Healthopeda.com (fictitious site) considers itself the “best online health resource for people of any age and any health level who want to achieve a state of optimal wellness.” Their primary source of revenue at this point is ads.

This case study focuses on designing Healthopedia for Emotion. A Healthopedia Design for Information case study was done earlier.

Healthopeida.com’s Brand Characteristics
After conducting a brand workshop and interviewing an expert in the organization’s brand, I was able to understand the client’s brand strategy. Healthopeida wants to convey itself as a fun, hip, creative brand that is not like its competitors. At the same time, they want their Users to be able to have a laid back feeling when using the site. They identified with companies like Volkswagon and Ikea.

Requirements
In order to design for emotion, I went through the characteristics and thought about other companies that portrayed similar traits. I visited Volkswagon and Ikea’s sites to see what they had in common and noticed both had very clean designs and organized with a big picture in the middle to draw one’s attention.

I then thought about the different characteristics and how they could be expressed through the web layout, features, typography, color, images, etc.

Fun

• Don’t use the traditional font’s health and other corporate sites use. Bring out interactive features and updated content like Ask the Doctor, daily tips, and interactive polls.

Hip

• Include Web 2.0 look and feel with the logo, tag clouds, podcasts, RSS feed, blogs, vector art and a social community

Creative

• Provide the information of a traditional health site while combining Web 2.0 features, giving an impression that learning about health can be fun

Laid Back

• Have an option to play soothing sounds while browsing the site.

Not Mainstream

• Separate from the competition to not look and act like the traditional corporate/health sites

Finally, I looked at our primary persona, Jenny (see Jenny’s profile in the Design for Information case study) and thought about what might touch, persuade, or inspire her.

Sound

• A soothing sound option that can be played (initially paused)
• Jenna has many health sites she can visit; this is something that separates Healthopedia from them.

Imagery

• Added a big front main picture to capture Jenny’s attention
• Rotates through images every X seconds for new articles/features
• Able to click directly
• Able to pause
• Vivid images can inspire Jenna to want to find out more

Voice/tone

• Fun, creative, hip
• If a site doesn’t show it’s value right away, Jenna usually won’t stick around so need to be able to differentiate from others
• Web 2.0 features – cloud tag, podcasts
• Non-traditional fonts and art but with the same information
• Jenna likes to feel “young” and this site’s voice/tone has a “hip” feeling

Changes or additions made to the information space

• Added more imagery
• Added popular topics tag cloud
• More emphasis on health experts (ask the doctor)
• A little less information directly available on homepage – removed tabs
• Main features and personalization abilities still exist for Jenny’s goals

The Design
Like I did for the information space, I put together all the information and sketched out possible designs for the look and feel of the site. When I came up with something I was happy with, I used Photoshop to put it together.

This design tries to give the brand and User experience a feeling that learning, sharing, and interacting with all things health can be fun and cool. While it does not convey as much information as the Information Design, it still does a pretty good job at displaying information but at the same time projecting brand values onto the Users.