Evidence-Based Design Moves Beyond Mere Aesthetics To Drive Results

Emily Kagan Trenchard, Associate Vice President of Digital Marketing Strategy for Northwell Health

“We’re lucky enough to live in an era when design is no longer viewed as decoration,” says Emily Kagan Trenchard, Associate Vice President of Digital Marketing Strategy for Northwell Health (formerly the North Shore-LIJ Health System).

But even though “[w]e understand it as a core principle that shapes our everyday interaction…that doesn’t always mean we know how to apply the principles of design to our work.

“We need a new way to talk about design in healthcare,” Trenchard says. There should always be a focus on enhancing the quality of the customer experience.

As an example, she cites a redesigned contact page on NorthShoreLIJ.com, which featured a “patient relations” link in its own very big blue box. Two months in, however, analytics revealed a 20 percent decline in click-throughs to the form.

After rejiggering the page and moving a different link to that same box, the issue became clear: “Something about the blue box was problematic,” notes Trenchard.

An A/B test variant revealed that both white and yellow boxes had more than a 50 percent increase in click-throughs vs. the blue version. “One simple color change made a big difference. And we never would have known if we had not run the tests.”

Learn how the health system’s framework for design, usability, and data-driven testing guides decision-making and continuously improves results when you read our new article: Evidence-Based Design: The Science of Better User Experiences.

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President