Making the NHS design system fit for the future – NHS England Digital
The NHS brand is highly trusted and needs to be protected. The NHS logo and blue colour scheme is a trust mark to many. Digital products that look like phishing sites, or fake NHS websites can cause real harm, which makes maintaining visual and brand consistency both a cyber security and clinical safety issue.
If something looks and behaves like an NHS website, people are more likely to trust it. But, if a legitimate NHS digital product doesn’t look authentic, people may avoid using it. At best, that wastes public money. At worst it causes harm to people.
Without a shared, easy to use and accessible NHS design system, and the NHS frontend code behind it, teams and organisations will create inconsistent digital products, developed in isolation, using varying styles, patterns and standards. This results in fragmented, and inconsistent experiences that undermine trust and increase clinical risk.
Usability and accessibility are clinical risk issues. If a person cannot order their repeat prescription, they may run out of medicine. If a healthcare professional or a clinician enters wrong data into a patient’s medical record, it can have serious consequences.
The NHS design system provides consistent, usable, and accessible components that help reduce those risks.
We know the design system works. And as the NHS continues to shift from analogue to digital, as set out in Fit for the future: 10 year health plan for England, the design system now provides a more secure and efficient underpinning for this journey. It reduces duplication and saves money. Giving teams across the system a shared set of tools and patterns means effort goes into solving real health challenges rather than rebuilding the basics.
