Usability studies identified several areas for improvement in the old design of Health Topic pages. Recommendations included adding a summary of the topic, better navigation, making the page visually appealing, and creating subcategories to aid in finding specific information. The team at MedlinePlus recently unveiled the new design for individual Health Topic pages. If you haven’t had a chance to see the new features, here is a quick guide.

• A summary section now appears at the top for a quick overview of the topic. Currently, about half of the pages include summaries, but all pages in both English and Spanish will have summaries in the near future.
• To add visual interest and understanding of the topic, illustrations from A.D.A.M. now appear at the upper right of the page.
• A new “Start Here” section provides the best starting place for users needing an overview of the topic.
• The old design featured a long list of links on the left side of the page; the new scheme breaks the topics into larger groups for easier navigation. The subgroups are easy to differentiate with colored header bars.
• One notable change is the link to the pre-defined PubMed search on the topic. The link is now found under the Research header, and is labeled “Journal Articles”.

With the new scheme, users should find what they are looking for much more easily. Your feedback is important; if you have comments or suggestions for the MedlinePlus team just click on the “Contact Us” button on any MedlinePlus page and provide your feedback. For other questions relating to consumer health, please contact Kelli Ham, NN/LM PSR Consumer Health Coordinator.