Working On A New Design

[Howard Strang]

I work in the Indianapolis web design industry and I recently got contracted to start a web site and ning community for a company that handles dental insurance plans and short term health insuranceand pretty much all other types of insurance too. I want to keep the design really clean and professional looking but beyond that, I'm really struggling for ideas. The idea for the ning community is that it would be a place for people to share, discuss, and get help with insurance issues and questions. I do web design work on the site and the majority of my clients to date have been school or youth related type of sites. Those have been fun because there are so many different directions you can take the design. The health insurance industry? Well thats a little bit of a different story. Beyond folks smiling and looking healthy and happy along the banner I'm not really too sure where to take it. I'd love to hear any thoughts or inspiration you guys might be able to throw out there! Thanks for your help.

[Tony Hogan]

People decide within 5 seconds of seeing the site whether they are going to stay, I would start by creating a simple fast loading header that clearly defines who you (the site) are and what you do. It's important to get that right. From there, I'd be looking at where you want the person to go and what you want them to do, the design needs to lead the person clearly to the information without anything else distracting them in any way. If you draw a map of what you want them to do and what action you want them to take, you'll be able to eliminate 80% of unnecessary crap that clutters the screen. Getting people to discuss on social networking sites is a pretty weird animal, some sites forums work, on others simple blog sites. With something like health insurance, you're looking at more of a 'do once' idea, as opposed to something that people are passionate about like fishing or Sumo or whatever. A 'do once' type of thing may not really be suited for a social networking site, the reason being, people need to set up a profile to interact and I'm not sure whether they would do such a thing. To me, it sounds like something like an information site would be better, be the expert and draw quality content from good resources.