January is always my time to look back and consider the previous year, and since I started this tradition, I have always loved that moment of pausing to reflect on what we’ve achieved.
It has been another intense year where the team have worked phenomenally hard across our platforms (nhs.uk, our social media channels and our syndication offer) to support patients and families to engage with their health and services. The numbers are impressive, and we know the impact stretches far beyond that.
Here are 5 of my key reflections, in no particular order:
1. We need to keep challenging ourselves to do better at inclusion
A key theme I’m particularly proud of has been a focus on drive to improve inclusion and hold high standards; making a good start on improving diverse skin tones in website imagery, and advocating for proper use of accessibility features across channels and inclusion of BSL. The thing that I’ve found personally challenging is that it seems harder than it should be. Which feels an incredible thing to say from my position of privilege, and not in a good way. Doing things properly and changing things that are systemic takes time and perseverance. Hurdles include finding ways to get clinical sign off when medical training itself isn’t diverse, building image library with appropriate permissions, presenting in ways that is anchored the language people use to talk about their own skin tone / grouping. I am glad to be surrounded by people who keep pushing at those boundaries, and recognising when diving in to just ‘fix’ isn’t the right thing. While it’s not as fast as any of us would like, some small steps represent progress in the initial tough shifts — such as the new gallery to show conditions on different skin tones, now that is tested and published on our chicken pox page. I hope we then scale quickly with the good foundations. We can, and should, do better.
Beyond website and social content, we need to think about workplace culture, recruitment and more. These sit as part of my personal goals for the year ahead.
2. We need to look after our staff, in particular we need to have some conversations about pace, boundaries and balance.
I think many people have found 2021 really challenging, with the pandemic impacting our lives longer than many of us expected. Nearly all of us have lost people we loved, whether to covid or other causes, and many of the team have tested positive themselves, and juggled sick partners, home schooling and/or isolation. It can be challenging when work and home blurs so much and when work is constantly in the news you can quickly burn out if you don’t set good boundaries (note, I know we are lucky to be in secure work etc, this isn’t meant to be self pity!) I think we are lucky that I believe the Engagement team feel able to bring their whole self to work, and we have clinicians that support us by running sessions to offload for people who have had to deal with sticky situations, including patients in crisis who may reach out via any channel. Some of the team effectively offer digital front line support, and that’s not always easy (see the blog post by our social media manager Joe Freeman — ‘Social media managers have feelings too’). We get replies from some people who appreciate a personal supportive response, which makes it all seem worth it! Its important to remember that We can’t (and shouldn’t) sustain the insane pace of the first 12 months of pandemic
3. Challenging misinformation is relentless
The team plays an incredible role in producing clear easy to engage with content in varied formats that all helps people access reliable scientifically backed up information. Its been fascinating to engage with key social platforms who are trying to find ways to keep information safe without compromising their role for audiences.
4. It’s not all about big numbers
The huge numbers are really motivating — social media numbers in the billions is obviously exciting, and not a little humbling, but so is 1 person telling us this video impacted their life. For syndication, it can be really interesting talking to a new innovator who is looking to integrate NHS website content in a brand new product, or to a huge tech provider who will immediately reach millions. When we can encourage one service provider to engage with feedback left on their profile, it may impact health experiences for many others.
5. User-centered design is rightly at the heart of what we do
I was involved in a project led internally by our head of User Research, Rochelle Gold, and design agency Snook, building a model to support workshops for teams to reflect on their user-centered design maturity. Every workshop I’ve been involved in has been fascinating to learn about the breadth of work happening across our Product Delivery directorate, and its been really interesting to engage in conversations about the role of content design where products aren’t public facing. It has historically felt like a challenge at times to advocate why content design expertise brings more than someone with reasonable communication skills can, and how important it is that all our digital products make it as easy as possible for people to do what they need to do. That dial seems to have shifted in terms of awareness and appetite, so as community of practice lead for content across NHS Digital, there are exciting times ahead.
Other links:
At the beginning of the year Adriano Gazza wrote about using UCD practices in multimedia: How to place users at the heart of multimedia storytelling — NHS Digital
A blog post from earlier in the year about improving our approach to skin symptoms: https://digital.nhs.uk/blog/design-matters/2021/making-content-about-skin-symptoms-more-inclusive
Our service manual guidance on inclusive approach to skin symptoms: https://service-manual.nhs.uk/content/make-content-about-skin-symptoms-more-inclusive
Rich Kelly in multimedia team wrote about accessible, relatable, potentially life saving video: https://digital.nhs.uk/blog/design-matters/2021/creating-content-that-saves-lives
The infographic in full:
