UX for Connecting Caregivers with Families in Need

My role. UX Designer – Human-Centred App Design for Healthcare

Designed the NurtureCo app to help users find caregivers with the right skills while making it easier for caregivers to manage tasks and availability. Conducted usability testing, gorilla testing, and created storyboards and personas. Introduced a “care stream” feature to streamline instructions on meals, meds, and care routines. Improved caregiver-care seeker matching and task clarity, reducing confusion and support needs. Focused on empathy-driven, accessible UX.

UX & UI Design, Persona Development, React, CSS 3, HTML, Prototype

NurtureCo is a digital platform that helps people find and manage caregivers for their loved ones. In today’s fast-paced lives, ensuring consistent, quality care for family members is a growing challenge. While the service model was strong, the experience of connecting seekers with suitable caregivers was fragmented and frustrating for both users and caregivers.

How do we design a platform that simplifies and personalises the process of matching caregivers with care seekers, while also supporting ongoing care communication and management?

I followed the IDEO model for human-centred design, starting with usability testing and ending with validation. This gave me a structured path to explore, test, and iterate design solutions grounded in user behavior.

To better understand user frustrations, I created a storyboard featuring “Anna,” a typical user struggling to find the right caregiver for her ageing father. Imagining her emotional journey helped build empathy and set the tone for problem-solving with compassion.

I conducted 5 guerrilla usability tests based on this scenario, asking people to use the app to find a caregiver after moving to a new city. The test surfaced real behavioural insights and validated parts of my initial assumptions while uncovering new pain points.

I built a provisional persona for both care seekers and caregivers based on secondary research and platform user data. I then validated it through user interviews and SME discussions in the caregiving industry.

Mismatch in Caregiver Skills: Users struggled to find caregivers aligned with specific needs. Caregivers, in turn, did not want to accept certain requests, leading to frustration and rework.

Lack of Flexibility for Missed Appointments: If a caregiver missed a day or two, there was no system in place to manage the gap or suggest alternatives.

Instruction Overload: Care seekers found it difficult to communicate daily care instructions, like meal plans, medication schedules, and personalised notes.

To address these issues, we introduced the Care Stream, a structured communication and task management feature that allows care seekers to:

Clearly outline care requirements

Share special instructions for meals, medication, and routines

Set preferences for caregiver selection

Enable flexible updates and feedback loops

This allowed caregivers to access up-to-date information and accept or decline requests with clarity, while also ensuring better trust and consistency in service delivery.

The NurtureCo redesign journey reinforced a key lesson: our assumptions often don’t match real user needs. By observing behaviours and talking to users, we shifted from a transactional model to a compassionate, well-structured experience that supports trust, clarity, and care continuity.