CONTACT
NHS • CONCEPT 2025
NHS App
TIMELINE
8 Weeks
2024
SKILLS
Product Design
Product Strategy
User Research
TEAM
Product Design
Product Strategy
User Research
Prototyping
ROLE
Product Design
Product Strategy
User Research
Prototyping
OVERVIEW
NHS app: the one-stop-shop for anything health.
This project aims to reposition the NHS as a fundamental resource in the mental health space, by meeting patients where they are - typically glued to their phones. It leverages new technological innovations along with existing NHS infrastructure to meet users' growing needs and expectations. It packages the vast amount of information the organisation has into an approachable interface that promotes patient engagement in their care and educates them along the way. Notably, the app avoids gimmicks like AI therapists, focusing instead on tools that support patient care and facilitate both access and communication between patients and medication professionals. It required a complete rethinking of the original premise of the app into a modern new design that places the patient needs first, while remaining conscientious of the organisation's resource challenges.
Desired outcomes
Promote autonomy amongst patients and make them feel more confident in understanding the recommended treatment plan.
Combat misinformation by motivating patients to learn more about their health and to cement the NHS app as a source of reliable and easily accessible medical information.
Promote user engagement and reduce friction with mental health services for both new users and existing patients.
Problem SPACE
The NHS app doesn’t benefit from it’s reach.
With the recent rise in mental illnesses it's just as important to understand the factors involved as finding solutions to solve this challenge. While the public health services struggle to meet the huge demand for mental health services we've seen a rise in private healthcare providers. From health insurance, online therapists and app-based GP's. Although they can be helpful to many, most of these solutions fail to tackle both of the two main pillars essential for healthcare accessibility: affordability and quality. Although the NHS has seen a progressive decline in the quality of it's services, they're still the most comprehensive. They're also free to every UK citizen, removing one of the barriers many patients face. As a user of the NHS app I often felt it needed modernisation. The app is slow, outdated and with poorly implemented functionality. It's also difficult to navigate and does a poor job in educating users about their health, relying instead on the already busy NHS staff. There's a real opportunity to integrate modern technology such as fitness trackers and AI to help bridge the gap in communication between medical professionals and patients, fight misinformation, build patient autonomy, increase efficiency and improve quality of care
RESEARCH
The NHS app doesn’t benefit from it’s reach.
Primary research was conducted in the form of user surveys and interviews in order to learn from the users' experiences and their needs. Secondary research, which included NHS documentation, app store reviews, and competitor analysis, was also done to both understand the organisation's goals and reasoning behind their existing solution and also to be able to visualise the NHS app in a larger context of the organisation and its private alternatives. The NHS patient demographic is incredibly diverse, and designing a solution that caters to all is a challenge in itself. To help narrow down into a strategy that was realistically achievable for the project timeframe, I placed a specific focus on the age range between 18-34, as they are the most impacted by mental health. This would provide a more focused approach to users most likely to use the internet and technology for their health needs; however, the final solution should also be accessible to other age ranges also.
KEY USER INSIGHTS
The NHS app doesn’t benefit from it’s reach.
Difficult to navigate User Interface
Poor treatment understanding
A significant proportion of users lacked understanding about why they were prescribed a treatment or medication and how they worked. Difficulty in navigating NHS services was also reported.
Irrelevant information
Users reported a lack of relevance to the information provided and wished it were more tailored to their needs, allowing for more customisation. All users surveyed agreed that access to medical records is a top priority, with prescriptions and appointments also highlighted.
OPPORTUNITies
How could the app benefit from the ecosystem that the NHS created?
There is a significant opportunity to modernise the NHS app by integrating newer technologies such as fitness trackers and AI in a way that can both benefit the patient and NHS staff. Although the organisation has built one of the biggest healthcare knowledge bases, it fails to take advantage of it by not properly consolidating it into a platform that facilitates its access. Instead, this information is scattered across different apps and websites, sometimes requiring patients to contact staff for clarification. Additionally, the app is difficult to navigate, text heavy, and unfocused, displaying too much irrelevant information which can confuse users. These challenges were tackled with the following key opportunities:
Integration
Integrating with APIs like Apple's HealthKit for sharing health data from fitness trackers seamlessly, providing medical professionals with the information they need to make the best decision for the patient.
Consolidation
By combining various existing NHS resources, such as their knowledge base, into a streamlined and user-friendly interface that can boost patient autonomy and avoid unnecessary contact for basic information.
Focus
The existing app fails to efficiently provide the information patients need to take ownership over their treatments. The proposed solution should focus on organising the large amount of information available while prioritising the tasks that users actually want to achieve.
EXPERIENCE MAPPING
Becoming my users
Primary research was conducted in the form of user surveys and interviews in order to learn from the users' experiences and their needs. Secondary research, which included NHS documentation, app store reviews, and competitor analysis, was also done to both understand the organisation's goals and reasoning behind their existing solution and also to be able to visualise the NHS app in a larger context of the organisation and its private alternatives. The NHS patient demographic is incredibly diverse, and designing a solution that caters to all is a challenge in itself. To help narrow down into a strategy that was realistically achievable for the project timeframe, I placed a specific focus on the age range between 18-34, as they are the most impacted by mental health. This would provide a more focused approach to users most likely to use the internet and technology for their health needs; however, the final solution should also be accessible to other age ranges also.
