Four Stages of Designing an Office Website

I would suggest that you consider setting up an office website as a four-staged affair:

(1) Initial Stage: Planning and Exploration

Consider what your personal goals are for the site. If you don't know where you are going, it is hard to get there. As part of this rumination, surf around and see what others have done.

Decide where you want to host the site. There are many alternatives: your ISP, your own URL, a "free" hosting company, one of the "free" WebMD, Medscape, AMA variety, or a commercial host.

Finally, decide who you want to actually write the site: yourself or an outside business. You can't do this step until you have done the first two.

(2) Design a First-Order Site

If you are going to do a site yourself, I feel that getting a site up and running, even if it isn't the greatest around, is a good beginning, and better than waiting until it is perfect. If you are going to have an outside business host or design, this step is probably already decided when you finished Stage 1. There are simple, free tools to do this with and free hosting.

(3) Design a First-Rate Site

Once you are up and running with a site, either of your own design or from a commercial designer, go around surfing again and see what is out there. You will be able to see things now that you were not able to see previously. Consider again what your goals are, because now that you see the potential power of the net, your goals have probably changed, too.

(4) Continuous Quality Improvement

The CQI approach has been proven in business to be a very effective way to approach quality. Rather than a one-a-year new year's resolution approach, continually considering how to make the site better will yeild a better overall site.

Do you have a physician website? Let me know about it and it may help me to make this chapter better. 

Also, please send your comments about this chapter of the Orthopedist's Guide to the Internet to David Nelson. Thank you.