NHS P3 – ALAN ORCZYK

The brief set by the NHS P3 clinic was to design and prototype a service concept that promotes, communicates and encourages continued participation in clinical trials. I interpreted the challenge within the brief to be about creating a message that would resonate with the public / user’s enough to keep them engaged and participating in the programme as the trials themselves are unpaid and time consuming.

The process began with analysing P3’s current user journey for recruiting volunteers, in order to see which approach may be the most effective in both recruiting and retaining volunteers. Conversations with the client and analysis of their current services led to the realisation that the biggest barrier between a volunteer signing up is the initial screening process. The screening process is lengthy, over the phone, and requires nurses to fill out a lot of paperwork, a process which is not budget approved and therefore unpaid. This is both cost ineffective as well as potentially discouraging to volunteers. Therefore, I decided to focus on the front end of a user’s journey; creating a campaign that attracts them to the clinic, and then creating an improved, digital screening process in the form of a website.

Based on conversations with the client, a key thing stood out when questioning them about why a person may want to sign up for clinical trials – what is the incentive for volunteers? They touched upon how these people’s everyday lives are continuously affected by their conditions. Therefore, the incentive may be aiding in finding a solution when nothing else has worked. They may, in other words, take ownership of their condition, by aiding the fight against it. This idea of taking ownership has really stuck with me causing the creation of a campaign that uses head on imagery to make it personal, whilst showing a strong message, stating how their condition used to affect their life’s’ but now having taking part in the clinical trials, they finally ‘own their condition.