The challenge
A shared pathway across different organisations.
The collaboration involved the National Autistic Society, Barnardo’s and the NHS. Families and referrers needed clearer routes into support, while staff needed access to relevant information and a workable referral process. Improving one website alone would leave the handovers between organisations unresolved.
My contribution
Connect research with the referral experience.
I contributed UX research and design, examining the existing referral process and barriers to accessing information. The work included stakeholder discussions, usability studies, heuristic evaluation and card sorting. I used the findings to inform website navigation, design artefacts and the partner dashboard experience.
Design decisions
A common structure with familiar identities.
The partner dashboards bring referral actions, safeguarding, documents, young person and carer information into a shared structure. Each retains the partner’s identity. This gave the collaboration a consistent starting point while recognising the different services and working practices involved.
Accessibility
Make the route easier to understand and operate.
My design work considered plain language, predictable navigation, readable content, contrast and keyboard access. Usability feedback helped identify where support was missing. Accessibility requirements informed the interface work alongside the practical constraints of the partner systems.
Collaboration and delivery
Agree the service as well as the screens.
The partnership approach required each organisation to contribute time and knowledge to configuring its SystmOne unit. Scope and sign off needed to be agreed at each stage. I worked within this shared process, using prototypes and feedback to develop the experience and support iteration.
Outputs and reflection
Make the handover part of the design.
The work produced partner dashboard designs and improvements to navigation, content and referral touchpoints. The central lesson was that a connected service needs agreement about responsibilities and information as well as a usable interface. Referral volume was not evaluated within this design work.
The principle behind the work
A consistent experience depends on people and processes agreeing at the points where services meet.