Cariloop Project
PROJECT BRIEF
The focus of this research was to develop an effective strategy for convincing caregivers to use the Cariloop services by improving their experience and interaction with the platform.
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This project was part of SMU User Experience Design Program where I worked remotely with a team from the United States.
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TEAM
Taylor Guest, Sadie Wright, Lanie Tunnel, Amal AlSaieq and Seema Vaidya
ROLE
For this project, I performed the following UX roles:
User Research, UX Designer
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TIMELINE
4 Weeks
WHAT WAS THE CHALLENGE?
HOW WE TACKLED IT
KEY INSIGHTS
HOW DOES OUR USERS FEEL?
INTRODUCTION
Cariloop is a caregiver support platform that relieves the anxiety of caring for a loved one while working a full-time job. It combines professional healthcare coaching services and cloud-based tools that help families plan for and manage every aspect of their caregiving journey. The team was asked to better understand users'perspectives and pain points that prevent them from signing up on the platform.
How might we better convince people (employees or consumers) who are feeling stress and anxiety due to caring for a loved one to connect with Cariloop and start working with a Care Coach.
Over the course of four weeks, the team used the design thinking approach to come up with the best solutions to improve Cariloop user experience. In this case study you will be walked through the following steps:
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Empathize: Stakeholder Map, Empathy Map, Personas Validation
Conducted research to collect insights about the users and company goals.
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Define: Journey Map, Need Statement
Brokedown the whole experience to understand the flow and pain points and opportunities.
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Ideate: How Might We, Big Ideas, Prioritization Grid
Generated ideas to inspire new and better designs and experience solutions.
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Prototype: Storyboard & Prototype
Built a simple and quick way to experience and interact with the ideas.
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Validate: Present & Feedback
Collecting information and learning about the prototype and ideas.
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In the process of studying caregivers' behavior and workplaces , we realized how high the number of employed caregivers was. We used these insights to determine how to approach the challenge.
1/6
people who work full-time or part-time assist with the care of an elderly or disabled family member, relative, or friend.
70%
of working caregivers suffer work-related difficulties due to their dual roles.
61%
employed caregivers face at least one change in their employment as a result of their caregiving responsibilities, such as reducing work hours, taking a leave of absence,..etc
Empathy Map
While many people had their own unique experiences with caregiving, I discovered that there were common patterns throughout their journey. Common pattern such as: how they behave when they learnt of their loved one's need, how they go about taking care of their loved one, and how they cope with the situation.
We were able to learn what caregivers were saying, thinking, doing, and feeling by using an empathy map, and we were able to synthesize all of the findings and uncover these key insights.
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Key Insights:
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People have a strong bond with the person they are caring for, so they are hesitant to take anyone's advice.
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People tend to spend time in search engines to find solutions to their problems rather than look for someone to help them.
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People tend to forget that they can get assistance in their caregiving journey due to being overwhelmed.
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Stakeholder Map
We identified Cariloop stakeholders, end-users, customers, executives, partners, and teams to exploring expectations, and determin the strength of existing relationships.
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Key Learnings:
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If the connection between the product team and the care coach was firmer, there would be room for product growth. In comparison to research, care coaches can deliver feedback from actual real-time users.
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A communication plan can be developed between the marketing storytelling team and the care coach as they can deliver actual stories of users and how they got to where they are.
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ARE WE TARGETING
THE RIGHT USERS?
USER PERSONAS
The Cariloop team provided personas, but in order to validate who the real users are and learn about their personal experiences with caregiving while working full-time, we needed to validate what was provided. So, we interviewed three main groups.
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I conducted interviews with Customers and potential users and asked open-ended questions to learn as much as I could about caregivers, their experiences, and their relationship with caregiving.
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Stakeholders (Chief of Empathy)
The purpose was to gather information about who they believe the personas are and what behaviors they believe they show. We learned that the stakeholders had very particular personas in mind, but that something in the experience was preventing them from reaching to these personas.
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Customers (SMU Employees)
The purpose was to learn how actual people who will or are presently using the service felt about it. I found that because people did not identify themselves as caregivers, they believed the platform was not designed for them.
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Someone We Know
We each chose caregiver that we know who matched the initial persona profile to see if they would utilize it and what their expectations would be. I discovered that people are hesitant to hand over the responsibilities of caring for a loved one.
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Experience Journey Mapping
WHAT'S STOPPING USERS?
The journey map assisted us in visualizing the story of our consumers' interactions with Cariloop across all touchpoints. We were able to visually break down the experience into discrete stages after studying the journey map and identifying specific pain points and opportunities in context.
Key Insights
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Cariloop relies heavily on the HR team at the company to reach out to users. There is no direct way to communicate with the employee.
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When an employee realizes they need help and support with caregiving, they do not think of Cariloop and some don't understand how it can assist them. This means that there is a lack of awareness of the platform's services.
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Value
Some users didn't see the value of a care coach and didn't feel it was necessary to use it even when it was offered to them. When we compared it to a travel agent, they immediately recognized the value and benefits of a care coach to a caregiver. So, like travel agents, we need a way to communicate the value of Cariloop.
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Awareness
Users do not perceive themselves to be caregivers, and some believe that this is part of their roles as parents or partners. We needed a unique method of communication that encourages people to self-identify as caregivers.
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Pride
Some users take pride in being their loved one's right hand. They are hesitant to ask for help because it requires giving up control to someone else. The challenge here was to find a way to normalize the idea of seeking support and convince them to use Cariloop as one of their everyday tools.
