Senior care in the United States is largely informal. It is handled by family members, neighbors, or hired individuals who often have no structured way to track a patient's health conditions, medications, appointments, or emergencies. When a new or temporary caregiver steps in, they start from scratch with no access to the patient's history, treatment protocols, or critical health data.
A US-based startup founder approached us to solve this problem. The vision was a centralized, multi-tenant care management platform where a primary caregiver could create a resident profile, onboard secondary caregivers, and manage all aspects of senior care from one place. Any caregiver, whether permanent or temporary, could instantly access the resident's vitals, medications, treatment protocols, allergies, chronic conditions, and care history.
As the Product Strategist and Designer, I translated this vision into a fully scoped product from business requirements and information architecture through to complete UI design across 20+ screens, covering two distinct user journeys, role-based access, healthcare compliance considerations, and a comprehensive Weekly Health Summary reporting system.
Product strategy Product design User journey mapping Interaction design Development Coordination
1 x Product Strategist (me) 1 x Product Designer (me) 1 x Business Analyst Development team (post-handoff)
2024
Business Analysis & Requirements GatheringCollaborated with the Business Analyst to understand the senior caregiving landscape, identify caregiver pain points, and define functional requirements. These were documented as user stories covering both primary and secondary caregiver workflows.
Information ArchitectureConverted requirements and user stories into a detailed IA that defined every screen, flow, feature, user action, and data format. The IA was reviewed with the client over 3 to 4 iterative sessions, refining scope and screen structures until alignment was achieved. This was the most critical phase because without a solid IA, the product's complexity would have surfaced as repeated redesigns later.
Design System & Initial ScreensUsing the client's brand guidelines and the approved IA, I established the visual system with a clinical teal and slate palette that conveys trust and professionalism appropriate for a healthcare context. I defined the navigation structure, layout patterns, and component library. This was a mobile-first application with a unified sign-up and login welcome screen.
Two Distinct User JourneysThe product serves two user types with shared but differentiated access.
Primary User Journey (Admin / Primary Caregiver) manages residents end to end. This includes resident onboarding through a 6-step intake process, secondary caregiver onboarding, care plan configuration, treatment protocol setup, and all administrative functions including financial records and compliance documentation.
Secondary Caregiver Journey provides read/write access to daily care tasks, vitals logging, medication adherence tracking, and documentation but does not include resident intake, caregiver management, or administrative controls.
Screen Design & IterationDesigned 20+ screens covering the complete product surface. All screens were periodically reviewed by the client and their technical team.
Weekly Health Summary and Vitals ResearchConducted secondary research on clinical data visualization standards to design the Weekly Health Summary reporting system. This involved studying how body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), blood sugar (fasting and post-meal), and oxygen saturation are best represented as 7-day trend visualizations for both caregivers and attending physicians.
Post-Handoff Support & Logo DesignRemained involved through the development phase. The client, impressed with the product design, also commissioned the application's brand logo which I delivered in 5 format variants.
The founder described the delivered design system as exactly what they had envisioned but could not articulate. The comprehensive Weekly Health Summary, in particular, became a key differentiator during investor presentations, demonstrating the platform's clinical depth beyond basic caregiving tools.
The design was taken directly into development with minimal revision requests. The 6-step resident intake flow, role-based access model, and clinical vitals visualization set the product apart from competing solutions in the senior care space. The founder used the delivered screens and the Weekly Health Summary as the centerpiece of their pitch deck, which contributed to securing their next round of funding discussions.
20+ screens designed across 2 user journeys. 6-step resident intake flow covering demographics, care team, clinical history, treatment protocols, functional assessments, and dietary and wellness preferences. A comprehensive Weekly Health Summary featuring 7-day trend graphs for 8 vital parameters researched and designed from clinical visualization standards. Brand logo delivered in 5 format variants for cross-platform use.
KEY DECISIONS & TRADE-OFFS:
Why multi-tenant architecture? Senior care is not a single-caregiver problem. A resident may have 3 to 4 caregivers rotating through a week. The platform needed to serve as the single source of truth that any caregiver, including someone stepping in for the first time, could use to immediately understand the resident's full clinical picture.
Why two distinct user journeys instead of one? Primary caregivers are responsible for the resident's overall care strategy. Secondary caregivers execute daily care. Giving secondary caregivers the same administrative access would create confusion and risk accidental changes to treatment protocols. Role separation was essential for both usability and patient safety.
Why a 6-step resident intake flow? A resident's health profile is complex, spanning demographics, care team contacts, clinical history, active treatment protocols, functional assessments, and dietary and wellness preferences. Presenting this as a single form would be overwhelming. Breaking it into six logical steps reduced cognitive load and allowed caregivers to complete intake incrementally.
Why invest in the Weekly Health Summary? Caregivers and physicians need a consolidated view of a resident's week showing how vitals trended, whether medications were adhered to, if there were falls or symptom changes. I conducted secondary research on clinical data visualization to design trend graphs for body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, blood glucose, and oxygen saturation. This report transforms scattered daily entries into an actionable clinical summary that can be shared with physicians, family members, or incoming caregivers.
Why explore multiple Care Hub layouts?The Care Hub is the highest-traffic screen. What a caregiver needs to see at a glance (medication alerts, upcoming appointments, overdue tasks, recent incident logs) versus what can be accessed through navigation required careful prioritization. I explored multiple layout options with the client to find the right information hierarchy before committing to development.
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