Principles - Design principles

These principles guide all of our design. Use them to get started on a project and to help with making decisions.

1. 1

   1 Put users first

   We will learn what our users need and deliver experiences that meet their needs. We are a part of our users’ healthcare journey.

2. 2

   2 Be personal and relevant

   Every engagement should be personal and relevant to the user and their context. Seize opportunities to cross-promote relevant content.

3. 3

   3 Publish with care

   Everything we publish must be created, governed and maintained to be accurate, consistent, and of the highest possible quality.

4. 4

   4 Consider the ecosystem

   Every element of the ecosystem affects the entire ecosystem.

5. 5

   5 Be accessible to all

   we will strive to create an ecosystem that is understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, ability or disability.

6. 6

   6 Reuse and improve

   We will focus on continuous iterative improvement benefiting the whole footprint rather than building new stand-alone products.

7. 7

   7 Be data driven

   All decisions must be evidence based - backed up by data and user research.

8. 8

   8 Address accessibility, privacy, security

   We take our responsibilities in relation to accessibility, privacy and security seriously. We will meet, and aspire to exceed, mandatory standards.

9. 9

   9 Be collaborative

   We will work across health to ensure business needs are met, and identify opportunities to collaborate - with other teams and divisions - for the good of our users.

10. 9

    10 Design for scale

    We will build an infrastructure that can accommodate requirements across the health service.

11. 9

    11 Build for sustainability

    We will Introduce a common lexicon, taxonomy and structured content model to ensure we can leverage future technology and changing user behaviour.

Updated: September 2023