Find out what Mumsnet testers thought of Healthily

[GraceEMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the Mumsnet users who tested Healthily and its Smart Symptom Checker.

Testers, you can now share your feedback! Please do so by responding to the questions below on this thread, as well as filling in the survey that we have emailed to you.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?

All testers who leave the required feedback will receive a £5 Amazon voucher and an annual subscription to the Healthily app!

Here’s what Healthily has to say:

“Healthily is a health information website, an award-winning app and a sophisticated Smart Symptom Checker – one of the most accurate and advanced in the world. Healthily provides medically safe information that helps anyone, anywhere, decide on the best next steps and how to manage their health and wellbeing safely at home.”

Thanks!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

It was easy to use and make me think of other symptoms that might be related that I hadn’t considered

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?
   Quite liked the menopause info as this is relevant to me at the moment, an interesting read.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?

Yes it’s a really easy website and app to use, user friendly

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?
   It seems so, I am fairly healthy anyway but like the ideas at tips for stress etc

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?

I think that it didn’t get it quite right if is am completely honest and maybe frightened me a bit as it mentioned cancer for shoulder pain.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?

1. It's quite hard to navigate.

1. Some articles were really good like the super foods ones but others were very basic like the cheaper food shopping one - it's rubbish.

1. The website isn't that easy to navigate.

1. The health content was relevent like all the menopause stuff that was good.

1. It didn't identify any health concerns.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

Yes the questions were clear, specific and there were enough of them to allow you to expand and cover all symptoms.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?

I liked the majority of them. They were well written and aimed at the right level for the general public with enough medical professional input but not too much medical jargon.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?

Yes the website was easy to navigate. I quickly found myself clicking through to other useful links and more information.

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?

I think it is relevant to general health needs and covers the majority of the bigger and most important health topics. It wasn’t specifically relevant to my needs, but I challenged it with a complex issue.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?

My health concern was complex. Too complex for this website I feel, but i was happy that I was directed to seek medical professional attention. I think it would easily provide reliable advice for simpler health issues

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

It was easy to use, simple and basic.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?

They were easy to understand quite basic readily known information but reassuring and informative - a bit women’s magazine like.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?

Yes.

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?

It was in a very top level way, but it didn’t give any additional support or advice.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?

It told me what I already knew from my own research so it was reassuring but it didn’t offer any revelations that my other research hadn’t provided.

I think it felt a bit like the same old same advice and didn’t really offer anything that isn’t already available.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

Yes I found it easy to use. I liked how detailed it was.

1. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?

I found it to be both helpful and informative.

1. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?

I found website quick and easy to use, page links made sense and articles I found helpful.

1. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?

Mostly I found useful information to help any health concerns.

1. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?

Yes mostly however think I would continue to use NHS symptom checker didn't like the fact I would have to pay a subscription in the future to access the app.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?
   Yes it was very straightforward and easy to use. My favourite feature was the report at the end. It was very informative.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?
   I thought the articles were useful and well researched. They were grouped into useful topics. And each article had links to further reading.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?
   Yes the website was well-structured and easy to use.

4)Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?
Yes the health content was relevant to me and my needs.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next? Yes it came up with possible low iron. I've had this before and I have asked my GP for a blood test to confirm.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?
   Yes I found the questions that came back to me very easy to understand and actually they made me link symptoms I may not have associated with the original issue.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?
   Yes I loved the articles, finding them easy to follow and interesting.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?
   Yes, I used the links from the email but it was easy to navigate quickly to where I wanted to be from the top information detailing the route to the page I was on, and the menu area also.

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?
   Yes, the pregnancy parts were irrelevant but all other parts were very encouraging to read.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?
   Yes it was an extremely easy to follow website, I will recommend to friends for sure.

Thank you for the opportunity to test drive this website.

1) Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features? - yes it was very easy to use, and asked lots of questions to pin point, but it couldn't diagnose my gastritis/acid reflux, it just referred me to a doctor.

2) What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand? very helpful and informative and I liked the fact that they are checked by professionals.

3) Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly? yes

4) Was the health content relevant to you and your needs? yes, lots of info on menopause for example which is useful as I think I may be starting to head into that

5) Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next? no it didn' it just referred me to the doctor for everything that I put in.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

Yes very easy to use, it gave good advise to me to help me with something I was suffering with.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand? Yes very broad range of topics and interesting

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?

Yes very easy to find information

) Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?

Some of it was

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next? Yes it helped me find information on the symptoms that I have been suffering from and gave me info on what to do next.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

Yes, just that it was simple for me to figure out.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?

I liked the articles. Yes it was useful and relevant, I understood it all well enough.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?

