The year in review from the My Stroke Guide Team

Delivering improvements in a pandemic

2021 like the year before it has been a challenging one, that goes without saying. Despite all the uncertainty with new ways of working and the pandemic, of one thing we were certain. We would do our utmost to deliver a new My Stroke Guide site before the end of the year. We had initially planned to launch in April but various lockdowns as well as changes to our internal structure meant delays were inevitable.

We wanted My Stroke Guide to be noticeably better than its predecessor by making it more accessible. Information that had previously been hidden behind a login would now be made freely available. One less barrier in the way of stroke survivors looking for information to help them in their recovery journey.

We knew the major pain points in the old My Stroke Guide were:

• finding your way around
• getting a quick response to problems using the site
• not knowing what to expect when you sign up

To address all these we added:

• navigation at the top to make information easier to get to
• a help widget and portal to request help or read self-help articles
• removal of the login from our health information pages

Launch of My Stroke Guide

As with the launch of any new product, there were a few teething problems. Some of these were on My Stroke Guide. We found images that didn't display properly and the odd page quirk that caused all the videos to play simultaneously, for example.

There were also a few minor issues on the My Stroke Guide forum. A few of these were similar to those on My Stroke Guide, with broken links and misspellings. Others were "user experience issues", things that make the site difficult or just not very nice to use.

This kind of work is always ongoing, which is why you'll find us posting new "how-to's" on the forum on a regular basis. If you do notice anything that isn't working as you'd expect, please do let us know in the Forum feedback section or drop us a message.

Our team

Just as we were launching the new My Stroke Guide, we also welcomed a new member to our team. Ashley joined us at the beginning of November as our Digital Support Products Officer. She joins Clement (our Digital Products Lead) and Alex (our Digital Products Manager). The three of us make up the Digital Support Products Team here at the Stroke Association. We're responsible for our digital beneficiary support products, one of which is My Stroke Guide.

Looking forward

We will continue to make small improvements to My Stroke Guide on an ongoing basis. Your feedback, suggestions and help with testing new features will be crucial in making this happen. We plan to build more personalised journeys through My Stroke Guide so you can quickly get to the information you need.

We also plan to create more content to plug the gaps in the information you need that's currently missing from our site. In addition, we will be adding more aphasia-friendly content over the next few months. Overall we want to make My Stroke Guide an even better experience and that invaluable tool, supporting you on your stroke recovery journey.

So as 2021 comes to a close we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

See you in 2022!