The Challenge
Socialstyrelsen needed to modernise its national web platform to better support healthcare professionals, administrators and strategists.
The challenge was to restructure a large, complex content ecosystem while ensuring high accessibility standards, regulatory compliance, and clarity across diverse user groups.
My Role
I led UX research and UX/UI design in a cross-functional team, acting as the bridge between users, content owners, developers and stakeholders.
Key responsibilities:
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UX research (user interviews, usability testing, workshops)
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Information architecture & navigation design
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Interaction design and prototyping
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Accessibility strategy (WCAG 2.1 AA, DOS Act)
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Design system & style guide updates
Research activities
Research was conducted with healthcare professionals, strategists, administrators and social service representatives through usability testing, interviews and structured workshops.
Key Insights
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Search is the primary entry point – users often arrive via Google and rely heavily on search to navigate complex content.
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Navigation and content structure were difficult to scan, especially for time-constrained professionals.
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National Guidelines were the most critical content, but were hard to locate and understand due to naming, hierarchy and visual affordances.
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Clickable elements were not perceived as interactive, causing missed content.
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Accessibility issues affected both usability and trust, particularly for visually impaired users.
Design & Solutions
Design focus areas
1. Navigation & information architecture
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Reworked main navigation and content groupings
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Reduced cognitive load and duplication
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Improved orientation and sense of place
2. Search & findability
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Clarified search results structure and filtering logic
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Improved distinction between content types (pages, documents, data)
3. Visual hierarchy & interaction clarity
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Improved affordances for clickable elements
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Clearer hierarchy for text-heavy pages
4. Accessibility & design system
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Updated typography, contrast and components to meet WCAG 2.1 AA
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Strengthened consistency through design system updates
Impact & Outcome
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Improved usability and navigation across the national platform
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Increased user satisfaction, especially for visually impaired users
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Strengthened accessibility, performance, SEO and responsiveness
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Delivered a future-proof foundation for continued digital development
Learnings
This project reinforced the importance of observing user behaviour beyond what users say, especially in high-stakes, information-dense environments.
Designing for accessibility at this scale is not a constraint — it is a quality driver that improves clarity, trust and usability for everyone.
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