GENOMICS ENGLAND
UX design and facilitation of multi-stakeholder collaboration for biological sample collection and tracking in variable NHS hospital environments
Impact: Shortening time to delivery from months to weeks, team alignment, bridging the gap between physical and digital design.
Lead UX Designer • Sprint Facilitator • Working with NHS systems • Service Design • Web design • Designing for consent • Consent Ethics
Summary
PROBLEM
Genomics England (GEL) was launching an ambitious new project to collect samples from newborns right after birth in order to test them for a variety of rare genetic disorders. Early diagnosis improves life quality outcomes in cases of such rare diseases.
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We needed to design a reliable in-hospital experience and a digital system for sample collection and processing that would work in variable of NHS hospital environments, connecting the NHS and GEL data systems.
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Additionally, we needed to design the consent experience for participating mothers as well as a website with information about the program.
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This task involved multiple cross-functional and cross-organisational stakeholders and was highly sensitive.
CONTRIBUTIONS
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Proactively identified the need for alignment and collaboration, initiated and organised the first Design Sprint the company has ever experienced as well as a series of collaborative workshops in order to unblock the project
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Led the team in cross-functional collaboration across research, design, service design, operations, project management and engineering to arrive at tested end-to-end solutions​
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Designed digital products for participant and sample handling in line with NHS design systems standards
IMPACT
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My proactive leadership ensured alignment among stakeholder, unblocked the project, and created a leap in progress
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The Design Sprint was such a success that other teams started requesting it
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Participants of the Sprint, including the CMO (now CEO) described it as their "favourite week at work"
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Simple design solutions created in close collaboration with engineering ensured seamless integration between GEL and NHS systems
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I departed before the project was launched (launched Oct 2024) but my work wad pivotal in delivering this project
THE CHALLENGE
Enable midwives to create a newborn case and record a sample in a way that fits in with their workflow.
Process: Collaboration across Research, Service, Design and Tech
COLLABORATION
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Because we were designing for real hospital environments and the events around giving birth it was critical to understand the variable settings
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The digital products needed were connected to real-world events and samples
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Because of the above, it was critical to ensure alignment between the service design, the midwife experience, the mum experience, the logistics, and the GEL + hospital technologies
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I initiated and led a design sprint that allowed this project to leapfrog ahead
Action shot of the Design Sprint: Service design, research, logistics ops, and engineering collaborating on integrated solutions.
RESEARCH
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Foundational research on the variety of hospitals and the workflows of midwives and research midwives was critical.
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We conducted interviews with recent mums about their experiences giving birth, as well as with mums to be about their expectations
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All solutions were verified with usability testing and feedback gathering from midwives and mums to be.
SOLUTIONS AND DESIGNS
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Foundational research on the variety of hospitals and the workflows of midwives and research midwives was critical.
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We conducted interviews with recent mums about their experiences giving birth, as well as with mums to be about their expectations
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All solutions were verified with usability testing and feedback gathering from midwives and mums to be.
The product design and software architecture underlying it needed to support the real-world sample collection. We prototyped the sample collection bag in accordance with our needs, system requirements as well as research standards, so that we could design a realistic and reliable system for capturing and recording samples.
Screen example. Designs were created in line with the NHS standards. The product was designed for tablet use as tablets were the devices used by hospitals.
Screenshot of the visualisation of the prototype flow for participant registration and sample intake in Figma.
IMPACT
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Unblocked and leapfrogged progress on the project — thanks to my initiative and preparation, I was able to persuade various stakeholders that participation in a collaborative session lasting a few days will be beneficial to the project, and it was. In fact, other teams started to request design sprints.
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The designs tested successfuly with the users and informed elegant backend design.
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I departed before launch, but the project launched successfully. Click here to read the BBC coverage.
Participants in the program: Dominika with her newborn daughter Emilia. Source: BBC.
Read about the launch of the program on the BBC