WIREFRAMES
Brainstorming solutions
Although the initial plan was to design a separate NHS mental health app, the conclusion following the research phase was that this would not be the most beneficial solution for users, since one of the frustrations reported directly resulted from the fragmentation of information and resources. For this reason, a more ambitious holistic approach was necessary. The first wireframe featured a dedicated mental health tab that was separate from other health areas but still integrated into a single app.
After some reflection, I decided to take a different route. Although physical health and mental health are distinct areas in medicine, users often need support with both and wouldn't draw a distinction in this manner since both are equally important and impact each other. Having two separate dashboards with prescriptions, recommendations, and other information wouldn't make sense. Would it separate the prescriptions into two? That could make it confusing to users. Would it display prescriptions only on the dashboard? Medication is a key tool in mental health, but this wouldn't highlight that. Ultimately, the answer to these questions was in the second wireframe that integrated mental health into the app's main dashboard.
Prototype
Prototype
The prototype featured prominent buttons for prescribed medication that would serve as shortcuts for both ordering and reading information fed directly from the NHS knowledge database. It utilised the NHS iconic blue for it's interface to provide a feeling of familiarity while utilising the rest of the colour palette to bring visual distinction between different medications. It prioritised the pages where users might need to multitask more often by reorganising the navigation bar. Information was grouped into sections that could be rearranged. I also wanted to add a 3D interactive human model that highlighted the treatment, but decided against it following user feedback.
Integration
With the rise in mental illnesses, it is essential to identify contributing factors and develop solutions to address the challenge effectively.
Consolidation
With the rise in mental illnesses, it is essential to identify contributing factors and develop solutions to address the challenge effectively.
Focus
With the rise in mental illnesses, it is essential to identify contributing factors and develop solutions to address the challenge effectively.
Prototype
User Testing
I invited back some users to try these prototypes, observed how they used them, how they felt, and noted their feedback.
Realigning with the user’s needs
Users shared their preference that the colour distinction in medications would be more useful for highlighting medications that were due to be reordered rather than differentiating between them.
Most considered the 3D interactive model a gimmick and found it more useful to have their NHS number accessible instead.
Visual cues are crucial
Some seemed confused when navigating the medical records, when asked, they shared that we similarity in the colour palette used for cancelled appointments and user provided information made them appear related.
A few users were unclear if an appointment was booked or not due to a lack of visual confirmation to signify task completion.
SOLUTION
Core flows
With the rise in mental illnesses, it is essential to identify contributing factors and develop solutions to address the challenge effectively. While public health services struggle to meet the massive demand for mental health services, we have seen a rise in private healthcare providers. From health insurance, online therapists and app-based GPs.
Prioritising the most important information.
The Dashboard dynamically updates depending on the user's needs. For example, the prescription section shows only if there are medications to be ordered, and upcoming appointments only appear if there is one. Users can reorganise the different sections and pin or hide any they don't find useful. It places important information and makes tasks such as contacting a GP reception more accessible.
Medical records are consolidated into a single well-organised feed with options to filter, search, and export data. Patients also benefit from AI summaries of previous appointments to make information more understandable. No more deciphering of technical jargon or a doctor's handwriting!
Empowering patients through education.
When relevant, it presents the treatment progress with data from the patient's medical records and details to engage them in their recommended treatment. Tutorials and information are fed directly from existing NHS resources.
Other information that's not relevant to the patient is still accessible through the directory, with the option to bookmark or listen to articles by leveraging AI text-to-speech models for greater accessibility.
Promoting treatment seeking and adherence.
Appointment booking is made easy through clear and guided steps. Users have the ability to download the appointment directly to their calendar or get directions all from the same page, reducing the amount of wasted appointments.
If a user has difficulty navigating or simply prefers a more guided approach, the prominent help button loads a private AI agent that performs specific tasks for them or directs them to the right department, improving treatment navigation and accessibility.
REFLECTION
What I learned.
With the recent rise in mental illnesses it's just as important to understand the factors involved as finding solutions to solve this challenge. While the public health services struggle to meet the huge demand for mental health services we've seen a rise in private healthcare providers. From health insurance, online therapists and app-based GP's. Although they can be helpful to many, most of these solutions fail to tackle both of the two main pillars essential for healthcare accessibility: affordability and quality. Although the NHS has seen a progressive decline in the quality of it's services, they're still the most comprehensive. They're also free to every UK citizen, removing one of the barriers many patients face. As a user of the NHS app I often felt it needed modernisation. The app is slow, outdated and with poorly implemented functionality. It's also difficult to navigate and does a poor job in educating users about their health, relying instead on the already busy NHS staff. There's a real opportunity to integrate modern technology such as fitness trackers and AI to help bridge the gap in communication between medical professionals and patients, fight misinformation, build patient autonomy, increase efficiency and improve quality of care