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Trust
The initial trust issue is with the HR. Users were worried that anything they said during their session would be used against them. Additionally, another trust issue stemmed from the reliance of care coaches in general. Some users are skeptical of the information that was provided by their care coach due to the users belief that they know how to take care of their loved ones more than a stranger.
Need Statements
We needed to properly grasp the problem we were attempting to tackle and be able to back it up. So, we used need statements to define the problem, describe its implications, and identify experience gaps.
Here are a few examples of what we developed:
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Karen
find a new doctor and care for her loved one
find compatible
coverage with her insurance
HOW MIGHT WE
SOLVE IT?
How Might We
In our How-Might-We sessions, we highlighted positive and practical questions that frame the situation but do not point to a single solution. For example, we focused on the following:
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Users don’t think during a crisis. So, how might we come up with a solution that is easy to process.
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How might we make them think of a cariloop as soon as they feel anxious and overwhemed.
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How might we communicate with users to identify themselves as caregiver.
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Users dont trust care coach with their loved ones, so how might we help them connect with the coaches just like how they might connect with movie characters.
Big Ideas & Prioritization Grid
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We had a lot of ideas after the HMW and brainstorming sessions, but we wanted to know which ones to follow. So we evaluated, rated, and prioritized the ideas in order to select the best ones. Good ideas rise to the top, whereas not smart ideas sink to the bottom. This strategy was chosen because innovation is as much about deciding what not to do as it is about deciding what to do.
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We scored the ideas based on:
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Differentiators - How can we make Cariloop stand out from the crowd.
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Performance Payoffs - How can we make user experience faster and more efficient.
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Unwise Ideas - How can we avoid spending time on ideas that might not have an impact on the user's experience.
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No Brainers - What are the ideas that should already be in the product development backlog.
Themes
As a team, we agreed on a set of common objectives based on the most meaningful outcomes for our users. This allowed us to focus on where we wanted to go rather than how we were going to get there, encouraging us to experiment with new ideas without losing sight of the end goal.
Some of the themes were
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Karen needs a mental model that reminds her of Cariloop whenever she needs mental & emotional support.
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Karen should not depend on HR to know and reach out to Cariloop.
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Karen should be able to rely on someone to find information about her loved one's health problem without having to do the research herself.
WHO WHAT WOW
HOW DOES THE
SOLUTION LOOK?
We created multiple scenarios in which people can see and experience our solution. This benefited us in telling the story and describing the user's situation in order to explore new capabilities.
To help visualize the new concept, we design a quick example of how the solution would appear and feel. It also supported us in testing our ideas with customers and focusing on critical improvements.
WAS THERE ANY
CHANGES NEEDED?
The feedback we received was that this would not work in most work environments. With Covid-19, the majority of work environments have shifted to a hybrid or work-from-home environment. Another comment was that some workplaces do not allow such digital screens or mirrors to be installed on the property.
So we had to step back and consider the users' pain points, experience, and journey in order to find a solution that would work for all parties and turn it into an appealing and thoughtful design.
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Initial Idea
What's a better way to capture someones attention other than restrooms. The space can be very interesting, and it can be used to communicate in a very simple and effective way.
According to a study of office workers, the average amount of time spent on the toilet each day is just under 14 minutes. It's also common for people to seek emotional refuge in work restrooms. Cariloop can use this space to present their value by displaying creative materials on mirrors or digital screens.
Key Benefits
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Generate positive word of mouth, it gets people taking. No more dependency on HR dept.
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Great Message Recall, people will remember your communication if it was executed correctly to resonate with them.
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Extremely flexible, messages can be changed in real time, making it extremely adaptable.
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FINAL DESIGN
CARE CARD
Care Card is similar to a health or dental insurance card, and it would introduce Cariloop as a benefit that employees would receive in exchange for working for their company.
During onboarding, new employees will be given a personalized card with their name on it, while existing employees will be mailed a card as part of their benefit package.
Employees will carry Cariloop contact information with them at all times and consider Cariloop to be a necessary service, similar to their health, dental, and vision benefits.
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Key Benefits
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Constant reminder that this is a health benefit that the user can use whenever they want.
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There is no longer a need to rely on any party to spread the word about Cariloop services.
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Easy way to get in contact with Cariloop in case of any queries users might have about the service.
WHAT WAS
THE FEEDBACK?
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"I loved it, you guys have deffinetly heard what we were saying, love the nod to a card and something that is already kind of a mental model on how we handle insurance now so it makes it easier for people to understand and look into what we are" — Jason Osburn, Chief of Empathy
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"I liked the idea of using a healthcare, it’s a call back to what is typically associated with insurances and medical health field. That is really cool.”
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— Natalia Vargas, Director of Product Design
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“I really like the care card, I like the name of it and the idea of it, it really brought me back to the mindset that its a benefit.”
— Taryan Vital, Software Architect
CONCLUSION
I faced new challenges during this project that I haven’t faced before, working on a concept I'm not familiar with, designing for awareness, and working on the initial experience before user is even aware of the platform.
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Through this project, I learned the importance of diving into studying user journey. Doing research on caregiving and the emotional and mental challenges caregiver go through was the key to identifying the best solutions for the problems at hand.
The next steps I would take on this project:
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Validate the final recommendation by conducting another round of testing with users.
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Ensure that changes improved the users journey, then implement and launch the design.