CareLink
Role
-
UX Research
-
UX Design
-
UI/ Visual Design
-
Information Architecture
Tools
-
Figma
-
Miro
-
Adobe AfterEffects
-
Adobe Illustrate
Duration
May - August 2024
3 months
Context
As a capstone project for my Bachelor's degree in
Creative Digital Media, I was eager to develop a meaningful, user-centered solution to address a real-world problem. Through affinity mapping, discussions, and reflection on the systems that impact people's everyday lives, I chose to focus on a critical yet often overlooked issue: collaboration challenges within home health care.
This project reinforced for me that effective UX in health care goes beyond convenience: it supports quality of care, accountability, and ultimately, the dignity of both caregivers and patients. By focusing on practical, actionable improvements, CareLink represents a step toward a more connected and compassionate home health care system.
The Problem
Despite the essential role that home health care workers play in supporting vulnerable individuals, particularly the elderly and chronically ill making collaboration among formal caregivers is often hindered by fragmented communication and inefficient coordination. While digital tools exist, many fail to meet the specific needs of home health care teams, especially when it comes to organizing information and fostering seamless, real-time interaction.
The Solution
CareLink can offer improved coordination, communication, and task management among formal caregivers. Using a user-centered and participatory design methodology, I engaged with stakeholders to understand their daily pain points and workflow needs. Through iterative prototyping and thematic analysis of user feedback, several core features emerged as essential: digital log entries, real-time task tracking, and built-in communication tools for timely and transparent collaboration.
EMPATHY
Market Research
Despite the essential role that home health care workers play in supporting vulnerable individuals, particularly the elderly and chronically ill making collaboration among formal caregivers is often hindered by fragmented communication and inefficient coordination.
While digital tools exist, many fail to meet the specific needs of home health care teams, especially when it comes to organizing information and fostering seamless, real-time interaction.
What are apps lacking?
-
CareLink can offer improved coordination, communication,
-
and task management among formal caregivers. Using a user-centered and
What are people used to seeing?
-
A feature that allows user to track their emotions, feelings, and thoughts
-
A library feature that allows users to learn more about emotional well-being topics
-
A feature to help users track their progress or entries
Insights
-
Most apps that offered professional therapy had a very serious and clinical design, that could potentially feel intimidating to users.
-
Other apps that felt more fun and inviting only offered basic meditations and forms of self-therapy, which might not feel as effective to users.
-
So, my blue ocean potential was an app that could encompass that fun and inviting feel to it while also providing effective forms of professional therapy.
User Research
I conducted quantitative research by creating a survey that had users answer questions about their experience with emotional wellness apps and their mental health.
User Interviews
I expanded upon my original survey questions to create interview questions that would evoke more rich and in-depth responses from users. I wanted to understand the "why" behind users' decisions.
Topics to address:
-
-
What factors are affecting users' mental health?
-
Why aren't users keeping up with mental wellness apps?
-
What will actually work to improve users' mental health and help them see results?
DEFINE
Making sense of the data
Affinity Map + Value Proposition
I expanded upon my original survey questions to create interview questions that would evoke more rich and in-depth responses from users. I wanted to understand the "why" behind users' decisions.
Topics to address:
-
-
What factors are affecting users' mental health?
-
Why aren't users keeping up with mental wellness apps?
-
What will actually work to improve users' mental health and help them see results?
User Persona + Journey Map
I expanded upon my original survey questions to create interview questions that would evoke more rich and in-depth responses from users. I wanted to understand the "why" behind users' decisions.
Topics to address:
-
-
What factors are affecting users' mental health?
-
Why aren't users keeping up with mental wellness apps?
-
What will actually work to improve users' mental health and help them see results?
So, how can we define our problem?
I expanded upon my original survey questions to create interview questions that would evoke more rich and in-depth responses from users. I wanted to understand the "why" behind users' decisions.
Topics to address:
-
-
What factors are affecting users' mental health?
-
Why aren't users keeping up with mental wellness apps?
-
What will actually work to improve users' mental health and help them see results?
IDEATE
Conceptualisation
How-Might-We... solve our problem?
The first step in the Develop stage involves transforming our problem statements into how-might-we questions that help designers think of ways to solve the problem(s).
In this case, I asked myself:
1. How might help users understand and learn about their emotions better?
2. How might we create a more approachable way for users to address uncomfortable emotions?
3. How might we help users hold themselves accountable to enforce their learnings and implement healthier habits?
MoSCoW Method
The MoSCoW method helps us identify the absolutely essential features needed to solve our problem, before adding other features that would support our main features but are not necessary for solving the problem at hand.
My MUST-HAVE features directly addressed all three of my problems:
(1) A personalized lesson plan that incorporates effective, psychology-based tools
(2) An accessible library of videos, podcasts, and articles on emotions that users can comfortably explore
(4) A wellness progress coach to motivate users, create user accountability and allow users to track their progress
So, what is our final solution concept?
After piecing together the insights gathered from each stage, my minimum viable product will be a mobile app that targets addressing and improving users' emotional well-being.
In addition to three must-have features declared in my MoSCoW chart, my MVP will include a playful and inviting user interface with gamified elements while simultaneously incorporating psychology-based tools and clinical features that will be effective in helping users retain their learnings and see results.
PROTOTYPE
Developing the idea
UserFlow
I started off the project by mapping out the current information architecture of the website and worked with the team to change the layout of information in a way that is more intuitive and user-friendly. In purple are the pages of the website, and below them the sections of the corresponding pages outlined. This was done in order to ensure that once the user visits the app, they can find the information they need quickly and in an easy to understand manner.
Design Shift
AAfter the analysis of the current website state, it became apparent that the website would benefit from a restructuring. For example, we noticed from our research that users were having difficulty finding out where to enter their food and mood logs , so we added a separate page for user to help them track their progress or entries efficiently.
Wireframes
Low-Fi Wireframes
I started off the project by mapping out the current information architecture of the website and worked with the team to change the layout of information in a way that is more intuitive and user-friendly. In purple are the pages of the website, and below them the sections of the corresponding pages outlined. This was done in order to ensure that once the user visits the app, they can find the information they need quickly and in an easy to understand manner.
Mid-Fi Wireframes
AAfter the analysis of the current website state, it became apparent that the website would benefit from a restructuring. For example, we noticed from our research that users were having difficulty finding out where to enter their food and mood logs , so we added a separate page for user to help them track their progress or entries efficiently.
TESTING
The objective of my tests was to discover usability issues regarding the two different ways a user could search for an item: search by keyword or brand. I also asked my participants to attempt to save an item to a collection and apply a filter and sort refinement to their search by ecotag. To do so, I performed a series of usability tests in which my participants were given a series of independent tasks to complete with little guidance. During these tests, I observed the participants flows and steps taken to accomplish each task. After a task was complete, I also asked what confusions or challenges they had completing the task if any and what features could be improved to maximize usability. I also encouraged additional feedback about readability and interface design