By Ronald Ng, Spring Term 2005
This paper looks at the a wide range of Cosmetic Surgery websites with a 'painterly eye'. The focus is the visual aspects of the site and how the web designer convey messages about the website's content by using colour, images, fonts and anything else to his/her inventory.
There are a staggering number of health-related websites around, whether they are about the latest medical research to discussions on smoking cessation. It has struck me how much diversity and amount of webspace is dedicated to the maintenance of a healthy body and mind.
Health is an important and under-analyzed ‘genre’ of websites which is used and trusted by many. Even the NHS prefers patients to consult its website, nhsdirect.uk for medical advice before booking an appointment. General Practitioners are only too aware of increase of patients bringing in piles of website print-outs, demanding the latest treatments.
Health or well-being is arguably the most important issue for each individual in society today. The whole philosophy of health includes a large dose or morality. Integrity, sympathy, confidentiality, charity and unselfishness are strongly associated with health institutions and products. Health also encompasses ethics, science, disability, life and the darkest of all things, death.
Cosmetic Surgery Websites
With Health websites being such a wide and large genre, it would be a vague and impractical exercise to analyze this sector. Instead I have chosen to explore a specific branch of medicine, cosmetic surgery. This branch is gaining increasing media coverage in the western world as it associated with beauty, celebrities and glamour. TV documentaries such as Channel Five’s Cosmetic Surgery Live and dramas such as California-based ‘Nip & Tuck’ only normalise this field.
Cosmetic surgery is a sub-set in the ‘Plastic Surgery’ field and is gaining in popularity with the decrease in stigma, improvement of procedures and decrease in cost. ‘Plastics’ is defined as ‘having the power to give form or fashion to a mass of matter’. [1] The term cosmetic surgery, involves procedures which has does not have any or little physiological or functional value. Often such procedures are for psychological purposes, for example to prove self-esteem and confidence. Its unique position in medicine is the reason why cosmetic surgery is the focus of this paper.
The NHS does contribute towards costs for cosmetic surgery if it deems to have significant psychological and functional value or to correct a part of a body affected by an illness. However this is in the -minority; and therefore cosmetic surgery is often done privately. This makes cosmetic surgery has more of a corporate and marketing attitude than most of its medical counterparts.
It will be interesting to see how Cosmetic Surgery websites reflect its associated values such as beauty, glamour and marketing while keeping integrity with its medical roots of honesty, good clinical practice and well-being. It may seem there are two faces of cosmetic surgery, one being associated with aesthetics, capitalism, materialism and greed and the other being kindness, professionalism and health. Will the artistic features of cosmetic surgery websites reflect such underlying philosophy? Which characteristics will be attenuated the most?
In this study only websites whose primary focus is cosmetic surgery is used. For example cosmetic surgery sections which are part of Hospital websites will not be included. From my analysis, there are generally three types of websites concerning this topic:
Patient Information – General information for those considering cosmetic surgery. Often includes directory of surgeons/practices. May link directly to a cosmetic surgery provider.
Marketing – Websites about individuals or businesses delivering cosmetic services. Includes patient information about the services they offer.
Academic – These websites are for use by professionals within this field. They are research-paper/news based or concern a professional body (e.g. Association of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons of South Africa )
This paper will look at various cosmetic websites and examining their artistic elements. This will be followed by a discussion on the similarities and differences of the examined sites. The main focus of the analysis will be on visual aspects, but there will be allowances for any features which add to the artistic element of a website. This paper is about seeing why the web designer chose to create the page in that way rather than criticising his/her design skills. Technical details (e.g. download time, browser compatibility etc) will be overlooked unless they add to the artistic value of the website.
