Designing for Emotional Support in Caregiving Journeys

Designing for Emotional Support in Caregiving Journeys

Designing for Emotional Support in Caregiving Journeys

From Concept To MVP

Team

1 Graphist - 1 Developer

1 Graphist - 1 Developer

Duration

Feb 2023- Present

Feb 2023- Present

Role

UX Design- Ownership - Visual Design

Overview

42% of partners reported feelings of isolation and anxiety. How might we support SCI partners through digital tools?

Objective

Feelinks is envisioned as a supportive digital hub to foster connections, shared experiences, and emotional support among the partners of people with a spinal cord injury (SCI).

Impact

  • Breaking isolation for an estimated 2.5 million+ SCI caregivers worldwide who often experience 3× higher rates of depression than the general population.

  • Centralizing critical knowledge that reduces the average 7.5 hours weekly that caregivers spend searching for information across 12+ fragmented online sources

  • Building community resilience through peer-to-peer support, potentially reducing the 40% of SCI partners who report feeling severely isolated

  • Enhancing caregiving quality by addressing the needs of partners who provide an average of 11.3 hours of daily care, valued at $120,000+ annually per caregiver

Methodes

  • Field Study

  • Explorative Interview

  • Stakeholder Map

  • Persona

  • Empathy Map

  • Wireframing

  • Paper Prototyping

  • MVP

  • Figma

  • Jotform

  • Miro

  • Meet

Industry

E-Health

Duration

Feb 2023- Present

Team

1 Graphist - 1 Developer

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

When a spinal cord injury changes everything, who supports the supporters?

Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) are life-altering events that extend their impact beyond the affected individuals to their close relatives, especially partners. This traumatic life event brings significant changes for partners, resulting in mental and physical burdens and putting them at risk of burnout. Each question and each challenge underscore the multifaceted nature of the issues.

social activists

Insurance companies

Rehab Centers

Hospitals

Suppliers

Media

Scholars

Indirect stakeholders

Indirect stakeholders

Doctors

Municipalities

The government

SCI Families

SCI patients

direct stakeholders

direct stakeholders

SCI Partners & Caregivers

core Stakeholders

core Stakeholders

Context

Context

Context

Context

As 42% of SCI partners reported feelings of isolation and anxiety, more attention and support are essential to alleviating their challenges.

As an insider, I got to know I am not the only person with feelings of isolation and depression after the accident that happened to my partner.
Based on my literature research, there are

"The partner had to cope with the shock, support the injured partner during the institutionalized rehabilitation, and struggle to make their relationship and life together function again."

"They were struck by the brutal fact that their partner had been seriously injured, and their own needs faded into the background."

"The partners experienced much distress and appreciated the support they got but felt that they were mainly left to manage the difficult process on their own."

(Johnson et al.)

"The partner had to cope with the shock, support the injured partner during the institutionalized rehabilitation, and struggle to make their relationship and life together function again."

"The partner had to cope with the shock, support the injured partner during the institutionalized rehabilitation, and struggle to make their relationship and life together function again."

"They were struck by the brutal fact that their partner had been seriously injured, and their own needs faded into the background."

"They were struck by the brutal fact that their partner had been seriously injured, and their own needs faded into the background."

"The partners experienced much distress and appreciated the support they got but felt that they were mainly left to manage the difficult process on their own."

"The partners experienced much distress and appreciated the support they got but felt that they were mainly left to manage the difficult process on their own."

(Johnson et al.)

Problem

Problem

Problem

Problem

The interviews validated the fact that there is room for improvement of the platform they currently use.

The interviews validated the fact that there is room for improvement of the platform they currently use. (the Facebook group).
The suggestions helped me map all the needs and pain points and translate them to design solutions.

The insights helped me map all the needs and pain points and translate them to design solutions.

Discovery

Discovery

Discovery

Discovery

I found a Facebook group of 2000+ international women with their partners in a wheelchair.

That was the best place to validate the insights from literature using the research canvas method.
Reaching out to them, I managed to plan several interviews to gather insights in a detailed way.

User's Say

User's Say

User's Say

Using the data gathered from the user interviews helped me draw a more realistic picture of the users.

