A data management software for Alzheimer's caregivers to track the daily activity of patients to streamline the process of handling data in the healthcare industry.
CONTEXT
About Client
Still Waters in Indianapolis provides specialized care for Alzheimer's patients, tracking daily activities and health data to ensure comprehensive care. The organization focuses on personalized attention, helping patients maintain their well-being and supporting families with accurate, detailed records of their loved ones' day-to-day experiences.
My Work
As a solo UX Designer and Researcher on the team,
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Identified pain points by interviewing and conducting field observations of caregivers and daycare centers.
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Collaborated with developers on technical constraints and product managers on feature prioritization.
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Designed user flows and prototypes, and iterated on design based on user and expert feedback.
INFO
Role
Product/UX Design and UX Research
Team
Software Developer, Product Manager, Data Analyst, UX Designer and Researcher (Me)
Responsibilities
User Research, User Flows, Prototyping, Design systems, Cross-func. collaboration, Usability Testing
Duration
8 Weeks (August 2023 - October 2023)
Tools
Figma, Miro, Adobe Photoshop
BRIEF
Alzheimer's patient data on loose sheets of paper is challenging, time-consuming, and disorganized for caregivers. This approach often leads to data loss, privacy and security concerns, and incomplete tracking, making it difficult to share timely reports with healthcare providers. As a result, the patient's quality of life and disease management are compromised.
It should be like easy to keep track... but it's not." - Clara
Meet Clara, a dedicated professional caregiver at an adult daycare center, caring primarily for Alzheimer's patients. She tracks patient data on loose sheets of paper, leading to missing information and incomplete tracking. When generating reports, Clara struggles to piece together scattered records, risking lost data and compromising the quality of care she strives to provide. This manual process is time-consuming and hinders accurate documentation.
SHIPPED SOLUTION
I solved the problem of paper based tracking by offering a secure cloud-based system for caregivers to accurately track patient activities and manage their data. This enables timely, precise reporting to healthcare professionals, enhancing patient care and disease management.
Achievements
85%
reduction in report generation time
3x
faster in tracking and managing data
92%
user satisfaction and system usability score
The Process
USER RESEARCH
Understanding my Users and their needs
To understand the difficulties caregivers face when handling Alzheimer's patients, I conducted a thorough user research phase to gain a deeper understanding of caregivers' needs and pain points. This included interviews with family caregivers, professional caregivers, memory care managers, and adult care centers. Through this research, I was able to identify common pain points and areas of improvement in tracking activities at adult daycare facilities. These findings were instrumental in informing the design direction I made during the development of the application.
9
Alzheimer's adult day care centers
+
11
Professional caregivers
+
5
Family caregivers
I collaborated with external Clients
My interaction with Still Waters ( Adult day care center) staff members did not stay within the bounds of Zoom calls. I visited them.
I met with Diana, CEO of Still Waters, as well as other members to pinpoint exactly what their concerns are and how I can help.
Through our communication, I learned that Still Waters has:
100+ community volunteers
20+ administrative staff members
10+ Professional caregivers
These will be my 3 core user groups who tracks the data of Alzheimer's patients in the facility.
Actual Photos from Still Waters adult day care center
Observation
I chose participatory observation over traditional site visits to understand the exact challenges caregivers face and to observe their behavior in real settings. After conducting in-depth interviews, I wanted to validate the data and gain firsthand experience.
During my research, I observed Clara, a caregiver, assisting an Alzheimer's patient with a craft activity. The patient struggled with the task, and when Clara tried to log this critical information, she spent 3-4 minutes searching for the right sheet, ultimately forgetting to document the incident.
This highlighted the challenges in their current system and the importance of accurate information tracking
Loose sheets of paper here and there! - Images taken at Still waters
Insights
I collected rich data from my research and then began synthesizing all the data points and identified key themes.
Paper based Tracking
Leads to data loss, time-consuming corrections, lack of data security, fragmented patient information, and difficulty in accessing both past and current records.
Errors in report generation
Involves reviewing ADL (Activities of Daily Living) sheets, leading to time consumption and an increased risk of errors.
Delay in sharing Data
Results in delayed treatments and incomplete information being shared with doctors and family members.
After mapping the data, I collaborated with my team to share findings in a way that was easy to grasp. I crafted a user persona that highlights caregivers' issues and goals, making it easy for everyone to empathize and understand the scenarios.
How might we streamline the management and tracking process of Alzheimer's patient data in adult daycare centers to eliminate data loss, reduce errors, and minimize delays in sharing critical information?
Ideation
I led three design workshops to define the MVP and key features, prioritizing ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and essential monitoring factors. Recognizing that AR glasses are not feasible for nonprofits, I focused on a solution that is economically, socially, and technically viable.
I created the main user flow for tracking Alzheimer's patients' daily activities, generating reports, and sharing them with family members and doctors.
Before diving into design systems and wireframes, I collaborated with our developers to identify technical constraints, ensuring that our designs were practical and avoided time-consuming iterations due to limitations.
Solution
During feature prioritization with my team and Diana, we realized that adding more features wouldn't help; instead, the product needed to be easy to use with minimal effort. After discussing with Diana to understand the most valuable features, we decided on three main ones:
1. Meal and Activity tracking
2. Dashboard for quick access
3. Report sharing
This approach reduces reliance on paper-based tracking, eliminates manual report generation errors, and enables timely sharing of disease progression reports.
Wireframes
Need for a Tablet-Based Application: Research showed that users need larger screens than mobile devices to view multiple data points effectively. They also require portability within the facility for efficient on-the-go tracking, making laptops and desktops impractical. Providing facility tablets to professional caregivers enhances data security compared to personal mobile devices, reducing security risks.
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User Testing
After multiple iterations, I developed a functional prototype in Figma and conducted a think-aloud session with 10 professional caregivers at Still Waters. They were asked to track meal activities and share the report. The result was a 70% reduction in tracking and management time, centralized data access, error-free report generation, and timely data sharing.
Actual Photos from Still Waters adult day care center I and my team conducting user testing
Incorporating User Feedback into Design
Meal Tracking:
Issue: Partially consumed was unclear and a little bit broad term.
Improvement: A scale was added indicating the percentage of meal intake. i.e 25%, 50%,75%, 100%.
Before
After
Design Systems
Final Shipped Design
DASHBOARD
ACTIVITY TRACKING
MEAL TRACKING
REPORTS
After all the research, design sprints, iterations, collaborations, and embracing the unknown, I crafted a software system that truly delivers.
Reduced report generation time by
85%
Statisfaction Rate
92%
Errors while tracking and generating Report
0%
My Learnings
1. Embracing Ambiguity:
Working in the unfamiliar Alzheimer’s domain taught me to navigate uncertainty, sharpened my problem-solving skills, and prepared me to think differently in challenging situations.
2. Collaborative Validation:
Collaborating with various departments early on helped me proactively identify and overcome technical constraints, ensuring a smoother development process.
3. Balancing Business and User Needs:
I've learned the importance of aligning business goals with user needs during the redesign process to drive company growth.