Tero Väänänen

Tero is Head of Design at NHS England

Head of Design

Tero Väänänen is Head of Design at NHS England. He is a designer and an engineer at heart, focused on user needs with a desire to ensure that NHS digital products and services are accessible to everyone.

Blogs

Laptop showing the Design System webpage on the NHS England website.

By Tero Väänänen. 31 October 2025 Making the NHS design system fit for the future

Tero Väänänen explains why the NHS design system exists and why it plays an important role in fulfilling the 10-year health plan. He also describes recent changes to the frontend code behind the design system, and why it is important for teams to adopt them now.

By Tero Väänänen. 10 May 2023 Why we've put sustainability into the NHS digital design principles

Tero Väänänen, Head of Design in NHS England’s Transformation directorate, explains the new NHS digital design principle focused on sustainability.

The author Tero Väänänen standing outside the NHS Digital offices in Leeds

By Tero Väänänen. 21 September 2022 Products deliver outputs, services deliver outcomes

Tero Väänänen, Head of Design at NHS Digital, explains why we must shift our focus from outputs to outcomes so the public can truly get what it needs from the NHS.

White numbers '1999' displayed on a black background.

By Tero Väänänen. 8 March 2022 How a 20-year-old standard is still relevant today

It was born 8 years before the iPhone and a year before Google got into the advertising business, but Tero Väänänen says 'BS EN ISO 9241-210' remains a guiding star for human-centred design.

Tero Väänänen at NHS Digital's office in Wellington Place, Leeds

By Tero Väänänen. 15 February 2022 What is your problem?

Tero Väänänen, Head of Design at NHS Digital, considers the Cheshire Cat’s wise words to Alice and explains why it is important to define the problems we are addressing before trying to solve them.

By Tero Väänänen. 12 July 2021 It takes a village to design a service

Tero Väänänen, Head of Design at NHS Digital, talks about how important it is to design your organisation before you start designing services.