Co-design research program · Ontario Health, Health811 · 2022 to present

Research at provincial scale: 1,000 Ontarians and the vendors in between

Findings from more than 1,000 Ontarians informed shipped features and shared design standards. Partner teams moved their usability sessions to neutral one-on-one moderation.

User Experience Design Lead · Owned the research program end to end · Worked with six partner organizations

Context and stakes

Over several years I led research and co-design sessions with more than 1,000 Ontarians to find what was failing on Health811 and what residents needed next. Participants included Indigenous communities, Francophone residents, seniors, clinicians, youth, and persons with disabilities. The plan was built on collaborative boards and structured group calls.

Three Ontario Health promotional visuals headlined 'Let's Make Finding a Family Doctor Easier, Join the Conversation,' used to invite members of the public to the co-design sessions. — Recruiting the public into the work: the Ontario Health invitation visuals that brought residents into the co-design sessions.

My role

I owned that program end to end, and I owned a second, quieter problem alongside it: the quality of research run by partner organizations outside my direct control.

The co-design plan stalled twice. The collaborative board did not fit the Francophone group's preference for spoken discussion, making it difficult to capture multiple perspectives efficiently. The technology created a participation barrier for some First Nations participants, while the group format made it difficult for quieter participants to contribute.

The method bent to the people, not the reverse.

What I built or changed

We redesigned the sessions live: parallel breakout groups so multiple voices could speak at once, then everyone reconvened and shared what their group found. The revised format gave quieter participants more opportunity to contribute, and their perspectives were captured more clearly.

The redesign was not a concession on rigour. It was what made rigour possible. One voice at a time had been quietly discarding the input of everyone still waiting to speak, and the Francophone and First Nations sessions were where that showed first. Running groups in parallel and then reconvening meant the capture problem and the participation problem were solved by the same move.

Vendor research quality

Usability sessions often follow a familiar shape: a product walkthrough, an explanation of how things work, then a question about whether everything makes sense. That format tends to produce agreement rather than evidence. I worked with partner teams to move their sessions to neutral one-on-one moderation, and trained their facilitators in it, so the sessions produced findings the programs could act on.

Outcomes

Findings from the sessions informed shipped features and shared design standards. Partner teams moved their usability testing to neutral one-on-one moderation.

A Miro board titled 'Primary Care Ideation Sessions 2025' from an Ontario Health co-design session, with an ice breakers area and seven numbered clusters of participant sticky notes grouped by question. — Inside a session: a Primary Care ideation board, one of many co-design sessions I have led, with participant input clustered by question.

Team

Six partner organizations and their research teams. Ontario Health program teams. More than 1,000 Ontarians who took part.