Predominant Colour |
Number |
Percentage (%) |
Purples |
11 |
24 |
Blues |
10 |
22 |
Whites |
5 |
11 |
Green |
5 |
11 |
Pinks |
4 |
9 |
Brown |
4 |
9 |
Grey |
3 |
6 |
Black |
3 |
6 |
Red |
1 |
2 |
The above table was obtained by scanning a large number of random chosen cosmetic surgery websites. A general colour was assigned to the website; this was often made easier by standing back away from the screen and accessing the general feel of the colours. Websites whose general colour which could not be accessed (i.e. there was a mix of contrasting colours), it was given the title mixed, for example BeautySurg, the ‘cosmetic surgery supersite’.
As a whole cosmetic surgery websites use soft, complementary colours. From the results above purples and blues (particularly light blues) seem to be most popular, but why?
Blue slows the metabolism and suppresses the appetite. As it does not require the eye to focus, images and objects recede in blue backgrounds. [2] It is a calming colour and associated with the sky and the sea. It is considered to be a "safe" colour and signifies intelligence, reassurance, and trust. Combinations of light and dark blues creates feelings of trust most strongly.
Purple symbolizes creativity, mystery and spirituality. Light purple or lavender, which is more generally used in the analysed websites, is associated with romance, nostalgia and feminity. Beauty, chivalrous love, excellence, sensuality are coupled to violet in particular. [2]
It is not surprising that blues and purples are the mainstay of cosmetic surgery websites. There is always a risk of adverse effects in surgery, no matter how small the procedure. Also in surgery you are effectively traumatising the body – and in cosmetic procedures for no good physiological reason at all. The dramatic, damaging, frightening and potentially dangerous nature of this field causes for some neutralising. Blues help this by conveying safety, intelligence and trust. Blues have always been associated with health, one has only has to look at the NHS logo and nurses uniforms.
In 2004, 92% of UK cosmetic surgery patients were women, [3] therefore it is only logical that websites should nod towards the feminine side. Using light hues of blues or purples ensue a midway between the trust and safety of blue and the feminine side of purple. Pink may be seen as an obvious choice for appealing to females, but this was not used as widely as expected. Maybe its distance away from characteristics such as professionalism and trust, deterred it from being used by web designers. Interestingly websites using pink, tend to be more of the patient information type. They wish to pursue a caring view and that the website being on the side of the reader. On the other hands ‘marketing websites’ of practicing surgeons tend to use blues more, maybe because they want to perceive the notion of ‘Trust me, I’m a Doctor’.
One colour I was surprised to see used was green, however looking deeper into
the meaning of green makes it a good colour to consider. Green signifies health
and growth (vegetation) and wealth (money). It also symbolizes spring, renewal,
and fertility. [2] Using green suggests cosmetic surgery will improve one’s
health, vitality and status. The green also emphasises the transformation and
renewal that cosmetic surgery hopes to achieve.
Most websites use soft pastel colours. This again is gender biased but also creates an ambience of calmness and caring nature. This is probably to counteract the ‘dark’ side of surgery as mentioned before, but also the commercial aspects of cosmetic surgery. The market is mainly privatised and therefore the sense of caring, kindness and the notion of ‘it’s all about you’ must overcome the reality of the high costs associated with cosmetic procedures. Pastel colours reflect a more mature and calmer personality; this definitely suits the clientele – in 2002, 73% of cosmetic plastic surgery patients were above 35 years old. [4]
Websites that use two or more colours instead of one dominant colour also is an interesting direction. For example Cosmetic Surgery Philadelphia uses some femininity of pink to add to the professionalism of the grey. However in my opinion Arizona Cosmetic Surgery’s website is an example of poor colour use. There are many colours used which don’t seem to complement each other. The biggest criticism is the dark blood-red background. It evokes passion, rage, tenseness and wrath; not quite the formula to fill a potential patient with confidence.
There were also several websites which had a striking black and dark colour scheme. However, all of these related to professional bodies concerning cosmetic surgery.
Nearly all the marketing websites contain photos of people, which fall into two main categories. The first category consist of general stock model shots and the second category ‘before and after’ surgery shots.
