Coordicare
Role : UX Researcher, Product Designer
Timeline : 9 weeks, Feb - May 2021
Tools : Figma & Mirror, Invision, Sketch, Photoshop, Google Slide
A caregiving application that connects families around the care of their senior loved ones who live alone.
It allows caregivers to coordinate their visit schedules and share important updates faster. In addition, there is a vitals monitoring feature to check the wellness of seniors remotely.
The Story
From Feb - May 2021, I completed a full-time UX Design Bootcamp with BrainStation to obtain a Diploma in UX Design. I created a compelling capstone project from start to end within 9 weeks. This was an end-to-end UX design process experience from research, idea explorations, user testing, developing brand and mobile app interfaces.
Design Thinking
I selected the Design thinking methodology to work on this project. It is a solution-based approach to solving problems that is a non-linear process, which helps me continue to gain new insights, get feedback on different steps, iterate quickly, and develop a far more profound understanding of the users and the problems they face.
DISCOVERY OF PROBLEM SPACE
Personal experience as an inspiration
In today’s mobile society, children move away from their hometown because of opportunities, such as work, marriage, education, etc. My mother, who just turned 70 years old, lives by herself in Jakarta, Indonesia, and her daughters all live in different parts of the world.
Many others in my circle of family and friends face the same challenge of staying informed about the needs of our senior parents from a distance and making sure they get the care they need.
The current pandemic has made it worse for the seniors’ social isolation that could lead to exacerbated problems of increase unhealthy habits and mental health.
62% of family caregivers said their senior loved ones have suffered physically or mentally because of isolation during the pandemic
PROJECT OUTLINE
The Challenge & Constraints
This project explores a problem in our modern society: how adults can make sure their senior parents are well and getting whatever care they need.
It is a sensitive matter, with discussion usually postponed until there is an absolute emergency.
Even though caregivers experience burnout, they might deny it or be unwilling to address the issue due to a sense of responsibility to care for their own parents.
PLATFORM
I was challenged to design a native app. I selected iOS, as the most preferred platform in the North American market (56.2%)
ACCESSIBILITY
Designing for an older demographic which worsening eyesight is a common issue.
SOCIO-CULTURAL
It requires user willingness to adapt and change old behaviors to use the product. Also requires some basic tech-savviness.
“How might we help distance caregivers take care of their senior loved ones by monitoring and coordinating care, in order to reduce caregivers' burnout while ensuring their loved ones are looked after?”
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Who is the most affected demographic?
Distance caregivers - this term refers to caregivers who live an hour or more away from a person who needs care.
The GenXers (35-58 years old), the middle-aged adults who provide care for a senior parent who lives alone.
“Distance caregivers is a group that hasn’t been well recognized. We haven’t really done a really good job up until this point in terms of trying to provide services that in some way make being a distance caregiver less stressful and more meaningful.”
- Sara L. Douglas, a professor of nursing and assistant dean for research at Case Western Reserve University (The New York Times/strategies-for-long-distance-caregiving)
Although this research was focused on Distance caregivers as the most affected demographic, most types of caregivers could also benefit from this case study and use the app’s feature.
PRIMARY RESEARCH
User Interview
To learn more about their common behaviors and motivations, I interviewed three adults who are within the demographic and providing care for their senior parents.
Method & Tools
• Interview method: Decontextual method was used to collect data
• Tools: zoom, google meet, paper, pen
Participant criteria
• Adult aged 35-58, who lives at least an hour away from their senior family member
• Senior care recipient must be independent, lives alone, and in general good health
From the interviews, the caregivers’ pain points around the feeling of lack of control and needing more support were being discussed more than any other issues.
Key Takeaways
Here are their key shared insights divided into two common shared themes:
Care coordination was selected as the primary theme, so caregivers could get more support from siblings in order to feel less burnout
Safety & wellness was the secondary theme, to help alleviate the feeling of lack of control, and make sure their senior parents are well-taken care
OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTERVENTION
Persona & Experience Mapping
After synthesizing my interviews into insights and pulling out a key insight to focus on, I developed a persona and experience map to ensure my design process was driven by my target user’s goals and behaviors.
Meet Patrick, he takes care of his mom who lives alone in a suburb an hour away from the city, where supermarkets are not at a convenient distance.
During the pandemic, his mom is afraid to leave the house and stops seeing her friends. So he needs to make sure that her basic needs are taken care of. Although he works from home during this period, he struggles to find time between his schedule and feels guilty about it.
He has two siblings that he wishes would share some responsibilities, but he is unsure of how to get them to do that.
