We’re excited to announce the new North Carolina AHEC website launched last week, and it’s a healthcare website unlike any other. The vibrant user-friendly site is an indispensable resource for North Carolina’s healthcare professionals, students and patients and is refreshingly modern and easy to navigate. In addition, the site highlights the vital role the organization plays in educating the state’s medical workforce and providing healthcare to our residents, particularly those in underserved and rural areas.
Overseen by the UNC School of Medicine, NC AHEC is the largest Area Health Education Centers program in the country. The organization provides continuing education courses, operates nine health clinics throughout the state, acts as a consultant to private medical practices, and supports primary care residency positions, among other things. This large and diverse mandate required a supremely well-organized, fully responsive website with intuitive navigation. Thankfully, that’s our specialty.
We began our work with a lengthy discovery process, during which we developed a framework for organizing the site’s abundant resources. Wanting to make the information as easy to find as possible, we organized the content under six core area headers and a subheader dedicated to specific practice areas. These mega menus guide visitors to interior pages, where a prominent navigation bar features an intuitive icon-based navigation system.
The site draws visitors in with its vibrant design that features the organization’s modern new logo, a dynamic color palette and the playful icons we developed. Together these elements set an accessible yet professional tone for the site. Wanting to draw attention to the organization’s mission and impact, we also included a diverse array of personal stories and photographs of AHEC doctors, students and patients.
In addition, we included an interactive map that shows the location of individual AHEC centers, a glossary of lesser-known terms and acronyms, and News & Highlights sections that display relevant practice area stories. In terms of functionality, the site is fully responsive and accessible, meaning it provides a rich experience across all devices for all users.