Designing the bigger picture
Lead Service Designer, Amy Richards reflects on seven months working on the NHS Wales App, and why we have to think beyond the app to improve patients' experiences.
When I joined DHCW seven months ago as a Lead Service Designer on the NHS Wales App, I had a question:
How does service design fit into a product?
Is the app simply a touchpoint within a larger service, or is it a service in its own right?
Seven months later, I don't have all the answers, but I've learned a lot about how service design and product thinking can work together.
Working on a national, public-facing product is challenging. There are lots of moving parts, competing priorities and established ways of working. User-centred design (UCD) often encourages teams to look at problems from different perspectives, which can take time and effort across a large organisation.
Most importantly, we're making progress. Here are three things working on the app has reaffirmed for me:
1. Service design zooms in and out
Service design has trained me to think about the bigger picture, so I often ask questions that might not seem immediately relevant.
Understanding how a service works from end to end helps us design for the reality of people's experiences, not just what happens on a screen. In healthcare, where services are often complex and involve multiple organisations, that broader view is especially important.
Some colleagues may recognise parts of this approach as business analysis. There is certainly overlap. The difference is that service design starts with the service as a whole rather than a project, process or system. It considers the end-to-end experience for users and staff, and examines the relationships between people, technology, policy and organisations. The goal is not just to understand how something works, but to understand whether the service works well for everyone involved and how it could work better.
2. User-centred design is a team sport
One of the things I've enjoyed most is working closely with colleagues from different design disciplines.
Service design helps us understand end-to-end journeys, identify pain points and spot opportunities for improvement. But that's only part of the picture.
A content designer can help make information clearer and more timely. An interaction designer can simplify a process or redesign a screen to reduce effort for users. A user researcher questions our assumptions and makes sure we're evidence led. Bringing these different perspectives together helps us create better experiences for patients. And we're already seeing the benefits of this through our work improving test results in the app and unpicking another feature called 'About me'.
3. To improve the patient experience, we need to think beyond the app
Mapping services end to end often reveals opportunities to improve experiences beyond the app itself.
Sometimes the changes that would make the biggest difference sit outside the app team's direct remit. That's why we're spending time building relationships with stakeholders across the NHS and developing a shared understanding of the challenges people face.
For example, in an order prescription journey, improving the experience may involve changes to pharmacy or GP systems as well as the app itself. That's part of designing services in the real world.
Healthcare is complex, and improving experiences often means working across organisational boundaries. Service design helps us understand that complexity and work with colleagues to make meaningful improvements for the people who rely on these services every day.
Learn more about Service Design
If you're curious about service design, Kate Tarling and Lou Downe are well worth following. I'm a big fan of both and have learned a huge amount from their work.
My service design bibles include: