UX/UI Designer 2020 – Care & Share is a project that aims to improve the concept of family care by overcoming the limitations of existing platforms. With many people living at a distance from their loved ones, the platform recognizes the challenge of providing regular care and support. Care & Share goes beyond traditional senior healthcare, focusing on enhancing the overall quality of life for both users and their loved ones. As part of the design and development team, I helped create an identity that reflects the platform’s core values. Care & Share connects individuals with professional caregivers, support networks, and specialized services to bridge gaps caused by distance. Through continuous improvement and collaboration, Care & Share strives to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for families.
Task
Care & Share was a solo design project that aimed to enhance family care by addressing the limitations of existing platforms. The challenges included providing remote care and support, improving overall quality of life, creating an inclusive platform, designing a minimal dashboard, ensuring privacy and data security, gathering user feedback, managing time constraints, and prioritizing user needs. Despite these challenges, the project sought to bridge the gap caused by distance and create a supportive environment for families.
Problem
The problem revolves around families being dispersed, with family members living far away from each other. Research and user surveys indicate that many participants express concern about meeting the needs of their loved ones when they are unable to be physically present. Currently, available platforms primarily cater to the elderly with health issues, offering group creation options to assist in their care. However, there is a gap in addressing the needs of individuals whose loved ones lack nearby family members. The existing solutions are limited to health monitoring and specific services, failing to encompass broader aspects of family care, such as age, distance, and service type. Thus, there is a need to expand the concept of family care beyond these limitations.
Solution
Extensive user research and a thorough analysis of existing platforms in the market have led to the development of a robust solution for family care. Introducing the Care & Share desktop and mobile app, this platform brings together family members, friends, neighbors, and volunteers to create a comprehensive support system for individuals in need of assistance. Care & Share aims to address the gap created by the absence of nearby family members by offering the option to hire local caregivers. By doing so, this platform effectively bridges the gap across care recipient age, distance, service options, and caregiver diversity, resolving limitations observed in other available platforms.
Iterative Design Process
I undertook a thorough and iterative design process for Care & Share, which encompassed various stages, including user research, wireframing, branding, creating mockups, developing prototypes, and conducting user testing. The focus of the iterative process was primarily on the dashboard’s main section. It began with initial rough sketches on paper and gradually evolved into a refined and testable dashboard screen through multiple iterations.
Discovery
Quantitative Research
To initiate the research process, I conducted quantitative research, which involves collecting and analyzing numerical data to identify patterns, make predictions, and draw generalized conclusions applicable to broader populations. The participants were asked to provide their responses via online survey forms and questionnaires. This approach allowed for the quantification of participants’ opinions and attitudes, which were then represented through graphs and tables. The research successfully gathered responses from approximately 21 individuals, contributing to the overall success of the study.
See More Questions and Survey Analysis.
Qualitative Research (User Interview)
In the discovery process, qualitative research served as the second step, aimed at collecting and analyzing non-numerical data to gain insights into potential users’ concepts, opinions, and experiences. This approach provided a deeper understanding of the problem and generated new ideas for the research.
To gather this qualitative data, I conducted three face-to-face user interviews where participants were asked questions related to their challenges and pain points. The interviews were recorded to ensure accurate capture of the responses. Some of the interview questions included:
- What is your current role, and how did you reach this point in your career?
- Shifting focus, do you currently live far away from your parents? If so, how frequently are you able to visit them?
- Have your parents experienced recent illnesses that require daily assistance? Do you worry about their well-being when you are living far away?
- How do you seek help for your parents when they are in need?
Additionally, I explored the participants’ thoughts on hiring someone to assist with tasks such as cleaning, washing, or maintenance routines for their parents. These qualitative interviews helped to uncover valuable insights and shape the research direction.
Competitive Analysis
User Personas
Drawing upon the insights gathered from user surveys, interviews, and comments, three distinct personas were developed to represent the target audience for this problem. These personas were crafted to embody the characteristics, needs, and motivations of different user segments, providing valuable insights that informed the design and development process.
