Picture a parent checking their child's mental health progress. On a cold, clinical-looking dashboard. The numbers might be correct. But how it feels to read them still matters a great deal. It's a part of healthcare software that often gets missed.
MyHealthE was built by Digital Marmalade. With the NHS and King's College London. It gives parents and carers a simple way to track a child's treatment progress. A second project, the MAC mindfulness app, supports teenagers and their carers through therapy. It uses guided meditations and content that builds over time. Neither tool could just copy patterns from a normal app and expect them to work.
Why the usual design rules don't fit here
A shopping app wants you to feel urgency. The pull to check back often. A mental health tool needs almost the opposite. Someone checking on a child's treatment isn't browsing. They might be anxious, tired, or checking late at night after a hard day. Bright badges and streaks work well in a fitness app. Here, they can feel intrusive. Even upsetting.
That doesn't mean the design should be bare or cold either. The goal sits in between. Calm enough that it doesn't add pressure. Warm enough that it doesn't feel like a form. Small choices carry more weight here than usual. The wording of one error message. The colour of a progress bar. Whether a notification feels gentle, or like an alarm.
How this changes the way we work
NHS and King's College London staff helped shape decisions. Decisions that would usually sit with designers alone. Wording was checked for how it might land with someone in distress. Not just for clarity. Data handling had to meet a much higher bar than most apps, given how sensitive the information is. Testing went beyond the usual numbers too. Feedback from clinicians and from young people themselves shaped features that data alone would never have shown us.
Accessibility mattered more here as well. Carers of all ages and abilities use the tool. Often during stressful moments. It has to work for people who aren't confident with technology. People who won't have the patience to learn something fiddly under pressure.
Why it's worth getting right
Healthcare and education tools rarely get the same polish as consumer apps. It shows. Tools that feel cold or hard to use don't just annoy people. They get abandoned. A parent who stops checking a tool because it felt impersonal isn't just a small design failure. It's a missed chance to support a family through something difficult.
Building something for a sensitive or clinical setting? Want a team who's worked through these challenges before? We'd be glad to talk it through. Get in touch.