February - June 2007

Independent healthcare watchdog, the Healthcare Commission promote improvement in the NHS by inspecting trusts and awarding ratings.

The job

In 2006 the Healthcare Commission put in place a completely new assessment process. My mission was to create an information architecture that gave easy, intuitive access to the new results and displayed the complex data with at-a-glance clarity.

Migraine material

To begin with I was daunted by the huge volume of healthcare information out there. But there’s no match for speaking with people to get up-to-speed, so I talked to as many stakeholders as I could find. It paid off, and soon my head was buzzing with Trusts, SHA’s, and Core Standards. It became clear to me that that the site needed to target the public as well as healthcare professionals, and so the scope broadened.

To bring together a site’s content, the goals of it’s users, and the needs of the organisation … is an information architect’s goal.

Next I had to understand the Byzantine assessment process itself, and then deal with the internal politics and conflicting internal requirements. Real migraine material, but with a systematic method and plenty of stakeholder meetings to get buy-in, it began to come together.

The clear path

With all of these factors in focus I set myself to simmer.

To bring together site content, user goals, and organisational needs, in a solution that suits everyone, is the information architect’s goal. Done properly, a solution seems simple. But creating this simplicity is where the magic is. I have the talent, vision, and intuition it takes to see the clear path, and then realise it.

With the Healthcare Commission site, inspiration came and I knew what had to be done. Wireframes and user testing followed.

Live with a fanfare

On October 12th 2006 the site went live with a fanfare that included lead article on the BBC news home page. The controversy over poor trust performance did not extend to the site itself, which was considered a resounding success by the Healthcare Commission.

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