Healthcare color palette: how to create a quality healthcare app UI

Designing a Healthcare app can be intimidating, in this article we will be discussing what healthcare color palette to use while designing the Healthcare App with the example of Myjeffhealth app. What Font combination to use while designing the Healthcare App? How to design a app that is easy to navigate and use for patients?

you can find Figma design template for healthcare app at the end of the blog!

How to make the most out of this article?

1. Make a Figma design file
2. Copy color code mentioned in the article
3. Create color palate with proper labelling and keep it for future use
4. Copy the Figma design file to your project

While designing application for healthcare designer need to keep a balance of design and usability in mobile UI, especially When designing apps for finance or healthcare field.

If you are designing an app you need to check few fundamentals which can improve your app usability, user experience and increase the no of users.

1. Is my application easy to use?

2. Is my application Accessible?

3. Is my app compelling to its target user?

4. Does my application stands out from others?

4. Is it HIPAA compliant?

With all this points in your mind, you will also need to make sure that you make the most out of the resources and user’s time

Today, we’re going to concentrate on the ways in which the mobile apps you develop for your healthcare clients benefit from the decisions you make in terms of design.

How to Design Mobile Apps for Healthcare

As the healthcare sector is under growing pressure to change, you are crucial in assisting your clients in doing so. When developed properly, a mobile app can give patients, healthcare providers, and other users simple, free access to the tools and information they require.

Healthcare is a crucial industry, with increasing population aur healthcare system need robust and user friendly system and as a designer we

Obviously, while designing mobile apps for healthcare clients, you still need to follow the principles of app design. Having said that, there are a few particular aspects to which you should give particular attention.

Let these design guidelines and app examples inspire you:

healthcare color palette

When it comes to color choice in health and wellness apps we mainly need emotions such as

1. calmness
2. empethy
3. wellness
4. trust
5. Growth
6. Friendlyness
7. Motivation

You can use Blue color to show trust and to show energy you can use Orange, While choosing color you need to check for proper contrast and use to ne which is comforting to eyes, over contrast can be harsh on eyes, so avoid that as well.

Most healthcare application use Blue as primary color for example –

for example Mfine –

Color scheme used by Mfine –

.iceberg { color: ‘#e1f3f5’; }
.eastern-blue { color: ‘#2297be’; }
.eastern-blue { color: ‘#2197bd’; }

Color scheme used by Practo –

.bay-of-many { color: ‘#28328C’; }
.white { color: ‘#ffffff’; }
.bright-turquoise { color: ‘#14BEF0’; }

You can use Red to create feeling of urgency and alertness,

Apps like Practo and Mfine has prominently used Blue as primary accent color!

The blue in both its logo and accent colors are a good choice. They’re not bright or harsh by any means.

The Green on the other hand also can be a good choice as it is a sign of growth and vitality, green represents positive emotions that’s why in iconography something positive is displayed by green so green can be a good go to color for Healthcare App Design

A quick disclaimer here is well its not like you you have to just stick to just a set no of colors, well you can explore and do some experiment but just make sure the user journey stay smooth and hassle free!

Everyone can use your app!

Healthcare is not a royalty, its rather a necessity, you need to make sure that you design a app that is Accessibly to everyone

The choice of your font, color, typography, contrast make or break user experience. But you may ask – why these things matter?

To make use of your application to the fullest user need to ne able to access you app properly by choosing

Chances are good that your users might have impairments that prohibit them from using your app to its fullest. So, make sure you choose colors that sharply contrast against the background and can be seen by visually impaired users.

Myjeffhealth

For instance, myJeffHealth displays this illustration on its location pages: 

This artwork may be hard for blue-green colorblind viewers to perceive because it primarily consists of blue and green hues. Therefore, try to stay away from color combinations (such as blue-green, red-green, blue-gray, etc.) that comprise hues that visually impaired people sometimes find difficult to read.

Typography

Another one of those unique situations in healthcare app design is typography.

Thus, avoid using anything fancy and stick to clean serif and sans serif fonts when choosing typography for your apps.

Stanford Medicine, for instance, has chosen these simple fonts to write all its communications in:

Another one of those unique situations in healthcare app design is typography.

One example of this would be the use of ornamental fonts. It’s comparable to the color logic we previously covered. Something flowing or avant-garde will contradict your goal of using a style that communicates the proper message to patients and customers.

Thus, avoid using anything fancy and stick to clean serif and sans serif fonts when choosing typography for your apps.

HealthCare.gov has made a similar choice with its typography. As it explains on the site:

“The intent is for the consumer to be attracted initially to these welcoming headlines. Once we have their attention, we can draw them into the details with the highly-legible sans-serif.”

This is the Bitter font used in their headlines to welcome users to key points of the app:

HealthCare.gov then explains why it chose Opens Sans for its main content sections:

“The customer is very engaged when they are paying close attention to the details. It follows that the text ought to be as readable as feasible. It has been demonstrated that sans-serif fonts are more flexible when it comes to resizing and displaying across various devices and browsers. They are also simpler to read on-screen.

This is the Open Sans font used in their main content: 

Selecting the appropriate typefaces early on will also save some of your stress when it comes to ensuring that your text is easy to read by providing the appropriate amount of space.

A Note About Accessibility

When it comes to the text within your app, typography isn’t the only thing that counts. Consider the impact that text size may have on your users, whether they are disabled or not.

An excellent illustration of this may be found on the VSP app:

A company that offers vision insurance, as you may guess, serves a huge number of visually challenged clients who would benefit from larger font. This can be seen throughout the app as well.

Extra-large text is also used in the pop-out navigation. This guarantees that users won’t need to squint or bring the screen closer to their faces in order to see their options clearly.

This design decision also guarantees that all of the app’s buttons and other clickable components are large enough to be accurately and easily tapped.

Navigation

Though it should be quite easy, using healthcare applications can tend to complicate navigation. To begin with, a lot of the programs I found in the app store weren’t really meant for mobile devices. They were PWAs.

For example, this one from Highmark Plan: 

Whichever kind of app it is, this one has a good design. Additionally, the navigation on the app was wisely placed beneath the main header bar by the creators. The links are now nearer the thumb zone in this manner.

Another wise decision is to use icons, which expand the space that can be clicked on each website link. Since the writing may be too small to read, they also enhance the users’ capacity to select the website they wish to browse to more effectively.

A Note About Accessibility

If you’re designing a native app for healthcare, navigation needs to be much easier than the example above. When you’re working within the constraints of the web, that’s one thing. But when you have the ability to build more efficient navigation into an app, you should take it. Especially for healthcare.

There are a number of ways to do this:

• Use extra-large buttons in your sticky bottom navigation.
• Display tooltips to orient users around the app.
• Design all forms for accessibility: oversize fields, highlight active fields, auto-populate responses, field tabbing, etc.

Wrap-Up

When creating healthcare applications, it’s critical to consider factors other than esthetics or user experience. Patients who desire quick and simple access to information or medical professionals frequently use this app. Therefore, that cannot be impeded by the design.

You may effectively construct an app that patients will be glad to use by carefully examining how these essential elements should be designed, and never forgetting about accessibility during the process.