Description:

The combination of a global pandemic and the largest health sector reforms in decades meant the Ministry of Health urgently needed a consumer self-service digital platform that could not only support the government's rapidly evolving Covid-19 response, but potentially provide a foundation for the digitisation of future population health programmes.

With ambiguity still around requirements, we needed to create a scalable, modular self-service platform that could flex for many eventualities. Its most critical function, however, was to enable the easing of Covid-19 restrictions across the country by allowing all Kiwis to prove their vaccination status, or show a negative test result.

Ultimately, we needed to deliver a solution that would be intuitive enough for an entire population to onboard, but flexible enough to scale for new use-cases both during and beyond the pandemic. Features include requesting vaccine passes and international travel certificates, self-reporting RAT results, and showing mask exemptions.

To ensure this platform would meet the needs of all Kiwis, we conducted extensive user research and consulted with advocacy groups including Māori and Pacifika communities, the disabled and elderly. Feedback was incorporated into the designs.

At launch, My Covid Record was widely praised by the public for its ease of use and saw the successful onboarding of 3.5 million Kiwis (over 63% of the total population).

My Covid Record has clear flows and simple navigation - every option is available upfront - with easy to understand language for users. The visual identity for the platform had to be created from scratch and needed to feel different from traditional government sites - providing a warm, inviting and safe environment for all its users. By employing the Ministry's values - Manaakitanga, Kaitiakitanga, Whakapono and Kōkiri ngātahi - we were able to create a brand experience that was welcoming, organic, trustworthy and inclusive. This ethos was brought to life through the site's modern colours, leaf motifs, gentle gradients and appealing imagery.

In response to the evolving situation, and in order to future-proof the site, My Covid Record was architected so that all the features and components were independent, making it possible to add or remove elements as the requirements changed. It also made the whole project scalable, allowing new developers to join the team and work on individual components without needing to be across the entire code base.

Accessibility implementation has been described as 'better than best practice' and set the Ministry's benchmark. To avoid the accessibility requirements compromising the user experience, our developers utilised third-party libraries and their own code to maintain elegant interactions that are simple and intuitive.

Thanks to its quality, performance and exceptional user experience, the design, architecture and patterns of My Covid Record have now evolved into the foundations for the Ministry’s approach to public health consumer channels going forward.