Yes definitely.

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?

I found that it was, it met my needs.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?

It did, I felt confident about what to do next as it feels like information from a trusted source.

Thank you for letting me try this out. It’s been a positive experience for me.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features? Yes very easy to use. Symptom checker definately my favourite

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand? Very informative and interesting to read. These would be very helpful when/if going through the specified topics

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly? Yes very easy to navigate and plenty of content to chose from

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs? Yes, I have had a few issues lately so found these very useful and informative

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next. Yes it did. However, it did advise me to go to A&E which was quite extreme. I did instead go to my GP and the issues are being investigated. Very good tool though.

1. The symptom checker was very easy to use, but it kept telling giving me the wrong diagnosis. I know what the issue I have is but it was adamant my problem was angina (its actually a lung infection). I tried multiple times to get the right diagnosis, but it wouldn't co-operate. I also put in my shoulder problems and it got them right, so that was ok.

2. The font colour looked grey on my phone, which was was fine until I tried to read a article when I had a headache and couldn't because it merged into one.
   The articles I did read were interesting, but there wasn't any new information or tips in them. I liked the layout of the pages though.
   I didn't like how illness symptoms weren't split into male and female, ie the heart attack symptoms. Women don't have the same symptoms as men, and although the page says women might not have chest pain, it doesn't say what the female specific symptoms are.

3. Yup, the website is nice to look at, it's easy to use, easy to find articles on a wide range of topics, and it isn't cluttered with random pictures or adverts. It's been really well designed.

4. Yes. If they included information about new medical trials that would be a great addition

5. Not really. If I was the type of person who worried over everything then the angina thing would have been terrifying. For my shoulder, yes. It did suggest doing shoulder exercises, so it would have been better if there was a separate article with the exercises on it. When I first injured my shoulder the doctor emailed my a list of exercises to try, which were very easy to understand, so it wouldn't be hard to add. Other medical advice websites have basic physio movements on them, not sure why this one doesn't, maybe it's a liability thing?

1. I found the website easy to use and navigate especially about using the symptom checker and the main headings let you know what the contents was about. It’s very useful and great if you don’t have the time as you can come back later to finish up.

2. The articles on the Healthily website had useful information that was very easy to understand and apply where applicable. It felt like it was written by a qualified profession but in everyday easy to understand words.

3. I was able to navigate the website easily and find the information I wanted quickly because of the meaningful heading under Health Library. The categories were general yet specific.

4. I found the health content relevant to me and my needs as I was particularly interested in improving my mental health and eating healthily and there were useful guides for these on the website.

5. I used the Smart Symptom Checker to check about a recent pain in my knees and a separate one on my fingers and the result was spot on providing useful what to do now especially as I was worried about it going untreated. Guess some things come with getting old and the weather so it was reassuring.

I was immediately put off by the "assigned sex at birth" question. Sex isn't assigned, it's observed. At least it recognised that there are only two sexes.

Maybe that accounted for my (female) abdominal swelling being diagnosed as testicular cancer...

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?
   It was easy to use and I felt like it went into a lot of detail.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?
   The articles were easy to understand and quick to read. I would have preferred more examples and stories from people on how they had implemented into their lives

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?
   Yes

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?
   Yes.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?
   Yes I will book an appointment with my GP

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features

Yes it was easy, I liked the way it kind of guided you through instead of making you answer loads of general irrelevant questions

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand

The articles were probably my least favourite bit. Not bad per se just nothing particularly new.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly

Yes, it was pretty straightforward

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs

Some of it, but not all, obviously. Seemed ok be a decent range of content

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?

I have an issue that's being addressed but it wasn't picked up on. I'd still talk to my doctor first.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?
   I found it really reassuring and I liked how wide ranging the choice of symptoms were that they asked about.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?
   I really liked the quality of articles on the website and spent a lot of time reading about peri and menopause symptoms as I was starting to wonder if some minor health niggles I've been having were the start of that. It was able to answer some questions nicely.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?
   Navigation was great and information was well presented and easily found. It also looked good on my phone - sometimes I find stuff harder to read there and it was reassuring it wasn't!

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?
   The health content was very relevant. The only slight concern/feedback I'd raise is I was a bit concerned at points that the site felt a bit American. Normally I'd avoid searching for health advice on any site other than the NHS to avoid any non-UK advice or protocols on medication availability and such. A bit more obvious explanation that it's British would be reassuring.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?
   I found the symptom checker very helpful and it definitely gave me some ideas on what to do next and some things to keep an eye on.

Overall I was impressed by the site and have bookmarked it to use again - particularly the symptom checker which is incredibly handy!

