DESIGNING WITH, NOT JUST FOR PEOPLE

Co-design sits at the centre of how this works,  collaborating throughout the process, so that solutions reflect real lived experience rather than best guesses.

This approach draws on Experience-Based Co-Design (EBCD), a method developed within healthcare research specifically to bring patients' and staff's lived experience into service and communication design from the start, not just as a final check.

Understanding comes first: uncovering the real needs and experiences behind a project, not assumptions about them.

Example: A participatory journey mapping exercise identified unmet informational needs at key points in the patient journey, insight that directly informed what was designed.

Co-design means designing with people, not just for them. Stakeholders shape the work directly, as collaborators throughout.

Example: an iterative process with people living with PBC helped shape the language, design, and format of patient information resources, refined together at every stage.

Creative solutions shaped by clarity of information, health literacy, and accessible, inclusive design principles.

Example: Brand identity and visual language for DMD Pathways, designed as a mark of reassurance and support for newly diagnosed patients navigating an overwhelming first stage of their journey.

Confidence isn't assumed, it's earned. Every piece of work is validated with the people who'll actually rely on it, so it lands the way it's meant to when it matters most.

Example: the PBC community helped shape and refine the design, and user-test the PBC International resource platform, before it reached the people who'd depend on it.