Background
Shepherd Health is a support service for family members caring for an elderly parent or spouse.
For caregivers, getting in touch with a nurse or any medical assisted task is a lengthy process. The toll of taking care of a loved one often leads to caregivers struggling to find time for themselves.
By providing digital care related resources and an online community, caregivers can feel more in control of their lives and know that they are not in this journey alone.
My Role
UX/UI Design Intern
As a User Experience Design Intern, I conducted the research and led the designs with my co-designer, Jeremy Loyola.
I focused on the sign up process and the support pages that focused tutorial videos users can watch while preparing to administer care related tasks.
Throughout the internship I created user flows, presentations, wireframes, low and high fidelity prototypes. I implemented feedback from our client into the designs.
One round of testing was held from July 1st-5th to assess our solutions with caregivers.
My goals were to:
- Propose actionable solutions based on existing research and competitive analysis.
- Create the opportunity to support users with educational guides.
- Prototype and test solutions with users to enhance the Shepherd Health’s experience.
The Beginning
Understanding the problem
From our kick off call with our client, we understood that caregivers were already under a lot of stress from their daily duties. We thought about how we can make a caregiving app approachable and user friendly.
I suggested that we look at competitors to understand the strengths and weaknesses of telehealth applications. We compared CareNav and Brightline.
CareNav
CareNav is an online tool designed to help families navigate the complexities of the caregiving journey.
First Impressions:
- Texts takes up majority of the interface, everything felt very close together
- Platform is a mobile website, not an app
- Majority of the time is spent on filling out information
Brightline
Brightline focused more on kids and teens behavioral health and helps families learn and grow together by offering digital resources, coaching sessions and online therapy.
First Impressions:
- Simple, user friendly, great use of color, consistency
- Users are aware of what to expect
- Platform is a mobile website, not an app
After comparing both CareNav and Brightline, we decided that we wanted to create a mobile application with an approachable interface that fits our users needs and lifestyle.
Synthesizing
To get a better idea of who we are designing for, we looked into Shepherd Health’s existing resources that included AARP’s Full Report Caregiving in the U.S. and interviews with caregivers.
With this information, I created an affinity map to find patterns to understand the users goals, behaviors and needs.
Some highlights from the diagram were:- Caregivers do not have a lot of time in their day
- Most do not have the proper medical training to administer tasks at home
- Due to caregiving, they carry emotional strain and often feel lonely
These findings helped us synthesize the primary users and the business goals for Shepherd Health.
Research
Building a personas
Drawing a Map
My objectives were to create a seamless sign in and login path for users and to create a support page that featured educational guides.
While mapping out the support page, I was thinking about the user's time and wanted to offer more than one way of accessing a guide. Users would have the option to watch videos or read a step by step guide on how to perform a particular caregiving task.
These options would allow users the freedom to learn without the feeling of being restricted, while they are looking after someone.
Sketches
Usability Testing
Building a personas
In order to test our low fidelity prototype for Shepherd Health, I interviewed a total of 5 individuals that agreed to test the prototype. All participants had experience with caregiving and were interested that a product for caregivers was being worked on!
👉🏼Click Here for Shepherd Health’s First Prototype
All participants gave us valuable information to work with and helped us find ways to iterate our designs to make the prototype feel as if the users were navigating through an actual app. Some key findings we found were:
Reaction Times
5 out of 5 participants spent less than 5 seconds to complete onboarding, home and support tasks.
5 out of 5 participants spent less than 5 seconds to complete onboarding, home and support tasks.
Easy Navigation
The icons exhibited sufficient clarity, enabling all users to navigate across various screens seamlessly.
The icons exhibited sufficient clarity, enabling all users to navigate across various screens seamlessly.
Additional Info
A user brought up a concern in the onboarding screen that would feel more likely to sign up if there was additional information about the app.
A user brought up a concern in the onboarding screen that would feel more likely to sign up if there was additional information about the app.
Style Guide + High Fidelity Screens
Project Insights and Takeaways
Be Transparent, Advocate for the Users
While it is essential to have business goals, such as incorporating an assessment for caretakers, I made the decision to introduce the questionnaire after the onboarding process. Our objective was to provide solutions that allow users to navigate smoothly without encountering obstacles or, in the worst-case scenario, abandoning the application entirely.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Collaborating with Jeremy was an absolute delight! We would consistently exchange ideas and engage in productive brainstorming sessions while collaborating on artboards.
I consider myself fortunate to have the opportunity to work alongside another designer who shares my passion for creating accessible features that cater to our users' needs.
Pushing Past Obstacles
Time felt limited. There were certain challenges in scheduling meetings with our client. Despite the less than ideal situation, it propelled us to continue making progress in developing and refining features for the business. Sometimes, limitations can spark creativity and innovation!
