love&care
2022
mobile app
healthcare
Unspoken Struggles of Caregivers
In Taiwan, the average age of cancer patients is 63, and it is common for caregivers to provide daily support. However, the caregiving journey can be emotionally and physically taxing, leading to a silent scream of unspoken struggles. We hope to address these challenges and provide solutions that not only make caregiving easier but also provide mental and emotional support for the caregivers throughout the journey.
The problem
- Having a family member with cancer can be overwhelming in the beginning, there are lots of resources out there but a lack of consolidations.
- Taking care of cancer patients have to engage in their treatment plan and daily care, which require all family caregivers’ coordination and dedication.
- Family caregivers are mentally tired and under stress, they should also be more aware of their mental status, and know that they’re not alone in this journey.
Project Objectives
Designing an app organising day-to-day errands and coordination with other caregivers
Create an information hub of all resources and cancer knowledges
Form a sense of community to mental support to caregivers
Research Methods
Competitor Analysis
Customer Interview
Persona
Information Architecture
Usability Testing
Research goal
- A caregiver's entire journey from learning about the diagnosis to caring for the patient after cancer, including their struggles and pain points
- Currently, how do they obtain and organise all the information, are they easily accessible, and do they have high credibility?
- How do they balance their work, family, and even their own lives aside from providing care, and coordinating all their tasks with other caregivers?
- How do they cope with mental stress?
Core Customer Needs
Task and coordination with other caregivers
The treatment of cancer is comparatively regular compared to other diseases, frequent hospital visits are not a necessity but the appointments every time was important, most caregivers will take note of their appointment, questions, doctor's reminders or treatment progress. Group chat was primarily used by to communicate and hand over to other family members.
Cancer information and resources
There is a high level of trust between the participants and their doctors but they'd like to have a sense of what they were dealing with from cancer articles online. In terms of financial resources, it would be helpful to do budget control function and give a clear view of all expenses.
Mental heath of the caregiver
In addition to patient's mental health, caregivers' mental health is often ignored. Having read other people's stories online and spoken with friends who had made similar journeys helped them come to the realisation that they were not alone. The support of other family members was also a massive relief for most of them.
Users were looking for an organised method to inform each caregiver about the patient's treatment status. In addition, they felt most inspired and supported by their families, as well as others who shared similar stories.
How could the app help?
keep track of the entire cancer journey, and access relevant cancer information and resources all in one place
Strong task coordination feature to keep every caregivers in the loop.
Mental health information tailored specifically for caregivers, and build a supportive community of caregivers.
An overview of all the key features on the dashboard
Users can see today’s tasks assigning to them, updates from the care circle announcement board, daily affirmation, community & resources, and the latest cancer news.
Navigation
The tab could link to schedule with overview of tasks; cancer news showing cancer related articles; Users can access to a simple breathing exercise on their profile.
Patient Cancer Journey
The app gathered all the medical records and presented the entire cancer journey in one place. Users were able to share their current mood, daily updates, and important tasks on the announcement board.
Prototype
The prototype followed the user flow and demonstrated a note-taking process during the appointment.
Key Takeaways
For the first time, I feel I am on my way to making a difference, addressing a problem in my community. As I was entering my late 20s and my parents were approaching their 60s, people around me began to feel the pressure of taking care of their parents. In spite of holding back tears and sadness, people who were willing to rip off their bandages and talk to me about this unpleasant experience were a blessing to me. As I had gained experience in design, the interview this time was more comprehensive and structured, which prompted my design decisions.
During the design process, creating something less entertaining and more functional with a sense of supporting and giving was a challenge. If I had the opportunity to do this project again, I would explore an interface that is more interesting or gamified, to make it more enjoyable. Life is hard enough, we don't need another cold and rigid app. The solution has a great deal of potential, not only for cancer patients but also for other groups like the elderly and those with disabilities.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this project. I am truly grateful for all your conversations and for sharing your memories with me. Stay healthy and positive, things will get better soon.
Next Step
- Invite hospitals, cancer organisations, and government to contribute to content creation and information exchange.
- Develop widget and recording (subject to privacy regulations) features.
- Explore the possibilities towards other type of caregiving.
