Everything in Its Place – Dentist Web Design in Towson, MD

Drs. Shelton and Yeoumans are busy, well-liked, trusted dentists in Towson. They have relied on repeat business from their faithful patients since 1973, and saw no need for a website. Until recently.

Name Your Niche

Dentistry, like many professions, is changing. Consumers want “boutique” services. They want a professional who understands their unique needs and requirements. For example, many young parents take their children to pediatric dental specialists instead of to general practitioners. And where are they finding these specialists? On the web.

Drs. Shelton and Yeoumans realized that if they want to attract new clients—and they do—they need online visibility. And they need a clear message about the niches they serve.

The Architectural Solution

With the dentists’ help, we identified five client groups in their practice: children, busy professionals, people with disabilities, students, and seniors. Next, we identified what a site visitor would want to know about his or her niche. That provided the message for the web design of their site.

To determine the structure, we asked:

  • What would help a site visitor easily recognize his or her niche?
  • What’s the clearest way to organize the content for each niche?
  • Where should all this go on the site?

Questions like these determine a site’s architecture, and it’s where we always start, with every website we produce. It’s about doing the right thing in the right order. Information architecture (the structure) defines the path a site visitor will take to get to the message he or she needs. Design makes that path inviting and easy to navigate.

Who and/or What?

Here’s a classic distinction in information architecture for the web: who they are vs. what they want.

One extreme solution is a home page with only two buttons—click here if you are this kind of user, and click there if you are that kind. The result is an entirely different website for each kind of user. Although sometimes appropriate, the downside is that it makes users curious about what information they are missing.

Another extreme is to present all content to all users. This way, no one feels that they are missing out. But they may have to wade through a lot of content to find what’s relevant to them. That can be time-consuming and frustrating.

Our solution for Integrity Dental attempts to strike a balance between these extremes. None of the content is hidden behind a closed door. Instead, directly on the home page, users can get what they want based on who they are in a single click.

Preferred Placement

The “who we serve” message plays a starring role on the home page. Appealing visuals and concise descriptions of each niche help visitors self-identify and show that these dentists “get” them.

When parents visit the site, for instance, they immediately see a smiling child and discover how Integrity Dental’s care philosophy and environment create the best possible experience for a young patient. A student can click on his niche and discover the dentists are referral partners with nearby colleges and universities. Professionals learn about convenient evening hours. And so on. The result: a place for everything, and everything in its place. That’s always a good way to begin—and end—a project.

In this view of the home page web design, the attention is on children.

In this view of the home page, the attention is on children.

This close-up of the "who we serve" web design section highlights senior patients.

This close-up of the “who we serve” section highlights senior patients.