A strong emphasis on "making contact" is paired with an unconventional approach to imagery that focuses on people, not the clinic.
Allow us to take you on a user pathway through the Island Dental Home page.
The eye is first drawn to a hero image. It is large, full width and striking. Every five seconds, a new image is displayed – and each supports a key message.
The first photo is a sandy shoreline aligned to the practice name, Island Dental. The white foam-tipped waves on a pristine shoreline are an abstract connection to pristine white teeth. In addition, the island holiday aesthetic ties in nicely with the text that seeks to soothe dental anxieties.
The top navigation does away with all of the normal dental headings (such as Our Team, About Us etc). It puts the focus on making contact via:
As a user scrolls down, the top navigation then transitions into a white panel. This clean background retains only the Book Online element but adds in a Search icon, social media links and a collapsed “hamburger” menu (three horizontal lines). This menu expands into a large “mega menu” which gives an at-a-glance overview of all key pages on the site. The Book Online button remains visible in this enlarged menu.
Scrolling down, three text-only panels nudge into the main slideshow images at the top of the page. They display horizontally and provide contact calls to action, as well as opening hours.
The next layer is image-based. It reinforces the slideshow of hero images at the top of the page – with new images for “Smile & Cosmetic Makeover” and “Children’s Therapy Care”. It also introduces Oral Hygiene Care. Clicking on these takes you to the relevant pages.
The images have a beautiful depth of colour, allowing the clean white writing to stand out. Aesthetically, the white writing mirrors the teeth whitening experience. Each panel is perfectly balanced with three lines of text.
As designers, we believe this symmetry is important to reinforce the key message. A messy grid would send the wrong visual signals.
Towards the bottom of the home page, the practice has struck a good balance between two key patient drivers:
This is followed with a dedicated social media panel, which takes a feed from Island Dental’s Instagram page. Older audiences will appreciate the photos. Younger audiences will feel that an Insta-active dental practice is in tough with their generations.
The cleverness of this WordPress website continues through the internal pages. South Australia’s Island Dental is to be commended for breaking away from the safe approach tin a bid to reflect its true nature and stand out in a crowded market.
When the site is stripped back to its foundations, we see that:
