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Project Overview
Don't you just hate it when people tell you what to do? Whether it's how to fix a leak, park your car or paint a wall. Well, it's just the same with your own health. There are so many people telling you what to do, it can be confusing, and a little bit annoying. From adverts, to magazines, to TV doctors, celebrity 'experts' and even TV shows like Casualty - who can you trust?
Well, you can trust Haynes and you can trust the NHS and it's for exactly this reason that we have produced this guide.
Nomination Commissioner
South west Commissioning Support
Nomination Creator
MyOxygen Mobile
Team
Andrew Farmer - Managing Director of MyOxygen
Chris Mash - Lead Developer MyOxygen
Lawrie Jones - Project Commissioner
Iain Wakefield - Haynes Publishing Licensing Manager
Project Brief
Men are less likely to visit their GP, less likely to ask for health advice and subsequently more likely to suffer poor health outcomes.
Historically, the health service has struggled to engage with men, in particular those over 40. Feedback and research shows men often consider health advice to be patronising and irrelevant. It was this perception that needed to be challenged.
In the summer of 2013, the NHS in Bristol approached MyOxygen with an open creative brief to produce an interactive health manual specifically for men.
The app needed to be something that presented the important and challenging health information that could change - and potentially save -lives in an engaging and interactive way. The app needed to balance the seriousness of the information in a way that would resonate with the target audience, overcoming the barriers that exist with traditional materials.
The app was developed as a partnership with established and respected publishers Haynes, and used the familiar design and layout of a Haynes Manual - and the familiar and conversational tone of voice - to deliver the content to the reader.
MyOxygen were given complete access to the Haynes and NHS assets and were challenged to be as innovative as they could within the constrains of our brand identities.
A local artist was commissioned by MyOxygen to help create the illustrations that represented engine parts and matching them with body parts.
Project Need
The resulting manual itself is a brave and innovative way of presenting male-specific health information. Using the matter-of-fact style and approach of a Haynes manual, and a sympathetic and colloquially reflective content route, the manual approaches serious health topics in a light-hearted and self-referential way.
In itself, the manual operates as a repository for information on the top-10 clinical issues affecting men - something that had not been done on an iPad before. These are the issues that affect, and sadly claim, the most.
But more than this, it provides a level of interaction and information - a stop smoking calculator, a calorie counter and a sexual health tracker - that keeps users coming back.
The app uses the Haynes assets in a fantastic way that delighted the clients, as well as users. It's bold, engaging and highly functional.
It uses the iPad's location-based functionality to provide users with information on every NHS service throughout the country; interacting with the NHS Choices database.
The app provides a gateway for users to access additional content and support, with links through to charities and organisations that work the NHS, including the British Heart Foundation, Stroke Association and MacMillan Cancer Research.
As useful in an informal setting as a clinical one, the app manages to challenge the perceptions of male users, and provides information in a way that is both relevant and exciting for them, reflecting their strong views and feedback.
User Experience
The user downloads the app and approaches it as a manual. They are prompted on first download to enter in specific details about themselves - their height, weight, age etc.
This personalises the app to them, and provides them with an attachment to the app. Progress through he various stages of the app results in a stamp, so that the user can track it. Push notification provides regular reminders - in the written style of the manual - to ensure that users return and refresh their knowledge.
One popular and unique feature that has captured the attention of users is the ability to digitally age the manual. From a fresh copy, to a coffee stained one that's been kicking around the workshop for a few years, the app is based around providing a reference point for users.
The inbuilt tools have been created using clinically and statistically robust information to reassure the user of their usefulness. The information provided within the app has been clinically checked and referenced, to ensure that it is correct and trustworthy.
The user is, at all stages, reminded that they can trust the app because it has been created, written and produced by the NHS and Haynes.
Project Marketing
The NHS have made the app freely available, despite their being strong commercial potential.
This extends to the apps promotion and distribution across boundaries and across the clearly defined NHS boundaries that exist.
The app has been promoted throughout the South West and has been recognised nationally as best-practice for app development within NHS commissioning organisations.
In engaging with users, the app has been promoted throughout the previous years, with materials supplied to GP practices and clinical settings. GPs themselves have been positively engaged and encourage users to download the app.
Moving forward, the app itself is the first example of a partnership development between a commercial organisation (Haynes)and a public one (the NHS), and has benefits for both sides.
The NHS is now more open and understanding of digital technology, and have embraced its usage in a variety of new and exciting ways. The development has also provided a strong impetus for Haynes to reappraise its digital approach and to expand into this new and exciting area of development.
Project Privacy
With NHS Bristol we wanted to encourage young to middle age men to examine sensitive medical issues which they may have found too embarrassing to discuss with their GP. It was essential to give confidence in the privacy of any data entered into the app and so to this end we deliberately left out any social media functionality. Furthermore to avoid mishap we ensured that the data was entirely self contained within the apps secure sandbox.
Fitness, Nutrition & Diet
Applicable to all Apps themed around fitness, nutrition and diet including services, instructional, trackers, counters, guides and workouts.
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