Late Feb, we held a focus group to enable us to delve deeper than we had already via the user journey mapping. We wanted to ask ‘why’ questions – to gain more insight into the motivations, attitudes and reasoning of potential users. We also hoped we may engage some people that had never been to a sexual health clinic before and thought hearing their reasons for not going would be good to understand. Almost 80 people joined us representing a really diverse population.
We designed a carousel system that had seven stations:
- The concept of SH24
- Your details
- Your STI kit
- Your results
- Your treatment
- Finding us
- What have we missed?
At each station, one of our team introduced the topic and then we invited people to discuss their opinions, queries, motivations and suggestions of improvement. The groups travelled through the journey set out in the seven stations. One SH24 team member noted what was being said on post it notes and stuck them on the wall-mounted posters.
Some of the key themes that emerged from the discussions were:
- People need reassurance about being able to do the test correctly, and that their test had been received by the lab.
- There was also a demand for reassurance about confidentiality of personal data and sexual health history.
- Choices are highly valued, users want to be able to feel in control and be able to tailor their experience. For example, some wanted a choice over when they would receive their results, some didn’t want to have a message flash up on their phones whilst they're at work, or with their children.
- There was a clear demand for online chat with a clinician. This seemed most useful when users imagined receiving a positive result.
- Accessing SH24 via an app rather than a URL was also a popular suggestion, some feeling that they felt an app would be more secure, but a discreet icon was essential.
One of the most exciting aspects was the enthusiasm of some of the attendees, and the keenness to stay involved in the development of SH24 or help promote it. We plan to reach out to those people when we have some digital prototypes to get feedback on.