Co-designing the Women’s Health Wales website
The challenge
NHS Wales, Welsh Government and Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) were developing a new Women’s Health Website for Wales and needed to ensure it genuinely reflected the needs, preferences and experiences of women across Wales, particularly those from underrepresented and marginalised communities. The Co-production Lab Wales worked iteratively alongside an active development process, turning real-time engagement insights into actionable recommendations, and doing so to a tight deadline across a diverse and dispersed population.
The approach
Co-production Lab Wales led a phased, iterative engagement programme running from December 2025 to March 2026, working alongside the development team throughout:
- Took a trauma-informed, co-productive approach throughout, valuing all contributions with equal weight and closing the communication loop with participants at each phase.
- Actively recruited underrepresented groups including women from LGBTQ+ communities, Black and minority ethnic communities, Welsh speakers, women with learning disabilities, and young women aged 17 and 18.
- Provided multiple methods of engagement for 72 participants across more than 20 sessions, including in-person group discussions, online sessions, one-to-one interviews and questionnaires.
The outcome
The Women’s Health Wales website launched in March 2026 with direct evidence of participant feedback reflected in the final design and content, including a postcode finder for Women’s Health Hubs implemented mid-project based on participant suggestion. The client team reported that the engagement “absolutely” shaped the website in ways they hadn’t anticipated, expanding their understanding of what women wanted.
Participants responded warmly to the live site, with several expressing that they could see their input in the final product. The engagement surfaced six priority insight themes and a set of forward-looking recommendations to guide the website’s ongoing development. The process was mapped to the Women’s Health Co-production Framework, demonstrating best practice in inclusive and values-led engagement.
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