News & Events > Design of health information

Usability issues may prevent older adults from easily accessing web based information. Prior research has shown that ageing is associated with a unique pattern of cognitive changes, and knowledge of these changes may be used in the design of health websites for older adults. This study examines the use of two different web site structures, one based on key words and another based on a hierarchy (folders). While younger adults outperformed older adults in the hierarchical set up, there were no significant age-related differences in the tag-based set up, indicating that older adults performed as well as younger adults in this area.

Experienced based design is a new way of bringing patients and staff together to share the role of improving care and re-designing services. It is being developed by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement as a way of helping NHS teams make the improvements their patients really want. Some of the techniques can be used in the design of information as well as services.

Researchers are testing to see whether pictures of squares, colored dots and simple charts can help patients make complicated medical decisions.

Guidance now available from the NHS Identity web site.

Your chance to comment on this new Department of Health guidance.