Book a COVID-19 test service
Responding to rapid changes in policy and circumstances, while ensuring the needs of diverse populations are met.
Working on the Book a COVID-19 test service was a unique and challenging experience. While adapting to the new circumstances of remote working during a crisis, and with huge numbers of people, agencies and service components, I had a number of responsibilities during my time on this service.
Leadership for designers new to health
The response to the pandemic meant that many new suppliers were being onboarded to support the delivery of complex services. This included groups of designers arriving who had no experience of designing public sector services, let alone health services, which have their particular challenges. As design lead at NHS Digital, part of my role was to guide these designers in adapting to designing for new circumstances, ensuring that the NHS design principles were observed, and providing feedback on designs which were being delivered very quickly.
Service design in rapidly changing circumstances
Another part of my role on the service was to help its transition from one that was designed for a particular cohort, to the general public. The service was initially for employers and key workers, but groups of the general public gradually became eligible as policy changed. I worked as part of the team that would identify different journey starting points, and guide users from places such as the NHS website, including running eligibility checks before being moved to the main service on GOV.UK.
This was challenging, high-pressure service design, where policy, time and technical limitations could sometimes clash with stock or staffing shortages. Regular, rapid changes to the overall service were required, while ensuring feedback from users via usability testing, analytics and surveys were being understood and acted upon.
Advocating for users
Continuing to push for an equitable, trustworthy service, through communicating critical issues to senior stakeholders was a critical part of my role. I worked with user researchers and content designers to identify the challenges we were seeing, and presented them in a way that was understandable and actionable for busy, stressed senior stakeholders. This ensured we could prioritise improvements for users, while continuing to respond to the changing demands on the service from government.