COVID-19 Health Hub
"The Hub greatly eases the stress of what can be a difficult time for so many. It’s another great example of how we’re still supporting people to successfully manage COVID-19 at home and slowing the spread of the virus in our communities.”
The project
As New Zealand approached its third year in the global COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials evolved their response to reflect ongoing research, vaccines, and new variants of the virus. Individuals started to play a new role in self-managing COVID-19 at home.
The Ministry of Health worked with RUSH to design and build a website and set of dynamic content tools to act as the single source of truth for people with COVID-19 and their households - one that would connect people to other digital services, and that could be instantly updated with new information as it came to hand.
Expertise
Accessibility
UX Design
UI Design
Frontend Development
Backend Development
Cloud / Systems Integration
Quality Assurance & Testing
60,000
Unique visitors per week
27,564
Fulfilled requests within its first seven days
10
Language choices available
Designing for inclusion
As a partnership, we were able to hit the ground running with this project, with our team experienced in adhering to strict Government accessibility guidelines and experience in designing tools for responding to a pandemic. Serving New Zealanders also meant providing multiple language options, and a plan to roll out more languages in the future including left-to-right languages.
Public information needs to be able to be presented at the highest level of equitable access in line with WCAG accessibility standards, and the site was audited by Access Advisors for compliance. In addition, we completed testing with real people with access needs to observe whether they could navigate the site and find key information, ensuring usability for people who use screen readers.
"By understanding what New Zealanders need, the Ministry of Health quickly stood up a central Hub to be a single source of truth for COVID-19 information. This Hub enables people with COVID-19 and their contacts to manage their illness at home. It provides bite-sized pieces of mobile friendly content at a glance empowering people to know what they need to do and when."
Highly flexible editing
Built as a ReactJS single page application utilising .NET Core APIs and Gather Content CMS, the solution is a dynamic website with rich content and a responsive layout from mobile to desktop. Integrating with the Ministry's existing CMS platform provides the ability for them to publish up-to-the-minute advice without the need for a release. Core content is translated into different languages and able to be published in alternate formats. Character illustrations and greetings can also be changed out based on language selection.
The only constant is change
Content managers at the Ministry of Health needed a solution that allowed their team the ability to alter customer components, edit content, create entirely new pages, remove unnecessary pages, or move existing pages independently, whenever necessary. Old URLs such as those referenced by other pages or services can easily be set to redirect to the new location when a page is moved. They can also update breadcrumbs, metadata, and site navigation at any time. As the solution grew, other requirements included being able to change the layout and formatting of the content, in order to display information in a clear and attractive way. One of the most functional tools is the household isolation tool to create an isolation timeline for your household. This custom component confirms who needs to isolate, the dates they need a test, and when they can leave isolation. It will also give you self-isolation dates for those in your house who have COVID-19, for as many people as you need.
Give it a go
A person can find the most up to date information on the government requirements, removing uncertainty and providing the Ministry of Health the ability to update their advice as the situation changes.
Visit the COVID-19 Health Hub here.
A person can find the most up to date information on the government requirements, removing uncertainty and providing the Ministry of Health the ability to update their advice as the situation changes.
Visit the COVID-19 Health Hub here.
Ready to make better happen?