User Stories
User Flow
Based on the high-priority user stories, a user flow has been created for the product. This user flow presents the required steps taken by the user to achieve their goal at the end of the journey.
Product Sitemap
To simplify the mobile design process and ensure a clear presentation of the necessary information, the initial design of the Care & Share sitemap was focused on the desktop screen. By outlining the product website structure, the complexity typically associated with the mobile design was avoided, allowing for a straightforward and intuitive user experience
Low-Fidelity Wireframing
Utilizing the information gathered during the research and discovery phase, wireframe screens were developed to facilitate initial testing. These wireframe screens served as a visual representation of the interface and functionality of the platform. Through expert evaluations, the clickable wireframe prototype was refined and iterated upon, ensuring the incorporation of expert insights and feedback to enhance the user experience.
Competitive Analysis
Low Fidelity Screens
Add-a-new-family-member
Caretaker-form-careshare
Dashboard
Log-in-careshare
Send-a-group-message-careshare
sign-up-careshare
Developing a Brand Identity
Brand Name
By employing mind mapping and brainstorming techniques, a range of names and logo shapes were explored to establish the brand identity. After careful consideration, the name “Care & Share” was chosen as it effectively captures the essence of the platform’s purpose. The combination of “share” and “care” seamlessly aligns with the platform’s goals, and the two words naturally complement each other when pronounced together.
Logo Brainstorming
To create the logo, I began by incorporating the brand’s words, “care” and “share,” as depicted in the sketches.
brand finalize
While continuing the sketching process, various structures were explored, and a few stood out as personal favorites. To seek input and gather opinions, the preferred sketches were shared on the Slack channel for peers to provide feedback. Following a voting process, the majority of peers expressed their preference for Sketch #1.
Typeface and the Color Palette
In the process of selecting a color palette, research was conducted to align the colors with the platform’s main goal. After considering color psychology, it was determined that the color pink, representing compassion, nurturing, and love, would be an ideal choice. Therefore, a color palette was developed to incorporate the color pink.
Regarding the choice of typefaces, the objective was to maintain simplicity and ease of use. “Open Sans” emerged as a preferred font for the body of the platform, as it is a personal favorite. To differentiate the headings, the font “Ubuntu” was selected. The combination of these two fonts was deemed suitable for the platform, ensuring a visually appealing and cohesive design.
High-Fidelity Wireframing
High Fidelity Screens
Add-a-new-family-member
Dashboard
Dashboard-Empty-state-explore
Hire-someone
look-for-new-volunteer_hire-someone-in-the-area
Send-a-group-message
Thank-you-page-for-volunteers
Iterative Design Process
Conclusion and future work
In conclusion, this platform design project began as a personal quest to find a solution to the concerns I faced when leaving my parents behind in my home country. Through extensive research and understanding, I identified the common concerns people have when they leave their loved ones. The most challenging aspect of the project was creating a dashboard design that balanced simplicity with the necessary functionality for a minimum-viable product.
Given more time, I would have added additional details to the project. This would include conducting a new survey to gather user preferences on how to add new members to the support system, whether through links, sharing, or email addresses. Furthermore, I would have focused on designing a more secure and private platform to ensure the protection of sensitive information.
The most important lesson learned throughout this project was the realization of how much time and effort it takes to expand and refine a new idea. As a designer, it is crucial to prioritize the high-priority needs of users and ensure the platform’s robustness before delving into finer details. This approach allows for a more efficient and effective design process.
Looking ahead, future work would involve continuous improvement and refinement of the platform based on user feedback and evolving needs. Additionally, exploring ways to enhance privacy and security measures would be a vital aspect of further development. Overall, this project serves as a stepping stone for creating a more inclusive and supportive environment for families, addressing the concerns faced by individuals who are geographically separated from their loved ones.