Adopt
An AED
Lead UX & Service Designer
Most cardiac arrests are survivable. People die because help reaches them too late. I designed the service that changes that.
Where We Started
Everyone was solving
the wrong problem
The Scottish Ambulance Service, the NHS and the British Heart Foundation were all chasing the same fix: more defibrillators on more walls.
The assumption was that more funding means better outcomes. It doesn’t. Here is what they missed:
A defibrillator is useless if the person is already dead.
Survival is decided in the few minutes between collapse and shock, and nobody was designing for that window.
Count devices all you like. If help can’t reach the patient in time, the number changes nothing. Ask the right question and the answer changes.
01 · The Problem
A fight we
lose too often
Scotland sees around 3,500 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests a year, and only 1 in 12 people survive.
A defibrillator can restart the heart, but survival drops about 10% for every minute of delay, and ambulances rarely beat the 8-minute mark.
So the brief wasn’t awareness or funding. It was three practical gaps between someone collapsing and someone helping.
Too few devices
There aren’t enough defibrillators, and the ones that exist often aren’t where arrests happen.
Nobody can find them
Even when there is one nearby, most people have no idea where to look for it.
Nobody trained
A defibrillator only helps if someone close by feels able to pick it up and use it.
02 · The Solutions
Three gaps, and what
I built for each
Put defibrillators where arrests happen
What I designed
Three ways to fund a defibrillator where it’s needed: a local crowdfunding campaign, a one-off or monthly donation, or an adoption pack for a home or business.
It works alongside local businesses and the ambulance service, so the network keeps growing instead of relying on the odd bit of charity.
The closer the defibrillator, the sooner the shock. Nothing matters more than that timing.
Three ways to fund a defibrillator: campaigns, donations and adoption packs
Help people find the nearest one fast
What I designed
A national register with a simple, phone-first form to add a device: where it is, how to reach it, when it’s available. That feeds a “find a defibrillator near you” map on the homepage.
A defibrillator nobody can locate might as well not exist, so this is the part that matters most.
In an emergency, knowing exactly where to run saves the minutes people lose searching.
defibrillators registered on the network from day one. We sourced them through a Freedom of Information request, which returned the government’s list of devices across every county.
Give bystanders the confidence to step in
What I designed
Free accredited CPR and defibrillator training comes with every adoption, backed by a responder network and instructor sign-up.
The goal: a group of trained people around every device who can act in the minutes before an ambulance arrives.
A defibrillator is only as good as the person willing to use it. More trained people nearby means someone acts sooner.
Training, instructors and a growing group of responders
The Whole Thing On One Page
Explaining it all
in a single page
I put the whole service on one page: the problem, how it pays for itself, how the parts connect.
The team used it to pitch funders, businesses and partners. It is the clearest summary of the thinking behind every screen.
Adopt, donate, register, respond. Four steps, one service.
03 · The Impact
Built to turn 8-15 minutes
into 3.5
One service for funding, findability and training grows the two things that move survival most: more defibrillators, and more people ready to use them.
~10% survival lost per minute × 9 min saved ≈ 3× more survivors.
04 · Then The Design
A brand people can
trust in an emergency
With the service worked out, the last job was the look and feel. I designed the brand and interface behind the 15-plus templates: a strong red palette, bold condensed headlines, and a heartbeat line throughout.
Trustworthy enough for something medical, warm enough for local fundraising. The look sits on top of the thinking, not the other way round.
There is also a full shop, donation pages, a gallery, the crowdfunding system and an account area, all drawn from the same design system.
05 · The Outcome
From pitch
to partnership
We took Adopt An AED to the NHS and won a £5 million grant to put the service to work.
Philips Healthcare came next. Their leadership flew over to start a working relationship and build on what we designed.
Our stand from the day we pitched to the NHS
Adopt An AED. Lead UX & Service Designer, Joseph Kerr.