HEALTHCARE LOGISTICS / PROCUREMENT

NHS Supply Chain.

Role UX/UI Designer Actions Discovery, UX Strategy, Information Architecture, Wireframing, Prototyping, Accessibility, Stakeholder Engagement, Interaction Design, Usability Testing Year 2024 - Present
1. OVERVIEW

NHS Supply Chain is responsible for sourcing, delivering and supplying healthcare products and services to NHS organisations across England and Wales. Supporting more than 17,000 delivery locations and facilitating millions of orders each year, NHS Supply Chain plays a critical role in helping the NHS put patients first.

2. CHALLENGE

The Digital Commerce Platform (DCP) supports a wide range of users, organisations and purchasing scenarios, each with their own requirements, permissions and workflows.

Many challenges involved simplifying complex tasks while balancing user expectations, business rules and technical constraints. Examples include:

  • user and permission management through the User Management Portal (UMP).
  • custom purchasing experiences through Tailored Catalogues.
  • product discovery and ordering improvements.
  • scheduled ordering functionality.
  • Quick Add ordering journeys.

A significant challenge was designing intuitive experiences within the constraints of a legacy technology estate while ensuring solutions remained accessible, scalable and aligned with organisational objectives.

3. USERS AND AUDIENCE

Primary users include:

  • NHS procurement professionals.
  • Buyers.
  • Approvers.
  • Administrators.
  • Clinical and non-clinical staff.
  • NHS organisations with complex purchasing requirements.

Understanding differences between user roles, permissions and organisational behaviours is critical to designing effective experiences.

4. RESPONSIBILITIES

My responsibilities include:

  • leading UX activities from discovery through delivery.
  • producing wireframes and interactive prototypes.
  • facilitating design discussions with stakeholders.
  • applying NHS and GOV.UK design principles.
  • championing accessibility and inclusive design.
  • collaborating with Researchers, Product Owners, Business Analysts, Developers and other third-party delivery partners.
  • validating design solutions through feedback and iterative improvements.

As the sole UX designer on key initiatives including UMP and Tailored Catalogues, I was responsible for driving design direction while balancing user needs with business and technical considerations.

5. SCOPE

The scale and complexity of NHS Supply Chain's digital ecosystem introduces a variety of challenges:

  • Complex organisational structures across NHS Trusts.
  • Diverse user needs and permission models.
  • Legacy technology constraints.
  • Accessibility requirements.
  • Evolving business requirements.
  • Integration dependencies across multiple systems and suppliers.

Success often requires balancing ideal user experiences with practical delivery constraints, while ensuring the core user needs remain central to decision-making.

6. PROCESS

I adopted an iterative and collaborative approach throughout each initiative.

Activities included:

  • discovery and requirements gathering.
  • user journey mapping.
  • information architecture reviews.
  • wireframing and prototyping.
  • design critiques and stakeholder reviews.
  • accessibility assessments.
  • usability testing.
  • collaboration with development teams during implementation.

A key aspect of the role involved influencing product decisions and challenging assumptions to ensure solutions addressed genuine user needs rather than simply implementing requested functionality.

Projects such as UMP, Tailored Catalogues and Quick Add required continuous collaboration with stakeholders, Product Owners and development teams to navigate complexity, resolve constraints and deliver value incrementally.

7. OUTCOMES

Since joining NHS Supply Chain, I've:

  • led UX design across 20+ platform features and enhancements.
  • acted as sole UX designer on major initiatives.
  • improved key user journeys covering ordering, approvals, account management and product discovery.
  • promoted accessibility standards and GDS-aligned design practices.
  • increased the visibility and influence of UX within project and stakeholder discussions.
  • helped shape product decisions through evidence-based design thinking and user-centred principles.

Looking ahead, the NHS Supply Chain Modernisation Programme presents significant opportunities to further improve user experiences by overcoming many of the constraints associated with the current technology landscape. As digital capabilities continue to evolve, UX will play an increasingly important role in ensuring these investments translate into meaningful outcomes for NHS customers.