Through extensive consultation and user testing, we heard how important but difficult it was to understand and compare the quality of care provided by aged care homes.

Introducing Star Ratings for residential aged care was a significant undertaking by the Department. It uses complex calculations to determine each rating and enable fair comparison between aged care homes.

Despite short delivery timeframes, the project used innovation and collaboration with older people and the sector to define, design and deliver a meaningful experience.

To help achieve this, we started this project with research to understand what was important to people and how they made decisions when selecting an aged care home. This informed how we could frame information in a way that was clear and easy to understand.

We used iterative testing and refinement, from conceptual to detailed design. We investigated the preferred level of detail required to support decision-making. Then we built our layered interface, achieving the balance between a simple up-front display and full transparency, with the ability to drill down to important information relevant for those seeking more detail.

Terminology used by Government and across industry did not resonate with older people. Even labels used to describe the 1 to 5 ratings were contentious, requiring engagement and consultation, with some terms considered too subjective, such as “good”, “bad” or “average”.

People wanted to be confident they understood and could trust the information on the Star Ratings website.

Using performance data in a meaningful way

Department of Health and Aged Care

Embedding diversity in the aged care system