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?
   It is simple to navigate and click. Moves quickly with ease and simple questions.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?
   They are concise and a useful summary of what's available in one place

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?
   Yes website links and content easy to access

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?
   Some of the links were relevant and a good sense and reality check.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next.

No, mine told me to get straight to seek medical help three days ago. My condition pain is from fibromyalgia so it was alarming to see on an existing condition and should not replace nhs.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

Yes it was easy to use. It did ask quite a few questions and came up with the same conclusions as my gp. I liked that it was quite thorough. It gave you lots of related information on the possible diagnosis and other content that was related so you read as much or little as you wanted too.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?

They was good and it was new content to me. Again you could read further into the subject if you wanted to. I ended up reading on melatonin because my teen takes this to sleep ( no SEN but prescribed via a paed). Everything I read was new information to me.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?

Yes but I did have some trouble signing up with meant that I had to reset my password. I got a bit stuck in a loop because the sign out information was in small print in the middle of the page as a link. I was expecting a obvious sign out button.

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?

Yes the content would be relevant to anyone who is interested in making lifestyle changes to lead a more healthy life in easy to follow chuncked information

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next

Yes they did. I put in my symptoms twice, omitting some of the symptoms each time and both suggested conditions have been investigated by my gp si that was reassuring

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

Easy to use and intuitive but came up with just one, incorrect diagnosis, which was a but alarming. There was no supporting info or alternatives so it seemed like ‘this is what you have’ and it isn’t what I have…

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?
   The articles are fine but generic. I didn’t find anything I couldn’t have easily found elsewhere. I found them a bit simplistic and presented as fact in instances where I felt the situation is more nuanced.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?
   Yes, navigation is fine and information well presented.

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?
   Relevant but not new or innovative.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?
   As with my answer to 1), this was not as helpful as I’d hoped. It only gave me one option based on quite a broad symptom and didn’t ask me many questions. It was something I know I have, and the report was therefore not helpful as it was wrong. I didn’t like that this was presented as the only option when it clearly isn’t. I was expecting more from the content in terms of putting a proper plan together over the testing period, rather than just a load of articles and tips.

Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features? Quick and easy. A bit like 111, seems to be a few oddball questions though. Tried with a few different symptoms and some seemed to be bang on which was unexpected.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand? Ok so I thought eurghh boring when I was given the task. Actually I was wrong, the info was concise and easy to read and understand. Short articles, useful and easy to follow, not too boring or lengthy.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?
   Yeah the website it super easy to use.

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs? Yes as far as what I needed from it, it was handy.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next? Yes. I was happy with the outcome of the checker and knee what I needed to do

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?
   Yes, I found it easy to use. I already had a health issue bothering me which I used the symptom checker to confirm.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?
   I enjoyed the articles, they were written in plain English and I liked the way they were set out in sections to break down the information.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?
   Yes the website was straightforward to navigate.

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?
   Yes. In fact, it brought a few minor health issues to my attention that I had been ignoring.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?
   Yes I have a health issue that has been at the back of my mind and the symptom checker confimed what I suspected. So I know I ned to contact my GP.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

Very easyto use. I quite liked how it made me consider lots of possible causes for my symptom and in that way was quite educational.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?

I found them a bit of a generic read and wasn’t drawn to read more than the topic I was specifically interested in.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?

Yes very straight forward and easy to get around it and find information.

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?

It was, I found it covered what I needed and covered a lot of ground in terms of common symptoms we have as a family.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?

The advice was clear on what to do next, I felt too often it advised to see a doctor when in actuality I probably wouldn’t. However it did expand my thinking on the symptoms and that improved my confidence in thinking about options around a symptom.

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features? It was really easy to use, really clear and easy to follow

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand? Yes absolutely, interesting as well.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly? Yes it was really simple

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs? Yes.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next? Yes, it pretty much backed up what I thought so it was reassuring

1. Did you find the Healthily Smart Symptom checker easy to use? If so, what were your favourite features? Very easy, but some of the questions were a bit ridiculous in my opinion, but I suppose they have to rule things out.

2. What did you think of the articles on the Healthily website? Was the information useful and easy to understand?
   Very easily understood. I did find some of the articles a bit long, could absolutely have been more concise.

3. Were you able to navigate the website easily and find the information you wanted quickly?
   Yes, it was very easy to use.

4. Was the health content relevant to you and your needs?
   I didn’t find the migraine stuff very useful.

5. Did the content and Smart Symptom Checker address any health concerns you had? Did you feel confident about what to do next?
   No. I have always suffered from migraines but the symptom checker told me I was having a brain hemorrhage and told me to phone an ambulance.