The models of photos are generally female, Caucasian and feature the subject smiling. The photos are either headshots or body shots, with generally no venturing below the thigh level. If the model is showing off the body, females wear non-revealing lingerie while males often have opened-button shirts. The background the image is often white or blurred, in order to give the model an angelic and pure feel. The models are often young (20s to 30s) but mature. They have little or natural make-up and seem to be relaxed and content with themselves. It is intriguing to look into what the model photos try and portray. They convey happiness and content. The natural look of the photos and the type of models used make it look that cosmetic surgery is normal and not just for the vain and attention seekers. The message seems to be that cosmetic surgery primarily about making the patient feel happy about him/herself rather than making the patient more appealing to the opposite sex. The natural nature of the images is ironic; cosmetic surgery is anything but natural. The stock photos of models can be confusing. Are all the models in the used in websites had cosmetic surgery? In good practice they should do, but in reality I doubt this is complied.
It is not unusual to see two tone photos used (e.g. black and white, sepia). Such photos exude a timeless quality and make skin textures smoother. Such images may suggest that cosmetic surgery is an established art and that any procedure will last long.
The ‘before and after’ images are taken with a medical photography viewpoint. Therefore they are usually profile shots of the body part of concern. It is not uncommon to see that the ‘after’ shot is brighter than the before shot in terms in contrast. Also the ‘after’ shot patient often seems to be happier and makes more of an effort in appearance; a trip to the beauty salon is often more evident in the ‘after’ shot. Whether such manipulations deters or appeals to potential patients remains to be seen.
Academic or professional sites about cosmetic surgery tend to use paintings, particularly those of the nude female form. For example the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons use a famous renaissance painting. The use of this painting suggests that their profession is also ‘art’ and that they are also masters of this long established ‘art’. The European Association of Plastic Surgeons on the other hand use a male naked Greek figure, again provoking the sense of striving for the perfect body.
Although pictures to play a significant part, text is still makes up the body of information given in most cosmetic surgery websites. Having explored examples of sites earlier in this paper, there seems to be a standard layout adopted by a significant proportion of websites.
Dr. Fallek’s page is typical. The text lies in the centre of the page with images embedded within it. There is a top page banner, with the logo and any other vital information, i.e. a contact telephone number, a slogan etc. As there are many types of procedures in cosmetic surgery, along with the wish for users to access this information quickly means there are a number of options to add to the navigation bar. This longer list of menu options means that a horizontal menu bar is not long enough to show all them, and therefore as above, a vertical menu bar (usually to the left) is used. One may wonder that actually most websites follow this kind of layout and this may well be true. With the majority of patients being over 35 (who may not be regular Internet users), it may be unwise to choose radical and unconventional layouts for the sake of artistic impression.
One interesting observation between ‘marketing websites’ and ‘patient information’ sites is the density of information on their pages. Patient information sites often have ‘busy’ pages, while ‘marketing’ websites have least information on one page and their information seems to be spread out more across the site. ‘Academic’ sites too seem to have busier pages. Is this because marketing sites wish to create a visually calm feel to the site and therefore spread its information out among more pages? Or is it just simply marketing sites have less information to provide?
For body text standard professional text is used, therefore small sized Arial or Verdana is commonly seen. A number of sites use extremely small size fonts making it difficult to read. Is this intentional? Maybe there is so much text that a larger font will distort the page layout. Maybe it is to deceive the read so he/she thinks there is less information than there actually is and therefore more likely to read it. Or most likely it is to deter the user to read the information and to rather seek an initial consultation instead. The fonts used for headers and for logos are what most revealing, as they gives clues about the message the website is trying to portray. Below are examples of the common types of fonts used.
This paper has shown there are a wide range of different sites within this genre. However many themes are recurring in a number of sites. Below is a list of characteristics, one might expect from a ‘typical’ cosmetic surgery website and the features it may use promote such characteristics. Most websites try and deter away from the 'page 3' vision of cosmetic surgery, to see it as seeking for content and happiness with one body rather than seeking attention from the opposite sex. However society (and the media) much rather focus on the 'page 3', celebrity side of cosmetic surgery, and this genre of websites may start to be less subtle and mundane in their designs.
