Take It Easy

User

The primary users of Take It Easy are caregivers who are hired through a third party organization to provide care to the care receivers. Our app is most useful when the care receiver has multiple caregivers. The caregivers could be professional caregivers or semi-professional caregivers who are matched with care receivers through 3rd party organizations like home agencies, nursing homes, etc.

Below are 2 personas that capture the breadth of the user's we designed for:

Research

For our research we conducted several interviews as well as a contextual inquiry. The interviews were semi stuctured and interviewed 8 caregivers,

which we see as anyone who has the responsibility of taking care of another person (professionally or un-professionally). The semi structured interviews included the following questions:

1. How often do caregivers communicate with the loved ones of care recipients?

2. If you do interact with them, how does this interaction occur?

3. What methods do you use to document the care you provide?

4. How well do you believe the care receivers’ loved ones understand what goes on while they are under your care?

5. How would you feel about a product that could streamline communication between you, a caregiver, and care recipients?

We wanted to keep the interviews somewhat casual and personal so that we could really understand our users' needs. Below we documented

our interview findings through the use of an affinity diagram.

In addition to our interviews we had the opportunity to conduct a contextual inquiry hoping to get a better look at our targeted users' needs and process in doing their job. We observed a caretaker at school for roughly an hour. The contextual inquiry drew attention to how miscommunication often does happen in caretaking and it is due to a lack of organization and documentation on what needs to be done. Seeing our interviewee go through the process of cleaning the care recipients living area, helping in feeding, and accompanying their care recipient to class was a humbling experience. At the end of the contextual inquiry we further informed our interviewee on what we would like to accomplish with our service and they eagerly agreed that

some type of platform that could streamline documentation between the care recipient and the caregiver would be very useful. They also mentioned that the streamlining of documentation between the multiple caregivers that handle the same care recipient would be incredibly helpful.

Overall, we were thankful for the opportunity in leading this contextual inquiry and we intend to use this research in creating a product that tends to the needs of caregivers.

Analysis of Research Findings:

Overall, our findings in our interviews and contextual inquiry have proven to be very insightful and have enlightened us with some of the needs caregivers have that we may have not considered prior to research. One interview I would like to highlight, upon further analysis of our

research, is a semi-structured interview that we conducted with a recent college graduate. Our interviewee came across caregiving through a message sent by the person needing care through various GroupMe chats at her institution. She saw the message and then became a primary caregiver for a student with cerebral palsy at her institution. In interviewing her, she mentions that her care recipient has been in charge of organizing their care needs for themselves for they don’t have any loved ones actively involved in their wellbeing (as a result of a deceased mom

and father who is a disabled veteran). Initially, the questions we had in mind going into the interview didn’t really suit the needs of a care recipient without loved ones involved in their care. We had not considered the case where a care recipient would be the primary actor involved in

their care. As a result, the interview became a lot more conversational than structured. In conclusion to that interview we also came to know that oftentimes there are all multiple caregivers upon a care recipient. Naturally, this often creates a scheduling conflict and leads to

other miscommunication errors in fulfilling the required needs of a care recipient. Analyzing all the data we were able to acquire we noticed themes such as “burnout”, “scheduling conflicts”, “miscommunication of care responsibilities”, and “working with multiple caregivers” among the caregivers that participated in our research. These findings lead us to conclude that a system that can aid in streamlining documentation, scheduling, and

communication would be very helpful for a caregiver as well as the care recipient.

Response

After coming up with a few different ways to address our user's needs of streamlining documentation, communication, and scheduling, we decided that our app Take It Easy would be the best solution. Without further ado let me introduce Take It Easy, a prototype that boasts a high-fidelity design while maintaining low-fidelity user functionality, offering significant potential for the caregiving industry.

Login and Two Factor Authentification

Our prototype's landing page incorporates Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) to enhance the security of user accounts and safeguard access to the app. Upon entering their username and password, users are prompted to verify a code that is sent to their phone number. This added layer of security ensures protection of user data and prevents unauthorized access. Additionally, users have the option to remember a device to bypass the second authentication step for added convenience, while still maintaining high-level security measures.

Task Functionality

The "Home" page of our app is the Tasks page, where caregivers can document their work and have it live updated to their team. As shown above, there is a list of tasks to be completed. Once a task is completed, caregivers can check it off, and it will be visible to anyone else on their team who has access to that task. In addition to completing tasks on the "Tasks" page, caregivers are also able to create new notes. The design for this functionality was inspired by the clean look of the notes app on iOS devices, which users enjoy.

Scheduling Functionality

The Scheduling tab on our app, Take It Easy, is your go-to place for managing your availability and shifts, as well as viewing your coworkers' availability. With just a click on the "Add Availability" button, you can easily select a day and specify your start and end availability. The design for this functionality draws inspiration from popular calendar apps like Outlook Calendar, iOS Calendar, and LettuceMeet, ensuring a user-friendly experience.

Teams Functionality 

Creating a New Team:

The Team's tab serves as a central hub for caregivers, care recipients, doctors, and loved ones to oversee and manage the wellbeing of care recipients, with numerous customizable features. The above images provide a step-by-step guide on how to create a team and add members to it. The process is straightforward: simply click on "Add Team" and you'll be prompted to create a team name and add members who need access to that team. This powerful feature enables care recipients or their primary caregivers to establish a dedicated space for streamlined documentation, scheduling, and communication.

Clicking on a Team:

As previously mentioned, the Team feature of this app serves as a centralized hub for streamlining documentation, scheduling, and communication. When you click on "Team Carebears," you're taken to a dashboard where you can access live updates of the care recipient's heart rate and oxygen readings. Furthermore, within Team Carebears, you can also view real-time updates of the care recipients who are currently on duty, access important documents, and see the team members associated with that team. What's more, care recipients themselves have the ability to add new members to their team, as shown in the last frame. This space is highly customizable, providing team members with comprehensive information about their patients in one convenient location.

Messaging Functionality 

The Take It Easy app offers another powerful functionality that addresses caregivers' communication needs: messaging. Caregivers can create group chats or direct messages with their coworkers, keeping all work-related communication in one place. This feature makes it seamless for anyone who uses the app to stay connected and collaborate effectively within the caregiving team. When a user starts a new chat, they are also notified that the chats and calls are end-to-end encrypted. This is to help with maintaining data integrity, and provide a safe and secure platform for communication