Shayne Cuffy. Director of Experience Design.
I have spent 25 years in experience design, including patient and clinician-facing health work. I am spending the rest of my career in health technology, helping teams ask better questions before they build, so what they ship is understood, trusted and acted on.
Better outcomes begin with better questions.
UX in health tech is not a screen-design service or a final review. Its job is to improve the decisions that shape an experience, and those are made long before anyone opens a design tool.
Start with the decision, not the output
A team asks for an app. The real need might be helping patients stick to a treatment plan. An app may be part of that, or not at all.
Clinical risk is a design criterion
In health software, a confusing screen is not an inconvenience. It is a route to harm, and like any risk it can be found, designed against and tested.
Comprehension happens under fear and load
Health information reaches people who are frightened, tired or in pain. If it only works in calm conditions, it does not work.
Name who is absent
The people least represented in product decisions are usually the ones who most need the product to work: carers, people with low digital access, people who are seriously unwell.
How I actually work.
Most UX talks present design as a clean, stepped, empathy-first process. I've never seen a project start with empathy. I've seen them start with a vague brief, a half-formed idea, or a solution someone's already attached to. The real work is fighting from uncertainty to certainty. Using what you know, talking to whoever you can, finding patterns, getting to a prototype, testing, learning.
Before a team commits budget to a build, I take them through seven questions. I call them Seven Questions Before Build.
- 01Audience. Who is this really for, and what else is competing for their attention at the moment of use?
- 02Outcome. What should change because this exists, and what does it cost the patient or carer in time, effort and worry?
- 03Evidence. What do we know, what are we assuming, and does the design show the strength of the evidence honestly?
- 04Solution. Why this, in this form, and what could harm someone if it is misread, misused or fails?
- 05Delivery. Who needs to be in the room now, including the people affected but not present?
- 06Access. Who might we be leaving out, and will this still be understood by someone frightened, tired or in pain?
- 07Sustainability. Who keeps this true after launch, through every review, approval and change?
On AI and design.
I'm an active AI advocate, not because it's fashionable, but because I've been working with these tools long enough to see what they actually do.
What changesFirst-draft personas, journey maps and research synthesis can start with AI and be refined by people. Teams move faster from brief to prototype.
What doesn'tThe hard work of clarifying the problem. The relationship work with clients. The judgement about whether a design serves the outcome. The craft of mentoring people to think well.
In health, the line matters more. AI can draft the patient leaflet. A person who understands health literacy decides whether it works.
Leadership and mentorship.
I lead experience design in health, and I have led distributed design teams across the UK, Ukraine, Poland and India. The work is always twofold. Build the practice. Build the people.
Leadership is making other people more capable.
The role of a senior designer is to be the person colleagues come to with a half-formed idea, not someone who only acts on a perfect brief. I work hard to be that person, internally and for clients.
I mentor emerging designers continuously, inside my teams and outside them. I want them confident, making mistakes, learning, and communicating their work clearly to customers and the business.
Where the work has been.
Across 25 years, the work has moved between:
- Health and life sciencesPatient decision support, clinician education, congress experiences, and pro bono work on advanced breast cancer
- Finance and dataNationwide, S&P Global, MoneySuperMarket, IRIS, IN-SYNC
- Retail and enterpriseArgos in Sainsbury's, SAP
- TelecomsMitel, Vodafone
- Media and marketingMindshare and agency networks
Featured in Meta and The Drum's documentary series on UX and e-commerce strategy for small businesses.
Beyond work.
I live in Hampshire with my wife and two daughters. We spend time on the water whenever we can. I'd travel every day of my life if I could.
I'm a minister, which means I get to do wedding talks and similar speaking engagements. The public-speaking muscle shows up in how I run client calls.
I love basketball. I don't play it nearly as often as I'd like. I coach groups together whenever life allows.
I'm a Marvel fan.
The rest of my career goes into health tech.
- Teaching designers how to cross into health tech, safely and with confidence
- Publishing the operating model, so teams can ask better questions without a UX person in the room
- Mentoring designers and design leaders as they grow
- Raising the standard of what gets built, one better question at a time
This is not a career change. It is a return to health with 25 years behind me. If you are building in health tech, or thinking about moving into it, I would like to hear what you are working on.
- Featured on 28 Days of Web
- Forrester CX Certified
- Usability Testing, Interaction Design Foundation
- Vibe Coding L2 Silver, Lovable, 2026
- Marketing Operations & Management, B2B Marketing