The NHS has for many years been running a successful free condom scheme for people from the ages of 16 to 24. Their goal is clear and concise; To educate young people about sex and fostering safe, consensual relationships whilst safeguarding their sexual health by providing access to free condoms.
To achieve these ambitions the NHS has been providing young people with access to free condoms by providing condom cards for their purse or wallet which can be shown at participating outlets that distribute free condoms. The young person would come for a consultation with one of the NHS Sexual health team to have a chat about being safe and how to make good choices when it comes to sex and relationships and in turn would receive their condom card.
This gives the NHS a fantastic opportunity to engage with young people, provide education and gain valuable knowledge about the trends in sexual health emerging in our communities.
Zudu’s challenge was to make this project mobile, taking the condom cards out of wallets and onto mobile phones with an engaging and educational mobile app without losing any of the valuable ‘touch points’ that sees NHS professionals engaging with the young people in person.
One of the key advantages we could identify for the NHS with this mobile app development was the ability to gain accurate data insight from the behaviour of users within the application.
Our solution to this was elegant and fit the brief in terms of allowing the NHS to maintain control of condom distribution to appropriate users and gain a valuable face to face interaction with the young people.
Simply downloading the app is not enough to gain access to free condoms, this isn’t a free for all! First you need to unlock your condom card with a unique code you can be granted by visiting a participating location and having a meeting with one of the NHS Sexual Health team. To generate your code and unlock your card, you must disclose your gender, the first half of your postcode and your year of birth.
The result? The NHS can identify trends in usage across geographical area, age range and gender without users having to relinquish any personally identifiable information! This bit is quite important – we doubted many people would want there to be a record of how many condoms they had procured recently!
So now the user has unlocked their condom card and can use it in participating locations across the city. How do they know where to go? Don’t worry – we considered that and with the help of google maps can sat nav them straight to their nearest dispensary!
It’s all well and good creating a mobile app to digitise an analogue process….but only if people actually use it! Making an engaging mobile app is tricky enough even before you consider that the user base for this app is aged between 16 and 24 years, arguably the most digitally savvy amongst us.
Our solution to this was to add a gamified feature into the app, an interactive yet completely anonymous poll all about everyone’s favourite subject; sex! I’m sure everyone can recall being young and having questions about sex but being absolutely appalled at the idea of asking any of your friends about it.
With this app those problems are over. The NHS Team can post commonly posed questions about sex and users can vote for the answer they most agree with completely anonymously. Ever wondered how many of your peer group ‘shave down there?’ No need to guess anymore, the results of the poll will let you know!
Giving young people the opportunity to discuss sexual issues in a safe environment allows healthy lifestyle choices to be reinforced and will allow a fun and engaging conversation about sexual health to take place.
The final piece of the puzzle. Free condoms are great, but unfortunately aren’t very effective if you end up wearing them like socks.
No problem. The app comes with a variety of handy instructional guides and helpful information on how to make sure you stay protected properly and gives you handy links to other sexual health resources around the city in case something does go wrong!
Armed with this new application young people and the NHS are in a strong position to reduce unwanted pregnancy, increase awareness in sexual health and staying safe and ensure our communities are happier and healthier.
I cannot recommend this company enough, all aspects of working with them have been a real pleasure. It is a good partnership based on clear communication and one which I hope continues in the future
Graeme Cockburn, NHS Sexual Health Tayside
For more information please visit the landing site we built at www.ccardapp.co.uk or search for ‘CCard App – NHS Tayside’ in the Apple or Google Play store.
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