Bloom Media - a full service digital agency

Engage users through modern web design & technologies

The client

Over the past 6 months Bloom Media has been working very closely with several NHS Primary Care trusts (in partnership with one of our CMS providers, Sitekit) including Barnsley, Cheshire, Cambridgeshire and Darlington. Primary Care trusts are responsible for supporting local populations to maximise their health by promoting healthier lifestyles and commissioning services that support this ethos.

The Care Services part of the organisation (Care Services Direct) includes services such as adult health, social care services for mental health, older people's services, physical disability & sensory impairment services and community & primary care services.

For all of the projects Bloom Media has instigated and deployed for the NHS the following common elements have been identified that unify the overall brief for each of the local regions:

• A new design that promoted the trusts' core services and advocated the NHS as a modern thinking health organisation
• An information architecture that was intuitive for all types of users, enabling efficient location of services and content
• A content management system that primarily met the individual needs of each PCT but also empowered NHS staff to manage its ongoing web strategy
• Sites which put the various NHS trusts at the forefront of the internet, embracing web technologies such as video and social networking to capture wider audiences

Design, Development, Sitekit CMS Integration

In deploying Sitekit's CMS we have given the NHS the tools and knowledge to maintain their new websites but also allow them to grow the site organically.

For all of the PCT's we have worked with, establishing an information architecture that met the diverse needs of all the various user types (general public, local authority, service providers, NHS staff) was a crucial part of the task.

Rationalising the primary navigation made it much easier to funnel users to the correct content, although it was the layout and structure of the homepage that primarily assisted in engaging users. This was done by:

• Using imagery that was relative to the demographic rather than the usual "Benetton NHS homepage"
• "Help yourself" – key links to information that allowed users to find information where they could take benefit from the guidance of the sub organisations found within the NHS – e.g. stopping smoking
• NHS choices integration – this tool helped users find the service they were looking for with a single click
• News panel – Having the most up to date news on the homepage, users could instantly see what the trust was doing and promoting. Previously in many cases this content was deeply buried

Following the creative sign off, all templates were then integrated with Sitekit CMS, mapping creative with functions that met the core requirements of the NHS.

Once the various sites site had gone live, we worked with the PCT's to deploy the multimedia and social networking aspects of the site.

This included:

• Video plug-in – Bloom Media developed a bespoke video plug-in that would work within the Sitekit templates, allowing the site administrator to easily embed YouTube videos into any page template. This was extremely successful in creating further awareness of the recent Swine Flu epidemic.
• Twitter - Twitter now takes precedence on the homepage of the Barnsley PCT site and is used as a communication mechanism allowing the community of Barnsley to post their thoughts and comments, but this isn’t just a one way conversation. NHS Barnsley has successfully used Twitter to organise events such as charity runs and walks promoting healthy living.

Increased traffic levels and user engagement with NHS's core services.

Taking NHS Barnsley as an example, the new site has met and in some cases exceeded, all of the original objectives set by NHS Barnsley. To break this down further:

• The design has become something of a benchmark, with NHS Essex, NHS Cheshire and Darlington all contacting us wanting an "NHS Barnsley!". A term that has been coined by the trust itself.
• With the improvement of the information architecture and overall site design, we have seen traffic typically at 45,000 visits a month, peaking now at 120,000. This is an increase of 260%.