Cat Salut

CatSalut (Servei Català de la Salut) manages the public healthcare system for over 7.5 million citizens in Catalonia. As part of a massive digital transformation, they needed to redefine how citizens interact with the health system through digital channels like "La Meva Salut" and other web platforms.

01. The Challenge

How might we transform bureaucratic digital health portals into human-centered, accessible, and trust-building service experiences?.

The goal was to understand the citizen's relationship with the health system to ensure that digital evolution reduces, rather than widens, the gap between the administration and the person.

02. The Core Problem

In public health, digital tools often prioritize administrative efficiency over the patient’s emotional and physical needs. For CatSalut, the system was perceived as a "black box" where complexity and technical language created barriers. The issue wasn't the lack of features, but the lack of empathy in the digital flow, which often left vulnerable users feeling lost or underserved.

03. My Role

Research Lead & Service Designer

I led the end-to-end research and participatory design process, acting as the bridge between the citizens' reality and the technical requirements of the administration. I was responsible for:

• Designing and leading citizen-led research through focus groups and in-depth interviews.

• Facilitating co-creation workshops using tools like the "Inspiration Wall" to visualize the future of the service.

• Mapping the "As-Is" vs. "To-Be" citizen journeys.

• Translating ethnographic insights into strategic service principles for the digital roadmap.

04. Impact

The engagement redefined the strategic direction of CatSalut's digital touchpoints:

Citizen-Centric vision: Established a roadmap focused on humanizing digital health, moving beyond mere "transactability".

Reduced barriers: Identified critical usability and accessibility friction points, leading to a more inclusive design strategy.

Trust-Driven design: Developed a set of principles to ensure that digital flows signal transparency and security to the user.

Backstage alignment: Provided the administration with a clear understanding of how internal processes affect the perceived quality of the public service.

05. Key Takeaways

Equity is a design requirement: In public services, design must work for everyone, especially those with low digital literacy. Accessibility is a human right, not a "feature".

Humanity in the machine: Digital trust in healthcare is built by making the "human backstage" visible. Users need to feel there is a professional on the other side of the screen.

The power of participation: Tools like the Inspiration Wall prove that citizens are not just "users," but active co-creators who can provide the strategic keys to institutional innovation.

06. Research & Framing

We structured the research around a participatory ecosystem model:

Exploratory phase: Deep-diving into the daily friction citizens face when accessing their health data and booking appointments.

Participatory Design: We used visual and conceptual brainstorming to allow citizens to "build" their ideal health service, uncovering latent needs for proactivity and closeness.

Synthesis & Principles: Turning raw data into a narrative that the technical teams could implement without losing the human essence.

07. Key Insights

The "Digital Paradox": While digital tools aim for speed, in health, people often value clarity and reassurance over speed. A fast process that feels "cold" creates distrust.

Proactive vs. Reactive: Citizens wished the system were more proactive by anticipating their needs (like renewals or follow-ups) rather than just reacting to crises.

Language as a barrier: Professional and administrative jargon remains the primary obstacle to true accessibility. Simplification is the ultimate form of sophisticated design.