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Creating a new NHS England: NHS England and NHS Digital merged on 1 February 2023. More about the merger.

Rochelle Gold

Rochelle is Head of User Research

Head of User Research

Everything I’ve ever done has been about using research to deliver value. I trained as an occupational psychologist. I’ve worked in academia, as a business consultant and spent nine years researching offending behaviour in the probation service.

Working for this organisation appealed to me because it’s the closest I can get to doing the most important job in the world: saving lives.

User-centred design helps to bridge the gap between our intent and the actuality.

The aim of user research is to understand problems from the perspectives of those people who will be using your products and services. In a digital environment, it helps to know a little bit about technology. But not knowing everything stops you from making assumptions and failing to ask the questions you might need.

We work in an iterative, user-centred way, where decisions are based on robust evidence and products are tested as they are being designed and created. For me, it’s really exciting because we are only just at the beginning of what we can do to support the NHS.


Blogs

Rochelle Gold is pictured at home
By Rochelle Gold. 21 December 2021 How NHS Digital is developing user-centred design maturity

Rochelle Gold, Head of User Research at NHS Digital, describes how our user-centred design maturity model helps teams to achieve outcomes and manage risk. 
User researchers watch how patients navigate a website when searching or using NHS services.
By Rochelle Gold. 24 June 2021 Do we need to drop the 'user'?

NHS Digital’s Head of User Research, Rochelle Gold, asks the question – is it time to drop the ‘user’ from user research?