Project: Creating a Strategy to Improving User Experiences

Partner: NHS Barts Health Archive

The archives and objects cared for by Barts Health are amongst the largest and most important hospital and healthcare collections in the UK, spanning over 2.5km of shelving and nine centuries of history.

Project

Recommend NHS Barts Health Archive to improve their public facing catalogue, as the service moves to a new provider.

Barts Health NHS Trust Archives preserves and makes available the collective memories of the Trust’s hospitals, and the wider story of health care and health education in the City and East London. 

The online catalogue is a resource for users to search our holdings. It currently includes research guides and links to external sources. The catalogue provides a description of the items held in the archives – it does not provide access to the records online. The archives are moving to a new provider for the online catalogue. The aim of the project is for the students to provide suggestions on how the public facing catalogue should look and support the user journey. 

The students will research the catalogues of other archive services that use the provider through interacting with the catalogues, and also conduct interviews and conducting user testing. Using the data collected, the students will provide suggestions on how Barts Health NHS Trust Archives should display the online catalogue to aid the user journey.  

This project will be ideal for anyone interested in careers relating to web design, user experience, research, archiving and health.  

Application Process and Key Dates

Stage 1: Online application - deadline is Wednesday 30 September 2026 
Stage 2: Shortlisting and selection 
Stage 3: Application outcome notification from Monday 05 October 2026  

Programme duration: Friday 16 October 2026 to Tuesday 07 December 2026  

Eligibility

• Current Queen Mary students 
• Highly motivated and teamwork oriented 
• Passionate about heritage and making a real impact in the world 
• Willing to dedicate a total of 15 -20 hours across the project, including client meetings, teamwork, and individual work.

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse learning environment. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, as we believe diverse perspectives drive innovation and success.   

Apply

Apply by 23:45pm on Wednesday 30 September 2026. 

If you have any questions, please email:  history-qHeritage@qmul.ac.uk

We look forward to receiving your application!