Femininity – Use of Pastel Colours, Curves, Handwriting Fonts, Females in Images,
Medical Integrity – Use of Blue, Use of Capital Letters in Logos and Headers, Photos of Surgeons.
Calmness – Use of soft colours, Use of space in Page Layout, Fade-in and out with Colours.
Beauty & Artistry – Use of Angelic/Artistic Photos & Graphics, Curves, Use of famous artworks.
Below are a selection of websites which aim for a different artistic direction.
Although I have narrowed this genre down to a particular field, I do feel there was still a large selection of websites. Maybe I should have concentrated on a sub-type, for example ‘marketing’ websites (i.e. websites advertising cosmetic surgery services). This would have made the comparison of websites a more accurate exercise as they all have the same goal. On the contrary this approach would have restricted the scope of the analysis.
The quality and experience of the web designer of the sites played a significant part in the artistic analysis of the websites – there is a danger of over-analysing poorly designed websites. Just because a novice web designer chooses his/her favourite colour as a background, can we interpret this as conveying a message? If there is little thought being put into the design of a website, what is the purpose of analysing it? A simple solution would be just to look at those websites which were designed by ‘professional’ designers, This however can be seen as being bias to a particular artistic viewpoint.
In this present moment, I feel the artistry standard of this genre of websites is good and reflects the current market for cosmetic surgery (e.g. feminine, for vain purposes, glamour, fashion). It has shown that cosmetic surgery link with art is more evident in the websites than its more obvious link with technology and butchery. Many websites strike the balance too with the medical and health philosophy of kindness, professionalism, clinical excellence, cleanliness and integrity. These aforementioned buzzwords however do however link with the feminine nature, which makes the task of designing a website easier.
It will be interesting to see how websites change in artistic direction as cosmetic surgery becomes more socially acceptable, safer and widespread. With the USA and Brazil being at the forefront of cosmetic surgery, will there be a shift to sites such as Philadelphia based Dr. Sal Calabro? The association with the celebrities, fashion and pornography is growing stronger all the time; will these factors override the association of artistry and medical elements in websites entirely? Men are increasingly choosing surgery, in the UK the number of men having cosmetic surgery increased from 822 in 2003 to 1,348. [3] Men’s favourite procedure is rhinoplasty (nose); how would this effect sites previously dominated by breast augmentation? Currently non-surgical procedures (e.g. Botox injections) are seen as under the umbrella of cosmetic surgery. How will this change websites as the number of non-surgical cosmetic procedures grow and overtake surgical operations in number and in revenue?
This analysis has unintentionally focused on ‘marketing’ and ‘patient information’ websites. The reason is that ‘academic’ websites are generally outnumbered and often take a standard ‘journalistic/scientific’ stance in web design. It is unlikely such websites will change much in terms of artistry as its ‘marketing’ counterparts.
Whatever happens in the world of cosmetic surgery, this genre of websites will be an interesting arena to observe. The increase in popularity and hence competitiveness in the field will mean websites will be more of an integral part of the decision process for potential patients in the future. The standard of websites produced will only therefore improve; providing more innovative and a higher quality of artistry seen online.
University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (1998) Online Medical Dictionary [online] http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/omd/ [Accessed 14/4/05]
Sibagraphics (2004) Meaning of Colours [online] http://www.sibagraphics.com/colour.php [Accessed 14/4/05]
News-Medical.Net (2005) Breast augmentation top cosmetic procedure for women carried out in UK [online] http://www.news-medical.net/?id=7461 [Accessed 14/4/05]
Rense.com (2002) American Society of Plastic Surgeons Reports 2002 Statistics
4-16-3 [online] http://www.rense.com/general37/cosm.htm
[Accessed 14/4/05]
Word Count: 4432