User-Centred Design (UCD) principles

Over the last few years, the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) has strived to improve transparency and develop better communication and engagement strategies with our stakeholders.  

In September 2023, we undertook a user need research project to gain a better understanding of user needs and a key pledge within the NDRS strategic plan 2024-27 was the commitment for NDRS to become a more user-needs focused service.   

An internal working group was therefore created to support this mission and implement a User-Centred Design (UCD) approach across all NDRS teams. Details of their objectives are shown below. 

What is user-centred design and what does it mean for NDRS? 

User-centred design (UCD) is an iterative design process in which designers and other stakeholders focus on the users and their needs in each phase of the process. UCD involves users via a variety of research and design techniques, aiming to create highly usable and accessible products. 

For NDRS this means understanding who our current and potential users are, what they are trying to achieve and what they need from us to support that. It also means:

• ensuring an alignment of all NDRS outputs with user needs and service scope
• supporting NDRS staff with embedding UCD principles into their work, from design to publication
• ensuring proactive engagement with existing and new users
• and tailoring outputs according to user insights, feedback and requirements.

At the centre of this work are the NDRS users. We need your input, suggestions and feedback to help us improve what we do, what we deliver and to ensure it meets your needs.   

You can sign up to take part in future user research projects by completing a short sign-up form.  

Please note that the data you share with us will only be used for this purpose. No personal information will be shared with any third-party service providers. You can unsubscribe from this register by following the link on any of the emails you receive or by emailing [email protected]

We may contact you when we are working on a user research project related to the areas of interest you share on the sign-up form above. This may be for a general assessment of your user-needs or to help us develop a specific new or existing output.  

When we contact you, we may ask you to help by, for example:

• completing a survey
• sharing details about what information you are using in an output and what you are trying to achieve using the information
• allowing some of our team to shadow you in a short session while you are using an output, to help us understand how you interact with the output and how easy or difficult it is to get the information you need
• providing targeted feedback on a proposed or existing output
• joining a user workshop 

You will always have the opportunity to be as involved as much or as little as you like, as you are free to accept or decline opportunities as they come up.  

You can also unsubscribe from this user research project at any time by following the link on any of the emails you receive or by emailing [email protected]