NIHSeniorHealth Redesign Improves Navigation
N IHSeniorHealth, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) consumer health Web site for older adults developed by the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine®, released its redesigned site on June 26, 2008. As NIHSeniorHealth grew from ten topics in 2003 to thirty-seven topics today and added features such as exercise stories and its more than ninety-five health videos, the site outgrew its original navigation structure. The new design (see Figure 1) allows users to find their topic more quickly, watch a video, or learn about other senior-friendly resources available from the NIH.
Homepage
The homepage includes enhanced navigation for health topics by First letter and Categories in the middle of the page. For example, Osteoporosis as a topic may be accessed by selecting the letter 'O' from the A to Z list or Bones and Joints under Categories. Each month a new or updated topic is highlighted in the Featured Topic section. The sections on Exercise Stories, Health Videos, and the Trainer's Toolkit appear below the new navigation.
Categories
The health topics are organized into eight categories:
- Bones and Joints
- Cancer
- Diseases and Conditions
- Healthy Aging
- Heart and Lungs
- Memory and Mental Health
- Treatments and Therapies
- Vision and Hearing
Each category includes links to similar NIHSeniorHealth topics and related Age Pages from the National Institute on Aging. Some topics appear in two or more categories. For instance, Lung Cancer appears on both the Cancer and the Heart and Lungs category pages.
Dine B, Heiland JR. NIHSeniorHealth Redesign Improves Navigation. NLM Tech Bull. 2008 Jul-Aug; (363):e8.
