Case Study - High quality eye care for patients of all ages.

Overview

Dr. Robert A. Smith opened his optometry practice in 1977. His practice has always remained in the same location and he prides himself on placing a heightened focus on high-quality patient care and maintaining good eye health.

The practice is completely family owned and operated, and Dr. Smith has won the Best Optometrist in Mansfield award 5 times. Some patients are willing to drive as many as 3 hours for one of his eye exams.

What I Did in this Project

Step 1: Define the Problem

Dr. Smith previously had a website, but it hadn’t been updated in several years. Information was not easy to find, and there was no way to contact the office directly from the website. Also, it was not a responsive design - which means it couldn’t be viewed on a phone or a tablet.

I sat down with Dr. Smith and asked him what he liked about the site and what could be better. He appreciated the website mentioning the history of the building (which is a historic Texas landmark) and how he started the practice. However, the website leaned too hard into the historical piece and the entire website felt dated.

Furthermore, there was no way for patients to contact the office through the website. "If a patient needs my help, I need to know as soon as possible", he said.

The goal was to give the website a modern, refreshed look with information that’s easy to find and that would be visible across all devices.

Step 2: Understand the Audience

Many people (for various reasons) are afraid of going to a doctor’s office. I wanted to understand what the specific fears were around an eye doctor’s office, so I decided to do a competitor audit.

The fears I discovered were:

• around an eye exam being considered painful
• how much exams, glasses, and contact lenses cost
• the fear of "finding something bad" during an exam

It was important to address these concerns, and create an easy way for a patient to contact the office or book an eye exam.

Step 3: Starting the Design

Keeping the audience’s needs and desires in mind, I got to work. First, I created wireframes for the homepage and the request an appointment page, as these were identified as two of the most frequently visited sections. Once I finalized the sketches, I turned my attention to selecting color palettes and typography. My goal was to strike a balance between a friendly, approachable feel and a professional tone, ensuring users would feel comfortable and at ease while navigating the site.

I showed Dr. Smith the homepage, the Request an Appointment page, and a page regarding Eye Health.

Step 4: Coding the Design

Dr. Smith was very happy with the creative direction of the design. Once the design was approved, I began coding the necessary pages.

Although I’m comfortable with building and editing websites, I understand that this isn’t second nature for everyone. Since the site would eventually be managed by someone else, I wanted to ensure it was easy for a non-expert to navigate. After exploring different options, I chose to host the site on Elementor. This platform allows multiple users to log in and make updates, so if one person is unavailable — say, out of town — another team member can step in and make changes.

Dr. Smith liked the current URL and requested to keep it for the new website.

Step 5: User Testing

Before launching the site, I gave a staging link to Dr. Smith and asked him to navigate the site; specifically, I wanted to see how easy it was to request an appointment. As he was navigating the site, I quietly took notes.

I also showed him the Frequently Asked Questions page and asked him to review the content on the page and add anything else that would be helpful for a patient to know.

Step 6: Launching the Website

After incorporating user feedback from User Testing, the website was officially launched in March 2023. From initial meeting to launch, the project took 4 months to complete.

The site received several positive reviews from Dr. Smith, the office staff, and current and potential patients. It was also shared on social media several times and recieved additional praise.

How did the website do?

Within 12 months launching the site, Dr. Robert Smith saw the following results for his practice from the website alone:

Final Mockups

Mockups for some of the key pages are below.

What I Learned

From the start, it was clear that the history of both the building and the practice played a crucial role. At the same time, there was a strong need to connect with a newer audience, one that required quick access to relevant information.

I learned how to strike the right balance between these two priorities by refining the color palette, typography, information architecture, and page layouts — ensuring they were both visually appealing and easy to navigate.