Sarah and Debbie represent two caregiver archetypes: The Empathic Caregiver, reflecting the majority who seek emotional support, and The Resourceful Partner, who actively looks for tools and community to manage care. While Sarah feels emotionally overwhelmed and isolated, Debbie focuses on solutions and balance. Together, they highlight the emotional and practical needs in SCI caregiving.

The insights helped me map all the needs and pain points and translate them to design solutions.

UX Violations

UX Violations

UX Violations

I identified 65+ violations of heuristics all over the screens and prototype.

The insights helped me map all the needs and pain points and translate them to design solutions.

Intuitive Process

Users find it difficult to locate key features like "Add Money" or Send/Request due to complex navigation. Users seem to find their prone due to confusing category errors and unclear information architecture.

Open

Intuitive Process

Users find it difficult to locate key features like "Add Money" or Send/Request due to complex navigation. Users seem to find their prone due to confusing category errors and unclear information architecture.

Open

FEE TRANSPARENCY

Users face confusion and frustrations with unclear and excessive transaction fees and conversion rates. Which shows lack of transparency around fees.

Open

FEE TRANSPARENCY

Users face confusion and frustrations with unclear and excessive transaction fees and conversion rates. Which shows lack of transparency around fees.

Open

Payment Scheduling

Users need more flexibility and control over their payments, specifically the ability to schedule future transactions.

Open

Payment Scheduling

Users need more flexibility and control over their payments, specifically the ability to schedule future transactions.

Open

What Users Say

What Users Say

What Users Say

Conducting 5 usability tests, we discovered the painpoints of the users that validated some of the issues found in the Heuristics Evaluation.

The insights helped me map all the needs and pain points and translate them to design solutions.

Intuitive Process

Users find it difficult to locate key features like "Add Money" or Send/Request due to complex navigation. Users seem to find their prone due to confusing category errors and unclear information architecture.

Open

Intuitive Process

Users find it difficult to locate key features like "Add Money" or Send/Request due to complex navigation. Users seem to find their prone due to confusing category errors and unclear information architecture.

Open

FEE TRANSPARENCY

Users face confusion and frustrations with unclear and excessive transaction fees and conversion rates. Which shows lack of transparency around fees.

Open

FEE TRANSPARENCY

Users face confusion and frustrations with unclear and excessive transaction fees and conversion rates. Which shows lack of transparency around fees.

Open

Payment Scheduling

Users need more flexibility and control over their payments, specifically the ability to schedule future transactions.

Open

Payment Scheduling

Users need more flexibility and control over their payments, specifically the ability to schedule future transactions.

Open

Demographics

Number of participants: 5

Age range: 60 to 75 years old

Average age: ~67 years

Gender : 3 Female, 2 Male

Tasks

Task 1: Set 2 goals in the application.
Task 2: Tell me your plans for 3 days from now.
Task 3: Change one of the goals you have.

Task 4: Find where you can see the reports.
Task 5: Log out of your account, please.

  • How was your experience using this application?

  • Have you ever used an application to build new habits regarding your diet or physical activity? Name them.

  • How do you think an application can help you build new habits?

  • Do you have any suggestions that might help us improve this application?

Results

Data Driven Persona

Using the data gathered from the user interviews helped me draw a more realistic picture of the users.

Sarah and Debbie represent two caregiver archetypes: The Empathic Caregiver, reflecting the majority who seek emotional support, and The Resourceful Partner, who actively looks for tools and community to manage care. While Sarah feels emotionally overwhelmed and isolated, Debbie focuses on solutions and balance. Together, they highlight the emotional and practical needs in SCI caregiving.

Intuitive Process

Users find it difficult to locate key features like "Add Money" or Send/Request due to complex navigation. Users seem to find their prone due to confusing category errors and unclear information architecture.

Fee Transparency

Users face confusion and frustrations with unclear and excessive transaction fees and conversion rates. Which shows lack of transparency around fees.

Flexible Payment Scheduling

Users need more flexibility and control over their payments, specifically the ability to schedule future transactions.

STANDARDISATION

Displaying data with the medical industry’s current visual standards and conventions.

