COMMUNITY ELDERLY CARE SERVICES
REDESIGN
UI/UX Individual Project
Duration: 10 weeks
Role: UX Researcher/ UX Designer
Overview
My role
The user groups for this UX design project include volunteers and elderly people looking for community service opportunities. It was created for a local community-based elderly care facility.
In this specific project, I was in charge of the UX research and UI/UX design.
Tool: Figma, Illustrator
Background
Community-based senior care has been identified as the future trend in senior care in context of China's growing elderly population, however most people are still unaware the existence of this service. In order to create an online platform for community-based senior care centers where one may trade their labor skills for others' services, I integrated the idea of time bank with community-based aged care centers.
Mission
The main features of the app include joining a community, picking up tasks, and requesting others to complete their post tasks with the earned credits, and a calendar to help users keep track of their work.
I created this project to serve as a bridge between people and offline community elderly care centers' services. I also hoped to create a platform that would serve as a way for underrepresented groups to be more visible, communicate with one another, and work together to create a safe and happy community.
Current popular solutions for elderly-care in China
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HOME-BASED
Elderly care will be provided by siblings or professional in-home medical/nursing services.
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COMMUNITY-BASED
Communities are organized geographically and run by volunteers and social workers.
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NURSING HOME
Paid or free facility providing medical and nursing services for elderly group.
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Other
“Migratory Birds” tourism pension, etc.
The preference of persons for these elderly care options, according to 4 interviewees (either from the elderly group or with experience with elderly care services), is as follows:
❤️Home-based > Nursing home >Community based
3 of 4 interviewees want to choose home-based elderly care:
“I think it allows you to have more freedom, and it is a more dignified way for elderly care comparing to nursing home.”
2 of 4 interviewees know the existence of Community-based elderly care:
“I’ve walked pass by the community activity center before but I don’t know how it works.”
”Only heard about it in the news.
Why?
From interview, we know that people are not aware of the existence of Community-based elderly care, but:
Data show that community elderly care facilities continue to grow over years.
Numbers of nursing homes and social welfare institutions for elderly people in China
Opportunity
The increasing investment in community elderly facilities has not yet been recognized by most people, however, with rapidly increasing number of elderly population and low growth in numbers of nursing homes, demonstrates the potential of the community-based elderly care
Share of population aged 60 and older in China from 1950 to 2010 with forecasts until 2100
Number of beds in nursing homes per 100 elderly in China from 2011 to 2019.
Survey
I sent out 80 questionnaires contained 30 questions, the objectives of this research is to understand:
1) Post-retirement plan of those who retired/retiring in years
2) People’s recognition + Concern of Community-based elderly care
3) Services people value for elderly care
I am willing to be re-employed or participate in volunteer activities after retired
Have you had any illness in the last three yeara that required hospitalization?
What services do you value most?
Medical Care > Daily Care >Recreation and Fitness > Mental Care > Learning opportunities
Research
Insights
Despite wanting to take advantage of community services, most choose to stay at home.
Individuals are willing to use their leisure time, but how can we make it more worthwhile and enrich people's free time after retirement?
People wish to alleviate retirement anxiety and find solutions to the issues associated with a lack of aid during retirement.
Refined goal for the project
Design an online elderly care service centered in the community for the existing and upcoming generations of retirees.
Encourage participation in community events, rediscover a sense of accomplishment, and lessen loneliness after retirement by maintaining social connections.
Use labor or time as the exchange rate for services.
Retired elderly groups
Social workers
Community volunteers (including retired people and other volunteers in the community)
User Group
Storyboard
01
Users came across the community care center but didn’t know how it works
02
With social worker’s instruction, user download the app, and join the community as a care giver.
03
With invitation code from the community, user successfully registered her working group, and able to select the task they want to pick up.
04
User completed the task, made new friends, and earned credits which can be later used to post task requests.
Persona and User Flow
The second persona I designed,is based on the position of a Caregiver, who use the app to find tasks and complete tasks to earn credit.
The first persona I designed is based on the position of a Care Receiver, who use the app to find people doing her requested tasks.
I planned out the information architecture for myself after determining the user demands and user flow, and then I began the ideation phase.
01: Join a community
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Signing up with email or phone.
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The community should be choosed based on the geographical region.
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There are two roles including care receiver, who requested tasks; and care giver, who picks up tasks.
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The platform will review the application, and send out activate messages.
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User who chose to be care giver will choose the work group(s), which constrains the tasks types they can offer.
Key features
(click on subtasks+ for more information)
02: Pick up task
(care taker)
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This feature will be avabilable from top section of the homepage
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The date or filter are used for care giver to select the tasks.
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The user could choose to decline the task or accept the task, and they could also swipe this task away to keep browsing.
03: Request/Add task
(Care receiver)
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The feature is located on the top section card on the homepage
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User could choose the task type they want under the date they chose.
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Available time slots with care taker will be showed after the user has selected the date and task types.
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User could add locations, photos, notes, and addition instructions for the task.
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Added task’s progress will be showed on the homepage, user could check if anyone has pick up the task and current stage of the task.
04: Calendar
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Located on the bottom section of the homepage, users could change the date by scrolling.
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Check planned tasks and event on the calendar.
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Add the date the users are avaible to work, the users could choose several day in a week and make it regular schedule.
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Check when the users are available to work.
05: Browse
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This feature could be found on the middle of the navigation bar.
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User could browse the tasks using filters, and picking up tasks.
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User can browse the articles.
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User can browse the events hosted by the user’s community.
Reflection
Things I did well:
I am happy to have had the chance to investigate this topic and problem space in this project that I had not previously had the chance to investigate, and completed the interaction design at the end of the project.
What I want to improve:
Unfortunately, since this project was started in the midst of the pandemic, it was difficult for me to find user who would be suitable candidates for more in-depth qualitative user research.
In addition, it was challenging for me to carry out the usability test after designing the prototype. I was only able to test the usability with the volunteer target group, not the care receiver group, and I believe some interaction designs still have room for improvement. If possible, I hope I have the chance to rework on the interaction design and usability test.