User-centred design

Our award-winning approach to user-centred design (UCD) ensures your products and services meet user needs, are accessible to everyone, and align with your business goals.

Applying user-centred design to your products and services

At Kainos, we apply user research, data insights and design expertise to build the right products, services and strategies for your users and your organisation.

Our team includes:

  • Experience strategists
  • Service designers
  • User researchers
  • Content designers
  • User experience (UX) designers
  • Visual designers

We work in multidisciplinary teams, collaborating with technical architects, developers, product managers, and you as stakeholders to ensure we solve the full scope of the problem.

How we do it

Human-centred problem solving
We incorporate a human-centred approach to problem solving to set a combined vision and strategy that meets your project goals.

Understanding the wider ecosystem
We help you see the full picture by mapping your project landscape and ensuring everyone is aligned.

Using research to meet user need
We help you discover, research and test with users to make sure they can navigate and understand your service.

Designing clear, accessible products
We create products that are easy to use with content that is easy to understand. We ensure accessibility for everyone. Starting with simple prototypes, we continuously improve throughout the product lifecycle until it works seamlessly.

Agile delivery
We’re experienced in agile methodologies, using a dual-track approach that lets us make live improvements while continuously uncovering new insights.

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Our impact: Design thinking, inclusivity and accessibility

We’ve delivered over 100 user-centred projects, driving digital transformation across government, healthcare and commercial sectors. Our work has passed rigorous service assessments, undergone accessibility audits and earned industry recognition.

We build products and services that meet standards and principles for quality, accessibility and usability.

Highlights of our impact:

  • Our projects have passed UK government and NHS assessments, meeting best practices for accessibility and user-centred design.
  • We provided a more accessible way for UK citizens to book 3 million driving theory tests annually, delivering the largest ever digital transformation project for DVSA.
  • We designed the NHS App, taking it from discovery to live for 40 million UK citizens in just 13 months.
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Working with Kainos Design

When you partner with us, you’ll get:

  1. Efficiency: Deliver great user experiences while keeping IT investments in check.
  2. Expertise: Access the right design and development expertise from one trusted supplier, reducing complexity.
  3. Seamless experiences: Ensure consistency across all devices, touchpoints and interactions.
  4. Focused solutions: Focus on solving the right problems, driven by user needs and business goals.

"Working with Kainos throughout the Discovery and Alpha phases has been an invaluable experience for us at NIHR. Their expertise and partnership in design and delivery were instrumental in our project's success. Kainos team's deep subject matter expertise is truly exceptional and rare to find. Their support throughout the development process, including navigating GDS Assessment, was invaluable. We couldn't have achieved our goals without their guidance and dedication. Kainos has been an exceptional partner, and we highly recommend them to anyone seeking top-notch expertise and seamless project execution."

Samantha Liscio
Chief Information and Technology Officer
National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Meet the Design leadership team

Nikos Karaoulanis
Head of Design ·
Nikos is Kainos’ design champion, leading the design of digital services across public, healthcare, and commercial sectors. He focuses on the application of design-led approaches to building digital solutions that deliver user and business value.
Nick Harewood
Experience Design Principal ·
Nick has over 25 years of experience in designing and leading digital solutions that drive value for businesses and users. He has integrated user-centred practices in agile environments across sectors like commercial, healthcare and government, working with banking, e-commerce, telecoms and professional services. Nick is dedicated to building inclusive, data-driven design cultures, fostering innovation, and creating trust through collaboration and support.
Jane Fletcher
Experience Design Principal ·
Jane is a Service Design and AI Principal Consultant with over a decade of experience within the commercial and public sector. Jane's service design expertise allows her to consider the entire user journey, ensuring a cohesive and meaningful experience across all channels. She creates solutions that seamlessly integrate agile software development with AI-enabled products and services.
Matthew Lamb
Experience Design Principal ·
Matt is an experienced design and innovation leader with over 10 years of expertise in Design and more than 15 years in government and commercial delivery. As Experience Design Principal at Kainos, he leads strategic direction and design for transport sector programmes, focusing on user-centred, innovative, and cost-effective solutions. He’s also led UX and design teams in healthcare, welfare and justice sectors.
Rhys Davies
Experience Design Principal ·
Rhys is an Experience Design Principal who leads multidisciplinary teams to define, design and deliver digital products and services for our healthcare clients. Focused on user experience strategy, creative direction, design thinking, and user-centered design, Rhys ensures that users and their needs at placed at the heart of the design process so the services we deliver not only meet but exceed expectations.

See how we can help your business

Looking to digitally transform your business? Get in touch to see how we can help you.

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Curious about a career in Kainos Design?

Working in the Kainos user-centred design team means doing a job you value and working in a way that suits you.

Learn more