TASK SELECTION PROCESS
User Stories & Task Flow
After understanding what my persona’s goal and pain points are, and identifying when is the critical moment of opportunities, then now it is time to work on how to go about that.
So I selected two sets of epic to create the Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
Primary epic: Care Coordination
The tasks were broken down into two flows: plan a visit and share update post-visit.
Secondary epic: Monitoring vitals
This was created because of common needs from target users, but the exploration will not be too deep for the secondary epic.
I followed the user story rubric: As a <user> I want to <ability or feature> so that <ability or feature>.
Task Flow
To get a better sense of how a user would interact with the product to complete these tasks, I created task flows as the next process.
I divided my primary flow from one epic care coordination into two task flows. Although they are under the same epic, the flow will make more sense as two different features of the app, which are plan visits (calendar feature) and share updates post-visit (journal feature).
DEFINING FEATURES
The concept
Currently, family caregivers are using WhatsApp groups to communicate their plans and updates. Some tried using Google calendar, GPS tracking apps, or an Apple Watch. Their shared similarity is that all the caregivers and senior parents are using IOS smartphones.
Based on their need, I developed the concept that combines the ability to plan visits, share post-visit updates, and vitals monitoring of the seniors.
Calendar
This feature allows caregivers to sync their schedules with others. They could set the date and time, reminders & type of task during the visit
Journal
This feature allows caregivers to share updates within the circle. They could choose the seniors’ mood and conditions to share with others
Monitor dashboard
This feature monitors seniors’ vitals and location. Data needs to be populated from a wearable that needs to be set up prior to using the app
VISUALIZATION
Sketching & wireframing
After the task flows were clear, it was time to begin the process of ideation.
Then I sketched out a few possible solutions with different components and layouts.
Brainstorming with sketches is an effective way to explore a few of my ideas before applying them to the digital wireframe. Below are some of my sketches exploring the concept visually with a few alternatives.
EVALUATION
Usability Testing
After the wireframing was done, the mid-fidelity prototype went through the process of testings to make sure the app is usable and meet users’ goals. The testers were asked to complete a set of two tasks while navigating through the prototype, while I observe how real users interacted with the app and see if the app’s functions and features helped the user achieve their goals.
Real-time feedback was gathered and iterations were made until all the users could complete all tasks.
2
Rounds of Testing
10
User Testers
3
Iterations
The first round was done with UX students to get all the functions usable first. Feedback gathered was around structure, design, and navigation. Using a priority matrix chart, feedback was analyzed and defined by the impact on usability and the effort required to fix it.
The second round was done with target users. The feedback received was mostly minor, concerning wording and adding new features. Below are the screen evolutions from the iteration process.
Iterations:
(1) Monitoring dashboard was redesigned in a card for better organization, added toggle filter to sort vitals data better & “show more” data button to suggest more data without having to show too much
2) Verbiage was changed from “Care feed” to “Visit log”, and redesigned elements to improve the information hierarchy
(3) Dashboard & Home were merged, FAB button was removed and simplified to navbar menu to improve overall usability
Iterations:
(1) CTA add “New Event” was added for user flexibility, in addition to the ability to schedule by clicking on the desired date
(2) The calendar was redesign with spacing and line for better visibility
(3) Color-coded dates to highlight users’ schedule and (4) simplified and added users’ profile images for better scanability
The most notable feedback from the second round was to add two more features, the ability to save the journal and the request support feature.
These are important features based on the feedback of target users and educators, for the app’s scalability. When in the future an external caregiver’s needed, they will need a better platform to request support and access previous records easily.
Iterations:
(1) The condition list was simplified, (2) voice input was removed due to feasibility to input calendar with voice
(3) Save update option (4) Added condition customization to input text and image
The testing process was an eye-opening learning experience that has taught me never to rely on my assumptions. I learned so much by observing users interact with the prototype, gathering real-time feedback, and quickly pivoting solutions to meet the users’ end goal.
DEMOGRAPHIC CONSIDERATION
Accessibility for older demographic
I did some research before designing the interface because I remember after turning 40, my sisters need to adjust the font to be bigger on their iPhones. I want to keep in mind to put the user in the center when designing a product for them.
