fact they prefer—vertical navigation and long scrolls with no fold. In some applications, the entire website is built on one, extra-long page.

Long-scroll advantages…

This seamless approach is not right for every situation. On the other hand, it can be a major plus for healthcare website design for storytelling and the use of visual elements in the presentation. Among the advantages are:

• Website navigation is simple, easy to use and intuitive
• Page appearance remains strong on various devices
• It facilitates distinctive, memorable design
• Useful for presenting and managing lengthy content
• It is affordable to produce

Healthcare Success has designed many websites and landing pages, and if you’d like our help, please give us a call today for a free quote. 800-656-0907.

Scott Orchard, Senior Designer and Web Developer