Merging two existing NHS websites
Two NHS hospitals, Bedford Hospital and Luton & Dunstable Hospital, needed to merge their websites under the identity of Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The problem
Two existing sites with their own site maps needed to come together under one NHS site and not confuse the user which hospital the information is referring to.
- The majority of users were accessing both websites via mobile. Whilst L&D was at least responsive, Bedford Hospital was not.
- The client wanted the design to set a framework for other NHS websites, so had to follow NHS brand guidelines. Neither websites did.
- As there was to be information for 2 different hospitals every page needed to be clear if the user is on Bedford Hospital related content or L&D. This was due to users not always navigating the site from the home page – Google searches on ward information, for example.
- Contrast and colour accessibly needed to be addressed in the new site.
- L&D featured in the top 30 Silktide* Index, Bedford did not. The intention was to ensure the merge would keep them in the top 30.
*Silktide are leading providers of website testing and governance software. Automating testing for accessibility for NHS Trusts amongst many other industries.
The Design Process
The client required 3 mobile first conceptual designs that considered user research and journeys and simple UI to make the navigation and identification of both hospitals feel seamless.
- Initially it seemed the obvious way to approach the design would be to have a landing page that gave the user a clear option to go this way for Bedford of that way for L&D. But it soon became clear that this would not make the website feel as one which was the client wanted.
- So starting with the top nav we journeyed through different user personas to get to their destinations and also considered the website was not initially navigated from the home page but through searching for things like “where is the bedford hospital x- ray department” or “what are the patient visiting hours at luton hospital”.
- With this in mind we needed to find an identifier to show which hospital the content related to. This was achieved by including a ‘warning’ bar that would appear at the top of the content page stating “Please be aware, the information on this page relates to X Hospital only.”
- All pages that were “shared” or not specific to a particular hospital had the option include accordions. So for example instead of 2 ‘contact us’ pages there is 1 with an accordion that can be expanded depending on the hospital the user selects.
- From an accessibility position all contrast and colours passed the minim AA standard and some AAA (which was not a requirement but a bonus).
The results
Super excited to reveal that the finished website peaked at number THREE in the top 30 Silktide Index.
- The client has successfully created their framework from this product design
- Fully accessible from a contrast and colour perspective
- Lovely mobile experience – easy to use blocks and accordions