ACT Health - Research + artefacts
Client
ACT Health Directorate
My role
Service designer / UX researcher
Deliverables
Research report, personas, journey maps, service blueprint
Context
Digital health services, Canberra
Overview
ACT Health wanted to move more of its outpatient and community health interactions online: booking, referrals, pre-appointment forms and results. Before building anything, the directorate needed a clear, evidence-based picture of how patients, carers and clinicians actually experience those services today.
I led a discovery phase that produced the research and design artefacts the program used to prioritise its digital roadmap.
The challenge
- Services spanned hospitals, community health centres and GPs, each with its own systems and paperwork.
- Patients repeated the same information at every step and rarely knew where they were in the process.
- Clinical and administrative staff had strong but conflicting views about what "the problem" was.
- Research had to include people with low digital confidence, carers and people whose first language is not English.
Research
Stakeholder workshops
Mapped the current service with clinical leads, admin teams and the digital program to agree on scope and assumptions.
Patient and carer interviews
In-depth interviews in clinics and at home, recruited through community organisations to reach a diverse group.
Clinician shadowing
Observed outpatient clinics and reception desks to see where the paper, phone calls and workarounds really happen.
Data review
Combined call centre logs, did-not-attend rates and web analytics with what people told us.
Artefacts
Every artefact was designed to be used in a meeting, not filed away. They were printed large, put on walls and updated as the program learned more.
Personas
Six patient and carer personas grounded in interview data, each with goals, access needs and channel preferences.
Journey maps
End-to-end journeys for referral, first appointment and follow-up, showing emotions, touchpoints and pain points.
Service blueprint
Front-stage and back-stage view linking patient actions to staff, systems and policy dependencies.
Opportunity map
Prioritised opportunities scored on patient impact, clinical value and delivery effort.
"I get a letter, then a text, then a phone call, and none of them say the same thing. I just want one place that tells me what happens next."
Outpatient, research interviewOutcome
The artefacts became the shared reference for the digital program. The top opportunity, a single "where am I up to" status view across referral and appointments, went straight into the next phase of design and was tested with the same participants who helped define it.