Improving NHS Wifi for patients
The NHS WiFi program aimed to provide a secure and reliable internet connection for patients and staff in care settings across England.
SITUATION
The NHS Wifi program was completed and managed by NHS Digital, but individual trusts and GP practices were responsible for implementing and utilising the platform to deliver healthcare benefits to patients.
Stakeholders had flagged that the post-authentication page, which had previously hoped to be a valuable tool to link to NHS information and services, had low levels of clicks. Poor implementation of NHS Wifi also meant that the promise of localised links and information on the page was not being delivered.
TASK
The objectives of the project was to understand what was happening across the country, the problems and investigate an opportunity to promote the NHS App and seasonal health messages, the possibility of using A/B testing, and the implementation of localised content.
ACTION
I led a discovery to understand how NHS wifi has been implemented across the country and through user testing and analytics - to gain an understanding of how users interacted with the services. Engagement and insight gathering from users and organisations in NHS settings across the England to define problems, dependancies and user needs.
Following identification and prioritisation of user needs, I developed a range of rapid prototypes to test hypotheses to use in user testing of the end-to-end service and help support future opportunities.
RESULT
Findings
As part of the investigation, we found that the landing page was not always linked and the time it was shown varied greatly. Additionally, some WiFi providers service was inconsistent with users being logged out when moving between hospitals and streaming services being blocked in order to upsell other services. The service didn't adhere to accessibility standards and users perception was very poor.
Design and process improvements
To address these issues, I restyled the landing page to align with the NHS.UK Design System whilst also adhering to accessibility standards. Implemented a process for updating content that required approval from NHS England Comms.
Identified future opportunities
The project identified several opportunities, including partnering with NHS login, which is GDPR compliant and centrally managed, and could be used to promote the NHS App and support wider channel shift. NHS login could also help reduce costs and risks for trusts and CCGs by managing user data, and provide an opportunity to upsell through email.
CONTACT
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