Agency: Brand Ethos
Client: Health Education England
Capturing the attention of students and teachers, a redesign has transformed engagement with the Step into the NHS website.
With serious workforce challenges, there is pressure to recruit more people from all backgrounds into the NHS. But to develop a pipeline, engagement needs to start early in schools.
Step into the NHS, England’s go-to health careers website for teachers and pupils, had seen an increase in site visits at the start of the pandemic but was failing to hold user attention.
A site rebuild was out of the question due to Covid, time and budget restrictions. Instead, the user experience was transformed through a reskin of the site, undertaken by Brand Ethos.
The new design solution is a playful combination of the NHS identity with the simple concept of a doorway into a career. Used creatively and cohesively across the site and its associated resources, the website and literature now work as one.
The improved user experience has generated a dramatic increase in resource downloads, up 65% year-on-year. And during National Careers Week, the number of site users increased 98% on the previous year, while page views leapt 179%.
In research, 100% of teachers said the new website gave them a clear idea of what Step into the NHS was for. And it’s engaging and inspiring 7 to 16 year-olds at a critical point in considering their careers.