Known for their excellent & compassionate care, Mackenzie Health is a dynamic regional healthcare provider serving a population of more than a half million people across York Region.
Mackenzie Health had several primary concerns regarding their existing website. Firstly, there was a growing concern that the new Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital would overshadow the Mackenzie Health brand. Secondly, the current website lacked clarity as to what services are available at which hospital. Navigation was also a pressing issue – with an excessive number of items in the mega menu and challenging interior page navigation, many users found the site confusing and difficult to navigate. Lastly, there was a lack of visuals, particularly on inside pages, and no use of video. Videos can be used to enhance storytelling, bridge cultural and language barriers and provide virtual tours in lieu of in person tours. All the above-mentioned problems and concerns motivated Mackenzie Health to partner with Sandbox for their website redesign.
- Produce an integrated, multi-site architecture that features all entities of the Mackenzie Health family
- Use a secure CMS platform, that is not built in open source technology and provides the ability to easily edit/add/delete pages without coding knowledge
- Improve navigation and implement powerful search tools to ensure an optimal patient experience
Solution
Sandbox helped streamline Mackenzie’s wealth of content and resources by creating an intuitive information architecture and providing user-friendly navigation tools to help their audience quickly and easily find the information they are looking for. This included the “I am a” concierge tool, which allows users to identify their persona and instantly be directed to appropriate information, whether they are a Patient, Visitor, Career Seeker or Volunteer. We also equipped the new site with an advanced search tool that provides filterable results from both web pages and uploaded files. Our developers built a custom Physician Directory that allows users to search for Mackenzie Health Physicians and filter by keywords or specialty. Users can also see if a Physician is accepting new patients, and print or export their search results. Users can also filter which Mackenzie Health location they will be visiting and view the programs, physicians and services specific to that hospital. We chose to build the Mackenzie Health website in the OASIS content management system due to the several patient-centric features mentioned above including wayfinding tools, storytelling features, and an easy-to-use location and program/services lookup solution. OASIS is also a highly secure proprietary CMS, giving Mackenzie Health peace of mind when storing confidential information. To enhance storytelling and provide imagery, Sandbox also integrated Mackenzie Health’s Instagram feed.
Outcome
The new Mackenzie Health website simplifies the user experience, especially for patients and their families, by amalgamating pages of information and reorganizing the Information Architecture. In addition, Sandbox created intuitive search functionalities throughout the website to ensure a smooth user experience and ease of access to all information. This has allowed the organization to reinforce the Mackenzie Health website brand without the risk of being overshadowed by the new Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, while still highlighting the services and specialties of each hospital that is a part of the Mackenzie family.
Being experts in the healthcare sector when it comes to digital solutions, Sandbox created a website that reflects the overall Mackenzie Health brand while still distinguishing the different entities of the Mackenzie Health Family.
> Website Design & Development
The new Mackenzie Health website is built in the OASIS Content Management System. This CMS is feature-rich and easy-to-use, allowing administrators to quickly update or change content, build out new pages, and manage users and groups all with the click of a button.
> OASIS CMS Development
The new website leverages a custom design, developed by Sandbox Software using responsive design best practices. We used our experience in the healthcare sector to ensure the new site lends itself well across a range of screens and devices, and satisfies WCAG 2.1 accessibility and W3C compliance.
> Auditing & Quality Assurance