NHS 111 - Waiting times
Five caller personas and journey maps to improve NHS 111 routing and reassurance.
- Interviews
- UX
- Surveys
Summary
I was the research lead for the NHS 111 team on a four-week discovery project.
Five personas for shared caller language
Journey maps showed where routing broke down
Survey data backed interview themes
Product goal
Give the NHS team evidence to improve 111 routing, wait-time updates, and caller reassurance.
User problem
Callers often used 111 for the wrong help and waited without clear updates. The right pathway was hardest to reach out of hours.
Team
I reported to the NHS product team, who set the priorities. Together we ran the work from recruitment to final delivery.
What I owned
I led the research end to end, from recruitment and fieldwork through to the personas, journey maps, and final presentation. We turned the findings into tools the team could reuse, not a report left on a shelf.
Methods & skills
Rough share of my effort- User interviews25%
- Surveys15%
- Affinity mapping15%
- Personas15%
- Journey mapping15%
- Thematic analysis15%
Challenge
Callers needed reassurance and clearer routing.
Many people called NHS 111 without knowing if it was the right service or what to expect in the queue.
Long waits, repeated questions, and unclear routing wore callers down and added pressure to an already stretched A&E. The strain peaked out of hours, when GP access was limited and callers had nowhere else to turn.
My role
The NHS team set the priorities and I led the research.
What we did together
- The NHS product team scoped the four-week brief, shared context, and joined the final presentation.
- Call handlers and recent callers joined our interviews and surveys, shaping the personas and journey maps.
What I owned
- I led recruitment and wrote the survey and interview plan, choosing phone interviews to fit the timeline.
- We ran interviews with call handlers and recent callers, then led affinity mapping to find patterns and design opportunities.
- We ran a survey to back the interview themes, then built personas, journey maps, and a report from both.
Our journey maps helped the team agree on the biggest pain points (long waits, repeated questions, unclear routing) before anyone moved into solution design.
Timeline
4 weeks from brief to final presentation, with me leading research throughout.
Over a four-week NHS brief, I owned recruitment, fieldwork, analysis, and deliverables, while the product team scoped priorities and joined the final readout.
My involvementWithout my involvement
Wk 1
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4
PlanningPlanningBrief with NHS teamSurvey planInterview planRecruitmentStudy prep
Brief with NHS team
Brief with NHS teamAligned on goals and scope with the NHS team.Survey plan
Survey planDesigned the survey to back up interview themes.Interview plan
Interview planWrote the interview guide and screening criteria.Recruitment
RecruitmentRecruited callers and call handlers to take part.Study prep
Study prepSet up consent, logistics, and session schedules.
FieldworkFieldworkPhone interviewsSurvey fielding
Phone interviews
Phone interviewsRan 30-minute interviews with callers and handlers.Survey fielding
Survey fieldingCollected survey responses to quantify the themes.
SynthesisSynthesisAffinity mapping
Affinity mapping
Affinity mappingClustered findings to surface behaviour patterns.
DeliveryDeliveryPersonasJourney mapsFindings reportFinal presentation
Personas
PersonasBuilt five personas for shared caller language.Journey maps
Journey mapsMapped where reassurance and routing matter most.Findings report
Findings reportPackaged the evidence into reusable team tools.Final presentation
Final presentationPresented findings and recommendations to the team.
Research
Mixed methods that paired caller stories with numbers the product team could act on.
Approach
Interviews, affinity mapping, and a follow-up survey within a four-week brief.
- Ran 30-minute interviews, then affinity mapping to surface recurring behaviours and needs
- Designed a survey to triangulate interview themes with measurable patterns
- Created five personas and matching journey maps the NHS team could reuse in product decisions
Mixed methods made findings harder to ignore. Stories explained the numbers. · Personas and journeys gave the team shared language before solution design. · Phone interviews fit recruitment within a four-week brief.
Qualitative
- We ran 30-minute interviews with callers and handlers, then affinity-mapped the recurring behaviours, frustrations, and needs
- We created five personas, from the uncertain caller through to the GP substitute
- We mapped journeys showing where reassurance, routing clarity, and wait-time updates matter most
Quantitative
- We ran a follow-up survey to back the interview themes with numbers
- We analysed who tried other resources before calling 111
- We tracked outcomes and urgency by time of day, alongside 999 referrals
Survey results
Interactive cuts of the follow-up survey we ran with 111 callers in April 2023.
Findings
What combined research showed about caller behaviour.
People try other services first
Many callers, especially older people, waited for their GP before calling 111, often when symptoms had already got worse.
Helpful staff, frustrating waits
Callers liked the staff, but long waits, repeating information, and scripted replies wore down trust during triage.
Clearer routing and faster help
Data on urgency, timing, and outcomes showed where clearer updates and faster routing would ease pressure on A&E.
Deliverables
Personas and journey maps the NHS team could reuse in product decisions.
5 interactive personas with traits, call patterns, and frustrations.
5 journey maps with quotes and emotional peaks for each persona.
Survey data backed up interview themes with measurable patterns.
Limitations
Working within recruitment and interview constraints, not an ideal lab study.
- Face-to-face styled interviews could have helped the richness of data gathered
- Phone-only recruitment within a four-week brief limited how deeply we could explore each caller type
- We did not run follow-up research to validate findings before the team moved into solution design
Key takeaways
What NHS 111 research reinforced, and how it shaped my public-service discovery approach.
- Mixing numbers and interviews made findings harder to dismiss. The numbers showed what was happening, and the interviews explained why.
- Personas and journey maps gave the NHS team tools they could reuse in product decisions, not just a one-off report.
- Phone interviews worked well for recruitment, but face-to-face sessions would have captured emotion and trust more clearly.
Open to new opportunities
I'm actively looking for UX/UI design roles. If my work resonates, I'd love to hear from you.