Reference library

The library

Reference resources you come back to while designing: standards, design systems, tools and more. Every entry links to its original and shows a licence check. Nothing here is rehosted. It is a reference set, not a news feed.

Licence Free to share open licence or public material Licence not confirmed link out only until you have checked the source Link out only never host or copy

Showing 9 of 54 resources

Guides & methods 9

Process how-tos and method guides.

Guide / Method Licence not confirmed Classification of digital interventions, services and applications in health (2nd edition) who.int A WHO publication (2023) that sorts digital health tools into a shared set of interventions and services, so teams describe what a product does in the same words. Useful when writing a product brief or comparing tools, because it names the user group each intervention serves. Licensed CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO, so link only. Process & Research Checked Oct 2026 Guide / Method Licence not confirmed Easy Checks: a first review of web accessibility w3.org A W3C guide to a quick first accessibility review of a page: titles, image alternatives, headings, contrast, keyboard use and forms. A fast way to spot obvious problems in a prototype or portal page before a full audit. Not a substitute for a full review. Accessibility & Regulation Checked Oct 2026 Guide / Method Free to share GOV.UK Service Manual: Making your service more inclusive gov.uk GOV.UK's guidance on designing services that people with different needs and circumstances can use, including those who are not confident online. A method-level companion to accessibility standards for health services. Design for Vulnerable Users Checked Oct 2026 Guide / Method Free to share GOV.UK writing guidelines: Use clear language guidance.publishing.service.gov.uk GOV.UK's guidance on writing plainly, including limits on sentence and paragraph length and advice on word choice. Transfers directly to patient-facing copy, instructions and error messages. Health Literacy & Plain Language Checked Oct 2026 Guide / Method Free to share Health Literacy Online odphp.health.gov A research-based guide from the US Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (3rd edition) on writing and designing digital health content for people with limited literacy or health literacy. Covers involving the audience, scannable layouts and simple navigation. Apply it when drafting patient-facing screens and instructions. Health Literacy & Plain Language Checked Oct 2026 Guide / Method Free to share NHS digital service manual: Accessibility service-manual.nhs.uk The NHS service manual's accessibility guidance, with what each role (product, design, development, content, research, testing) should do to meet WCAG. A method-level companion to the standards, useful for planning who checks what on a health service team. Open Government Licence v3.0. Accessibility & Regulation Checked Oct 2026 Guide / Method Licence not confirmed Principles for Digital Development digitalprinciples.org Nine living principles for people building digital tools in development and health settings, covering human-centred design, inclusion, data practices and doing no harm. A short reference for framing design decisions when a product will reach people with varied access and skills. Design for Vulnerable Users Checked Oct 2026 Guide / Method Licence not confirmed RE-AIM re-aim.org The home of the RE-AIM framework, which plans and evaluates a programme across reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation and maintenance, with planning tools and survey instruments. Handy when a digital health project has to say how it will be judged after launch, not only how it will look. Process & Research Checked Oct 2026 Guide / Method Licence not confirmed WHO SMART Guidelines who.int WHO's approach for turning its clinical and public health recommendations into structured, machine-readable requirements for digital systems. Shows designers where the logic behind a clinical screen can come from and how a guideline is broken into data and decision rules. Page is copyright WHO, so link only. Trust, Ethics & Safety Checked Oct 2026