How creative design can elevate your healthcare value communication tools
Healthcare decision-makers are exposed to vast quantities of information and often have limited time to read and comprehend everything that’s presented. So, when it comes to communicating with key stakeholders, how can you ensure your message is heard above the noise? One way to make messaging more impactful is by creating a narrative – and visual design plays a key role in achieving this.
Visual context is a key component of effective communication
When looking at information on a page or screen, how long does it take you to understand what it’s about? A few seconds? A few minutes? Perhaps you move on without ever fully comprehending the message?
There is an assumption that science is logical and all that’s needed to communicate information are black words on a white page with a few graphs. However, many of us are visual learners, understanding and remembering information better when it’s presented visually. Therefore, good design plays an essential role in conveying complex information quickly.
One of the key benefits of good design is the provision of instant context. Subtle visual details give the reader an intuitive understanding that may take much longer through text alone. Context can be understood through images much faster than text. Even something as simple as background imagery or basic icons can provide the right visual cues to instantly orient your audience and enhance their understanding of the message you’re communicating.
Good design should serve the content and the audience
The power of design is increasingly accessible. Anyone can choose a template, a colour scheme, a font and an image and have what appears to be professional design. However, it’s important to be aware that what simply looks pretty might not be serving the content in the best possible way.
Visual metaphors, for example, can be a useful tactic for communicating messaging by drawing parallels between complex ideas and familiar images. However, it’s important to choose the right imagery. Get it wrong, and you’ll potentially leave your audience confused – or even worse, with the wrong message. This is also true of visual hierarchies, graphic devices, and strategic use of colour and typography.
A professional, experienced creative designer will take your message further than an off-the-peg or DIY solution. Possessing the visual skills to build messaging from the ground up, understanding the content and brand, as well as having the technical ability to use advanced design programs, a creative team can help achieve effective and efficient communication – and ultimately, a competitive advantage.
Infographics as a solution to a data-rich world
A pitfall to avoid when engaging with audiences is the temptation to include too much information all at once. When executed without careful attention to the presentation of content, this can lead to a jumble of hierarchies, metaphors, typefaces and images. Yet when it’s done right, combining complex data and messages in a single graphic can be engaging, accessible and beautiful.
Infographics are a powerful tool in the healthcare industry, creating striking visuals from complex data and helping to communicate information in a way that is easy for patients and healthcare professionals to comprehend. For example, infographics can increase visibility and brand awareness for healthcare companies, as well as establish thought leadership. A successful infographic will lead the audience through well-ordered and engaging images and information. They should be free of visual clutter with fonts, icons, images and colours efficiently relating messaging. An experienced graphic designer will be able to balance designed elements and visual devices in harmony, to creative an engaging visual story that audiences find compelling.
Specialist healthcare design teams can establish brand guidelines that consider the nuances of our industry
Branding is a key component of communicating an organisation’s core values and principles, and it’s important to achieve this consistently. A consistent visual identity across all communication channels (presentations, publications, websites, etc.) strengthens brand recognition and builds trust and credibility with stakeholders.
When brand guidelines are created by non-specialist marketing agencies that do not fully understand the nuances of the life science and healthcare sectors, the guidelines that are developed may be focused on generic customer messaging and fail to consider the needs of other key stakeholders, such as payers, physicians, regulatory bodies and patient advocacy groups. This can make it challenging to report clinical information, for example, perhaps by overlooking styles for references and footnotes.
A better solution is to establish guidelines that will also serve the needs of healthcare audiences. Employing the skills of a specialist healthcare industry design team who appreciate the needs of a more comprehensive range of stakeholders can help to deliver more successful results. Key benefits can include consideration of the need to present large amounts of information, as well as simple but often overlooked requirements such as the use of superscript and subscript fonts, and development of clinical illustration or photography. Having worked across multiple life science and healthcare brands, these teams can anticipate some of the design challenges that can often come up.
Great design ensures your message lands with healthcare audiences and is remembered for the right reasons
Every dossier, slide deck, publication and leave piece is an opportunity to maximise the impact of your message, and design plays a key role in enhancing your narrative. The fusion of creative design with robust medical writing and health economics can amplify and clarify information to ensure your message lands with audiences and is remembered.
Clarivate’s value communication team comprises an experienced team of in-house creative designers, who collaborate closely with medical writers, health economists, digital programmers and other specialist consultants to deliver a wide range of communication tools and resources for our clients. We have extensive experience supporting life science and healthcare companies to communicate evidence-based value to internal and external audiences across the product lifecycle.
For further information, connect with our healthcare commercial strategy consultants today.
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