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

All topics Clinical vs Patient Interfaces Health Literacy & Plain Language Trust, Ethics & Safety Design for Vulnerable Users Accessibility & Regulation UX Patterns for Health Data Visualisation & Health Metrics Process & Research Search Clear filters

Showing 7 of 54 resources

Tools 7

Things you use while designing and testing.

Tool Free to share CDC Clear Communication Index cdc.gov A scoring tool for plain-language health communication, built by CDC for public health materials but directly applicable to patient-facing copy and error messages. Score a screen's copy against it before assuming "we simplified it" is enough. Accessibility Checked Oct 2026 (opens in a new tab) Tool Licence not confirmed Figma figma.com The design tool this site's own mockups are built in. Not health-specific — listed because it's the one tool almost every other entry in this library assumes you already have. Checked Oct 2026 (opens in a new tab) Tool Licence not confirmed Lyssna (formerly UsabilityHub) lyssna.com Rebranded from UsabilityHub in 2024. Runs five-second tests, first-click tests and preference tests — good for checking whether a clinical dashboard's most important number is actually the first thing people see. Checked Oct 2026 (opens in a new tab) Tool Licence not confirmed Maze maze.co Unmoderated usability and prototype testing. Useful for running a quick comprehension test on a patient-facing flow before it ships, without booking a full research session. Checked Oct 2026 (opens in a new tab) Tool Licence not confirmed WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool wave.webaim.org A tool from WebAIM that flags accessibility errors on a web page; the online version is free. A fast first pass on a prototype or a patient portal page, not a substitute for a full accessibility audit. Accessibility Checked Oct 2026 (opens in a new tab) Tool Free to share WCAG 2.2 quick reference w3.org The checklist I actually keep open. Filter to Level AA and treat it as a definition of done. Accessibility Checked Oct 2026 (opens in a new tab) Tool Licence not confirmed WebAIM Contrast Checker webaim.org A free tool that checks the contrast ratio of a foreground and background colour against the WCAG thresholds. Quick to use for status colours, alerts and chart labels on a health screen. Accessibility Checked Oct 2026 (opens in a new tab)