Dementia Caregiving
It's tough to always be that unwavering pillar of support when caring for the people you love. We all need a helping hand every now and then, why not caregivers too?
NOTE: Below is just a summary of this project and it's high-fidelity designs. Full design process details are available here.
This was a 4-week contract-based team project with Benten Technologies, Inc. alongside 3 other UX Designers.
The Gist
Rarely do the concerns and difficulties of caregivers make it into the light. For caregivers that support people living with dementia it can become challenging to not only take care of another person, but also to take care of oneself. Whether it’s staying on top of medications, appointments, or mental health, every now and then things can become overwhelming. In many cases caregivers are family members of those living with dementia, and so these challenges can bring emotional stresses between family relations too.
How does Benten remove feelings of guilt, mental stress and and other organizational challenges to help caregivers and people living with dementia live harmoniously?
My Roles & Responsibilities
• UX Designer: Produced mid-fidelity interactive prototype for usability testing and high-fidelity designs for the mobile app
• UX Researcher: Prepared usability testing scenarios and questions
The Deliverables
• High-fidelity mobile-app screens with user flows for various functions of the app (User Onboarding, Medication Tracking, Learning Section, Activity Tracking, etc.)
• Design system with color scheme + typography + reusable components
• Usability test research findings report with actionable feedback for improvements in next design iteration
• Summary of next steps for design improvement
Takeaways
1) This project had an initial timeline of five weeks, but was shortened to four weeks in the third week (due to unforeseen circumstances). Despite that, successful team collaboration managed to fit in deliverables by shifting responsibilities and working tasks in parallel.
2) In addition to the deliverable of high-fidelity screens, a design system and actionable research findings for future design iterations were provided to our client, Benten.
Learnings
1) Team vs solo is a whole new game. Efficiency and quality depends on how well the team has a direction and focus. A good way to ensure this is to assign ownership of deliverables so that each team member has control of smaller chunks, in addition to having control of their chunk’s decision-making and direction.
2) It’s difficult to implement everything that you would envision with many designers at work — however that also means that whatever your produce is under more scrutiny than usual because there are team members to bounce ideas off of and receive feedback and constructive critique from. A good balance can produce faster work of higher quality.
3) Having a plan is quite necessary to stay organized and on top of deliverables, but to follow it through is even more important. Regular team check-ins helps the team stay motivated and on pace to meet these deadlines.