Starting from the age of 40, the common issue is eyesight as vision flexibility is decreasing
Font size must be large, body copy should be 17pt, label copy at the smallest on 13pt
Large button size, or at least to keep by minimum 44pt height, based on IOS guideline
Using text for labels along with icons, as informative as possible as they might not be too familiar if only using the icons
Web color contrast recommended ratio must be kept at least 4.5:1, according to WCAG (AA)
With these considerations in mind, I started to explore the colors and typography
Proxima Nova was recommended on one of the sans-serif font types to use as best practice when writing for the web
VISUAL IDENTITY STORY
Branding & Interface
Quite a few branding names were explored, I searched for a unique name that captures the value of the app and decided on Coordicare, from “Care coordination”. For caregivers, showing that they care for their loved ones is by checking on them regularly and getting things done for them. So I chose a combination of checkmark and love symbols.
Keywords that inspires the personality of the brand
Nostalgic, Calm, Sentimental, Comforting, Coordinated, Optimistic, Connected, Positivity
MOOD BOARD & COLORS
Using these keywords, I collected images that represent the creative direction I was going for to develop the visual language of the brand. It was the most fun and familiar process for me as a designer to get my creative mind to flow, explore ideas, and discover.
The colors were extracted from the mood board then refined. The teal green was selected because it represents the color of “nature and health”, and the blue color represents “loyalty, strength, wisdom, and trust”. The color combination creates a calming effect for the users that might be using the app in a distress or burnout state.
TYPOGRAPHY
Poppins is a playful rounded sans serif fonts, not only comfortable to read but also gives a lively feel to the mobile application, it is used for Headings and CTAs
Proxima Nova was selected because of its legibility for body copies and labels, which also balances well when pairing with Poppins.
ICONOGRAPHY & UI LIBRARY
I created a comprehensive UI library as a guide for clients, designers or to be handed off to the dev team based on Brad’s Frost Atomic design system.
VISUALIZATION & PROTOTYPING
High-fidelity Prototype
After the branding, typography, and brand colors were ready, it was time to inject them into the app, to prepare it to come to life as a real product.
But then I learned that even after getting ready for high fidelity, I still received feedback that the interaction for my prototype could be improved on the calendar and the support page need to be laid out more effectively.
So after a few discussions and guidance from the educator and TA, I quickly reiterated and was able to improve the usability in a short amount of time.
Below are the final iterations of the calendar and support pages
Before: User control issue, users need to click “skip” if they don’t need to set a reminder
After: Now they don’t have to go through all processes, they could select only what they want to set then click “save” to go to the next task. This removes unnecessary clicks and gives users more control.
• Before: The filter feature and design were unclear on the task status and user’s action
• After: (1) Toggle filter to sort all tasks status from done, pending and all (2) Add button to “invite to circle” to add other family members or any external caregiver support (3) Changed to “List” layout with clearer button actions for users, such as “Get” if someone assigned a task, and “Assign” to someone if you create a new request. This action still needs to be explored if someone could not accept the request. (4) Completed tasks marked as done with checkmark icons for better visibility
The video walkthrough of Coordicare
SUPPORTING CHANNEL
Marketing Site
As the first point of entry to the app and brand, I want to make sure that the landing page will give enough information about the product features and core value propositions, and gives a clear click-to action to the target users.
I developed illustrative storytelling for the brand story based on Patrick the persona, to increase user engagement and create a more personalized feeling.
Testimonial videos were carefully selected from real user stories within the demographic to add trust and social proof.
ALTERNATE PLATFORM OF CHOICE
Apple Watch
Apple Watch is the perfect alternate platform of choice for Coordicare. During the pandemic, according to the research, tech use among the 50+ increased particularly in wearable devices – from 17% to 27%.
The best use case is for sharing important updates faster and alerting if there was something unusual regarding seniors’ vitals data.
FUTURE & REFLECTIVE
Measurement of success
After shipped, Coordicare will need to be measure by certain KPIs.
Monetization, as a Freemium caregiving app that offers free basic features, and offers paid service on premium features such as the ability to get more in-depth insights on the seniors’ vitals data, and the ability to get more storage on saved data on the journal. Then the percentage of users upgrade versus using a free or basic version should be measured.
Improve the number of downloads, users retention rate, and average time per session
Promote users satisfaction on blogs, and collects feedback from the app reviews, ratings, and Net Promotor Score (NPS)
Collaboration with the seniors and their community, as there is a real potential for the app to be used involving the seniors, during the pandemic 4 out of 5 older adults age 50+ rely on technology to stay connected and in touch with family and friends, and the smartphone adoption has jumped to 77 percent among them.
Key Learnings
Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that could happen at each stage. Sometimes I have to go backward to move forward.
Trust myself and the process. How many times I felt so overwhelmed but I surprised myself every time that I could finish just by following the process and ask a lot of feedback
The key to success in UX is to never rely on my own assumptions, user tests them, get feedback often, continue to explore, and iterates.