What exactly is Wayfinding? It is the use of principles of interaction design to help visitors identify and navigate towards destinations of interest to them. Until recently, banner advertising has tried to serve this purpose: a click on a banner usually takes the user from where they are to somewhere else. But banner advertising is just one form of wayfinding, and, as some recent data from ModernMedicine has shown, not particularly effective when it comes to engaging physicians. Continue reading →
12
Nov 10
Wayfinding Explained
At ModernMedicine we strive to expose our busy audience of healthcare professionals to the exciting new content and features on our site. In architecture and cityplanning the concept of Wayfinding is defined as all of the ways in which people orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place.
A popular trend in UX design is to apply the principles of wayfinding to website design to help the user find what she is looking for and expose relevant content to the user.
At ModernMedicine we use the term Wayfinding to decribe a variety of features we implement to promote content that we feel our users should see. We implement Wayfinding Programs for Special Editorial Sections and for Promotional Content. Editorial Wayfinding Programs and Promotional Wayfinding Programs vary in small but signifigant ways that we feel are best for our users.
04
Oct 10
The Secret Lives of Big Pharma’s Thought Leaders
Some interesting insights into industry marketing practices from a professor of Bioethics at the University of Minnesota, as presented in a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Irrespective of how you feel about his take, it is valuable to hear (1) the scope and tone of his comments, (2) how the industry may be perceived by others, and (3) that these issues are being examined outside of the usual and customary industry periodicals…
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Secret-Lives-of-Big/124335/
10
Sep 10
Are You Sure You Want That Ad?
Once upon a time in the US, railroads, and magnates with names like Vanderbilt and Stanford, dominated American industry. However, they made a major strategic mistake: They defined themselves by HOW they did things, not by WHAT their business accomplished.. So they derided the invention of the newfangled contraption called the airplane and defined themselves as being in the railroad business, not the transportation business.
And we all know how that worked out.
And once upon a time, the UK National Health Service (NHS) centralized control over both the goals and the action plans for community health within the Charitable Trusts that constitute their regional health authorities. So, for example, the NHS not only decided WHAT an average HbA1C target for a given region should be, but also controlled HOW is was to be done: and provided specific materials, action items, and documentation–to achieve that goal.
However, an evaluation of their effort revealed unacceptable levels of variability across different Trusts, and despite efforts to migrate everyone towards the mean, the NHS could not align regional performance with their goals.
But unlike the railroad tycoons who rigidly stuck to their principles the NHS decided to give the Trusts some flexibility in HOW to achieve their goals. Because they best understood their community dynamics, the Trusts were able to plan around the unique needs of their communities. The results were so much better that the idea of a Central WHAT combined with a Local HOW became institutionalized.
There is an important lesson here as we consider healthcare professional engagement in the digital realm. Unlike print publications, Web communities provide options for interaction that extend far beyond advertising. And, just like the leadership of a regional Trust, I know my community very well. I understand their demographics, psychographics, behaviors, and preferences. And it is highly likely that I can design a pretty effective path to get you to your goal with my community.
Advertising is just one way HOW to deliver a message to an audience (and on the internet, not a very good one, BTW).
So rather than ordering up HOW to accomplish something on ModernMedicine, please share with us your WHAT you want to accomplish with regard to the knowledge attitudes or behaviors of the ModernMedicine healthcare professional community. I can tell you that we have far more powerful tools for accomplishing those goals than an advertisement. Once we know WHAT you want to accomplish, we can come back to you with a plan on HOW to best leverage the communications opportunities within our community that takes advantage of our deep knowledge and understanding of our community.
Before you request a digital advertising order, think: Do you really need an AD or do you really need to CONNECT with the audience?
14
Jul 10
78 percent of Pharma execs say prescribers are their primary customers
Just came across this interesting statistic in the Pharmalot blog titled “What Keeps Pharma Execs Awake At Night?”.
The full paragraph reads
– Some other nuggets:UPDATE: Respondents were asked to select which two groups they consider to be “primary customers,” and two groups they consider to be “secondary customers.” And so, 78 percent say prescribers are their primary customers, more than twice the 36 percent who listed patients. And just 27 percent believe managed care is their primary customer. with government at 24 percent. Also, for those curious to know where social media fits in, well, 53 percent of the execs like to connect on LinkedIn, 39 percent friend on Facebook and just 11 percent tweet on Twitter. –
23
Jun 10
CBI Conference on E-Marketing in the Pharma World
Mark Rosen, one of our Audience Development Directors recently attended a conference on e-marketing and pharma and was gracious enough to share some of his key take-aways…thanks Mark.
Read on to see the 12 take-aways from this conference… Continue reading →
11
Jun 10
Banner Ads Don’t Work? Bring on the Banners!
Confused? To clarify, let’s agree that banner ads are defined as the ubiquitous advertisements on the web in various sizes, shapes, and levels of interactivity. However, at this point in the evolution of technology and user experience design, they are about as vestigial as your appendix. The only thing keeping banners alive is the infrastructure we have built around them; what if we just stopped using banners completely?
Click-through rates on banners have dropped exponentially since their first appearance and continue to drop, resulting not in a critical look at their function, but in the creation of new types of banners to shore up their lack of effectiveness. However, wouldn’t we be better off re-examining the fundamentals? The real question is whether the “click-through” is an appropriate metric for today’s HCP digital engagement strategies
Rich media, expandables, take-overs, and road blocks all seek to secure that critical “click” by either distracting users from their intended tasks or inserting themselves between websites and their users.
First, does this really show respect for the physician? It seems to imply a lack of importance to the reason they came to the site in the first place; all they really say is “look at me” or “here, let me get in your way.”
21
May 10
Wayfinding, Not Advertising
How do people find things? Most optimally they find them when they need them, which is why banners and e-blasts have limited utility; pushing resources at someone who has little use for them at that moment is less than helpful. Investing in presence and being available on-demand will increase the chance of being discovered, which is why wayfinding is far more important than advertising. Continue reading →
