NHS Common Drug Reference Enhancement
My role:
Lead UX Designer
The NHS Common Drug Reference is a platform used by internal teams at the NHS Business Services Authority to manage and standardise drug records.
The platform was being migrated from an external legacy tool to an internal more up to date one. I was brought on to design enhancements to critical user journeys on the new system.
What was done
I conducted user research to gain a clear understanding of the different user groups, the platform, and the underlying business goals. Based on these insights, I redesigned the workflows for searching for a drug and updating drug attributes & pricing. The updated designs reduced errors, as noted during team reviews, and received positive feedback for being more visually polished, intuitive, and overall more pleasant to use.
Due to the sensitivity of the platform, prototypes and live demos are not possible, however below are a few screenshots of some low sensitivity portions of the journeys redesigned.
Why was it done
The original system was designed by a third-party to fit the needs of the NHS Business Services Authority at the time, over a decade ago. Due to the nature of the platform's design it did not evolve with changing policies, and circumstances within and outside of the NHS. The business decided it was best to transition to a platform they had full control over due to the sensitivity of the data that was being handled, as well as the evolution of policies and ways of working both internally and externally.
I was brought it to redesign the update journeys, and to perform a usability audit to determine points of improvement from a user experience perspective, and implement said improvements.
How was it done
While the team worked in an agile way, I was able to break the design work into phases. I also did my best to stay involved with other aspects of work being completed on the project in order to have a more robust view of the platform. Below is an overview of how the phases were structured. Research
I began by trying to understand the previous platform and the completed work on the new platform, from a technical perspective, a business perspective and a usability perspective. This involved collaborating with team members of different backgrounds (like developers, testers, analysts, and security professionals), to understand how all parts of the system fit together and worked. I also conducted various user research sessions to understand how people used the platform, and how it fed into any larger work.
Initial designs and validation
With all of the insight I gained into the system and user groups, I was able to map out the user journeys for all of the scenarios in which an update may need to be carried out. I was then able to generate ideas on how to optimise these journeys with the goals of equipping the team responsible to effectively do their jobs, and conserve business resources. In order to assess technical feasibility and keep team members into the loop, I facilitated a workshop with the development team to assess the viabilities of solutions designed before they were presented to users for testing. The workshop was very valuable and feedback gotten was incorporated before it went to the users for testing. I then facilitated moderated sessions with the users to gain insights on the solutions designed. I was able to gain insights on what changes had the most impact, and how the users received them. Iteration, testing and handoff
Based on user feedback, I was able to iterate on the designs and take the design further in the established direction. The designs moved from high fidelity visual designs to coded prototypes they could interact with. I ensured the coded prototypes adhered to accessibility guidelines and were as close to what the final developed solution would be as possible, to ensure users got a full sense of the platform's capabilities and limitations. I also ensured to keep the development team in the loop, to avoid them getting blindsided at the point of hand-off.
The final round of user research and testing was positive, as the design incorporated a lot of the feedback gotten. The development hand-off also went smoothly because the developers had all the context needed and technical constraints had been accounted for.
Conclusion
The final solution was one the business, the users, and developers approved of, partly because of the co-creation environment I fostered within the team to ensure all the moving parts were known and addressed.