A Radiology Website for Patients

It’s hard to believe now, but in the first few years of the Web there were only a handful of healthcare sites, and they were mostly aimed at medical professionals. In 1995, the radiology department at one of Boston’s famed Har vard-affiliated teaching hospitals asked me to work with them in building what may have been the first major patient-centered radiology site. It would provide a simple overview of various radiologic procedures, such as X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, ultrasound, and nuclear medicine. The goal was to answer patients’ questions, address their concerns, and help them make appointments.

BI-Radiology homepage montage
Most site maps are just boring lists, but not this one! It has comments and personality, and is the only way to find out everything that’s available on the Sanstudio site.

Department of…What?

Believe it or not, when they first contacted me I didn’t even know what “radiology” was!  I’d been recommended to them by another one of my clients, and was invited to come in and discuss their Web plans. I never found out who the competition was, but they told me I beat several other designers to land the project.

As it turned out, I was able to acquire a (very basic) overview of radiology fairly quickly. There were several reasons for this: I’m technically minded; I’ve studied anatomy (artistic anatomy, but there’s a fair degree of overlap between that and the medical kind); and I’m a rapid learner and good communica­tor. In fact, I find learning new things from people who are knowledgeable in their field to be one of the most pleasurable aspects of working with a new client.

Patient being slid into CT scanner.

In the hospital, I made sketches of the CT (“cat scan”) machine, and the technician showed me how people slid into it. Then, back in my studio, I got a friend to lie on a table and pose with his arms behind his head for another pencil sketch. That was way back in November of 1995; looking at it now (when I draw a lot better), I can see that I didn’t get the front arm exactly right — but for a simple schematic illustration like this it was good enough.

I composited the various sketches together, and then painted over them in Photoshop, to make the CT illustrations. (The one below utilizes the original pencil sketch of my friend, who had no idea why I was drawing him from that angle!)

Patient in CT scanner
The Contact San page gives several ways to get in touch, including a quick text-message box. Who says a contact page can’t be fun!

I did various other illustrations, such as a patient being slid into an MRI machine, and then one showing him inside (with the machine transparent so you could see him). And I did this illustration of an X-ray machine:

Illustration of classic X-ray machine

I also created an accompanying animation. (There was also a slide-show version so the visitor could view the frames one-by-one at any speed they chose.)

I based the X-ray illustrations on technical materials I found and read on my own, only to be told by the client that it was a “classic” type that they no longer used! But they liked the animation anyway — apparently it makes the core principle easier to understand than in the more modern machines, or something like that. In fact, the hospital kept it on its newer website years after I’d left the project, long after most of what I’d done had been replaced by more recent materials.

This, That, and the Other Thing

All the illustrations above may have conveyed the (false) impression that this was mostly an illustration job. In fact, I was contracted primarily as a “Web designer” — although in those early days, that typically involved writing code too (and often still does, up to a point). The technology was simpler then, and the complex teams and specializations of today’s Web development had not yet emerged. My actual work on the project was a mix of copywriting, illustration, visual design, interface design, coding, attending meetings, and — perhaps more than anything else — combining organization with creative judgment.

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Awards and Rewards



The radiology site won two of that era’s major awards — and I don’t think we even applied for any.

Web awards have become very common now, and somewhat controversial — especially when you have to pay a hefty fee for the privilege of applying for them. (Some pundits claim they’re a money-making scam.) But back in 1996 I was barely aware of such things, and as far as I know we never applied for any awards. Then we were informed that our new radiology site had won two major awards: Health Explorer Best Site, and NetGuide Platinum. (My own portfolio site — the distant precursor to this site — also won a NetGuide Gold around that time.)

Here are some excerpts from what Health Explorer said about this medical website in their Best Site Review:

Most institutions—hospitals, universities, and the like—use their websites as a means of communi­cating with their core audience: patients, students, and employees. The creators of great institutional sites, like this one… also use their share of cyber­space as a tool to educate the public at large. You can begin your investigation into radiology by browsing the descriptions of different types of exams… all clearly written and hyperlinked to additional explanations of key terms. You’ll also find FAQs on safety issues, a glossary, and a brief history of radiology. Much like the x-ray process itself, this site provides a level of detail that is often missed by the naked eye.

WWinning these awards felt great for everyone on the team, of course, but I got a bigger thrill from the client’s compliments to me during the project. These were based, I guess, on their experiences of working with me and — especially — on the glowing feedback that they told me they’d received about the site. The department’s parent organization was aware of what was going on, and when the radiology project was complete, they asked me to build another, larger website for the hospital itself. That was a real reward.