Our process combines user research, service discovery, UX design, and rapid prototyping to de-risk digital projects and align them with NHS goals, clinical workflows, and user expectations. Whether you’re planning a new platform, enhancing an existing product, or shaping an MVP for investment or procurement, we work with you to build clarity, confidence, and consensus from the start.
By grounding every decision in evidence, usability, and patient safety, we help you deliver digital health products that work in the real world — not just on paper.
Understanding Research and Design in Digital Health
Designing software for healthcare isn’t like designing for other sectors. Clinical environments are complex. User needs are varied. Systems must be intuitive, compliant, and safe — often simultaneously.
That’s why we take a research-led approach to discovery and design. We bring together service designers, UX/UI specialists, healthcare technologists, and clinical stakeholders to understand the problems that matter and co-design solutions that solve them.
Whether you’re working with clinicians, patients, NHS administrators, or third-party partners, we focus on uncovering real needs and mapping them to viable, scalable technology. Our team has worked across primary care, secondary care, mental health, social care, and public health settings — giving us a deep understanding of the ecosystem your product needs to live in.
Our Research and Design Process
Every engagement begins with collaborative discovery. We facilitate workshops, interviews, and stakeholder mapping sessions to understand current workflows, pain points, opportunities, and regulatory constraints. We assess the wider service context to ensure the solution supports — not disrupts — existing care delivery.
From there, we create user journey maps, service blueprints, and experience flows that reflect how people will actually interact with the product. These artefacts guide our UI/UX design phase, where we translate research insights into elegant, accessible, and compliant user interfaces.
We build interactive prototypes using tools like Figma or code-based mockups, allowing for early usability testing and iteration. This ensures we validate assumptions early and avoid costly rework later in the development cycle.
Where needed, we produce evidence for NHS DTAC, DCB0129, and clinical safety assessments — ensuring design decisions can withstand regulatory scrutiny and align with national digital health expectations.
Benefits of Investing in Research and Design
Strong design decisions early in the process reduce delivery risk, shorten development cycles, and increase the likelihood of adoption. In healthcare, good design isn’t just about aesthetics — it’s about clinical safety, clarity, and confidence.
A well-researched and validated design helps ensure:
- The product aligns with real clinical and patient needs
- Interfaces are usable under pressure and in varied contexts
- Accessibility and inclusion are designed in from day one
- Stakeholders — from users to governance boards — are engaged early
- Future development is more efficient, with fewer pivots or delays
Through investing in research and design, you lay a strong foundation for a product that’s not only technically sound but clinically useful and ready for the NHS landscape.
Why Choose 6B for Research and Design?
At 6B, we bridge the gap between discovery and delivery. Our team doesn’t just hand over designs — we create foundations that feed directly into successful development. We understand what needs to happen after the prototype is approved, and we design with that end in mind.
We’ve helped startups define market-ready MVPs, supported NHS Trusts in reimagining digital pathways, and worked with national bodies on compliant, patient-centred interfaces. Our methods are agile, evidence-based, and aligned with NHS design standards and accessibility guidance.
We know what it takes to deliver user-centred digital health solutions — and we bring the research, rigour, and creativity to make it happen.
Selected Research and Design Case Studies
Explore how we’ve partnered with health and care organisations to deliver research and design projects that solve complex challenges and drive measurable impact.
NHS South Yorkshire ICB
AI Software to Automate Primary Care Communications
Spectral AI
Integrating AI Wound Imaging with Hospital EPR Systems
Dyad
Accelerating Heart Diagnostics Through EMIS Integration
Greater Manchester Combined Authority
Integrating GMCA’s Early Years Service with EMIS and SystmOne
Estimate the Cost of Your Research and Design Project
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Want to speak to someone today? Call 6B on 0113 350 1290.
Readiness checklist for Research and Design
- Clarify the problem statements and desired outcomes the research and design work must address
- Identify key stakeholder groups (clinicians, patients, admin staff, commissioners) and confirm availability for interviews and workshops
- Gather existing service maps, process documentation, and any prior user research or feedback
- Define compliance and accessibility requirements (e.g., DTAC, DCB0129/0160, NHS accessibility standards)
- Prepare sample data, anonymised cases, or scenarios that can be used in prototypes and usability testing
- Agree on decision-makers and sign-off process for user journeys, prototypes, and design artefacts
- Allocate internal champions or product owners who can provide rapid feedback during iteration cycles
Speak To Our Research and Design Experts
Whether you're developing a new digital health product or extending an existing solution with Research and Design, 6B brings the technical expertise, healthcare insight, and experience needed to accelerate delivery.
