Project Overview
Established by the Victorian Government Department of Health in 1999, the Better Health Channel (BHC) is Australia's leading health and medical information website. With a reputation for quality-assured, comprehensive and trustworthy information, it receives over one million unique visitors each month.
The multi-award winning site has regularly been ranked by Experian Hitwise as the No. 1 Health and Medical Information Website in Australia.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
UX & creative designer, iOS developer – Chris van Raay
Creative designer – Andrew Nguyen
Creative Director – Jason Hutchinson
Project Manager – Paul Jones
Project Partner – Frank Farrall
Multiple team members from the Victorian Department of Health - Digital Services and Strategy Unit
Project Brief
Seeking to leverage that success, Deloitte were commissioned by the Department of Health and worked closely with them to develop the Better Health Channel app which empowers health consumers to take control of their health and wellbeing anywhere anytime.
The process began with a series of collaborative workshops to determine what functions the app would incorporate, consulting with a diverse range of stakeholders across Victorian Government departments. Research on mobile user behaviours and interests in healthcare was also considered. Using a library of standard iOS user interface elements, Deloitte created wireframes to visualise the proposed user experience, and adapted the Better Health Channel brand to the mobile interface using creative treatments.
Collaboration between the Department of Health Digital Services and Strategy Unit and Deloitte Digital ensured the successful delivery of the application. Deloitte Digital utilised their mobile development expertise to develop the app using native iOS functions, gestures and animations, ensuring the app would be intuitive to mobile users.
Concurrently, the Department of Health developed the server functionality required to serve the data for content structures, fact sheets and service provider lookup.
Project Need
Extensive BHC health and medical information, including information on health conditions, treatments, medical procedures and first aid.
Information can be found by category, A-Z index, or text search.
A location-based search to find health service providers in Victoria, such as doctors, dentists, pharmacists and physiotherapists. Each service provider’s information includes contact details and map directions, and users are able to save a list of their favourite providers.
Urgent medical help and advice contacts including Nurse on Call, Kids Helpline, Poisons Information, Lifeline and more.
Design Challenge
Health and wellbeing are influenced by the places in which people live, learn, work and play. Engaging with individuals and families in these settings and in meaningful ways is often one of the most effective ways to enable people to make decisions that improve their health status and reduce their risk of ill-health .
The online environment and mobile specifically is one such setting that has important implications for access to health information and improved health literacy and behaviours.
For over a decade now the Better Health Channel has been helping improve the health literacy of all Victorians by providing quality assured, trusted, and easy to understand health information and is today considered Australia's pre-eminent consumer health and medical website.
While there are a range of medical apps in the market place none are comparable to the breadth, depth and reliability of information provided by the Better Health Channel app.
In addition to this, the app directly addresses increasing individual and community interest in sourcing quality health information and services on the go anytime, anywhere whenever the need arises.
The app extends the reach and convenience of access to health information and services which in turn contributes to a healthier community and a reduction in the cost to the health system.
Sustainability
Deloitte Digital works within strict sustainability policies and is committed to environmental conservation.
At Deloitte, we take our green agenda very seriously. This is reflected by actively encouraging an environmentally conscious approach to all procurement and consumption decisions made within the firm, every day of the week.
We recently launched our new GreenTracker carbon management system that captures all emissions data and calculates our carbon footprint. In that way, we encourage our people to be environmental leaders, taking personal ownership of their impact at work and at home.
Tags
Digital Experience - Mobile
This award recongises innovation and unique user experience in the combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content for games. Consideration given to clarity of communication and the matching information style to audience.
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