ACCESSIBILITY

Designing with an understanding of cognitive load, and glance-based legibility.

CO-EXISTENCE

Designing a system to co-exist with the current process in place to complement rather than replace.

Data Driven Persona

Using the data gathered from the user interviews helped me draw a more realistic picture of the users.

Sarah and Debbie represent two caregiver archetypes: The Empathic Caregiver, reflecting the majority who seek emotional support, and The Resourceful Partner, who actively looks for tools and community to manage care. While Sarah feels emotionally overwhelmed and isolated, Debbie focuses on solutions and balance. Together, they highlight the emotional and practical needs in SCI caregiving.

The insights helped me map all the needs and pain points and translate them to design solutions.

Legibility

Legibility

Legibility

Font size, colors, and text spacing have a significant effect on the rate of accuracy of a visual search and the reaction time during each search period.

When designing the information, on-glance legibility was an important thing to consider, as the surgeons, doctors, and nurses would use the screen as a fast means of retrieving information. Their attention is limited, so the cognitive load had to be minimal. High contrast was used to display quantitative physiology data such as HR and SpO₂ numbers.

The dark background is scientifically proven to have better results when paired with high-contrast colored numbers. Each physiology indicator was assigned a color based on conventions observed through patient monitoring systems. A proper font and size balance was also achieved by using a bold Helvetica weight commonly used with modern patient monitoring systems.

Failed Concept

Failed Concept

Failed Concept

Failed Concept

From 11 user interviews, I've identified two main categories of tasks that need to be accomplished:
1. Establishing Connection
2. Gaining Knowledge

Each of the categories have been again categorized into two subcategories to make specific characteristic for the content.

✨

Connect to Content

Add layers or components to swipe between.

✨

Connect to Content

Add layers or components to swipe between.

User Perception

User Perception

User Perception

The role of human and clinical judgment in our AI feature was heavily criticized.

User testing revealed how our product was perceived positively by medical personnel. Most claimed to understand what it does, and what it aims to solve. However, the AI prediction concept was underdeveloped, as many did not understand the need for it, let alone how it worked.

The interface

The interface

Second Iteration

Second Iteration

Second Iteration

Conducting another round of user tests with a similar scenario as before, helped me gather insights on our first designed version, leading to iterations on it.

After preparing the figma prototype, I had it tested with more users and gathered insights and feedback.

The interface

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Solution

Solution

Solution

How we addressed it?
  1. Providing users with Clarity and Control

The new homepage simplifies navigation by placing key financial actions Transfer, Exchange, and Add Money at the centre of the screen.

  • Old Homepage

  1. The homepage was cluttered with "Send Again" suggestions and promotional banners (e.g., "Refer a friend").

  1. Essential features like "Add Money" and "Exchange" were missing from the homepage.

  1. The balance was shown, but with no alerts or guidance for next steps.

❝ Some options feel buried inside menus—I just want to send money quickly. ❞
❝ On PayPal, some options are not clear at all and are not easy to find at first, like adding to my balance or exchange rates when sending internationally. ❞
❝ I have ADHD and I have problems finding options on this app a lot. It takes too long to find what I need, especially when I’m in a hurry. ❞
  • New Homepage

  1. Key payment actions (Transfer, Exchange, Add Money) are prominently displayed at the top, reducing friction.

  1. Alerts provide proactive notifications for users to manage their balance.

  1. The homepage is cleaner, with a focus on transactions rather than promotions.

  • Old Payment screen
❝ I wish I didn’t have to see the profile and photo of people I sent money to once a year ago—it makes it hard to focus on what I need to do.❞
❝ At first, I was really confused about how to do transactions, but after a while, it became easier. It shouldn’t take this long to figure out.❞

  1. The navigation was cluttered, with a mix of frequent contacts and payment options displayed in a less structured way.

  1. The “More Options” section made core actions feel secondary.

  • New Payment screen

  1. We organized options more clearly. Payment actions like "Send," "Bill," "Give," and "Request" are tabbed at the top, making it easier for users to find and switch between different payment methods

  1. Icon colors are changed to reduce distractions, and layout changes help reduce cognitive load.

Still working on the rest of the case study …

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