Improving the Lives of Caregivers
Omplace
Overview
Omplace was a swiftly executed endeavor, completed within a mere 24-hour timeframe. It was a hackathon event located in Richmond, VA, involving a quintet of industrial design students from Virginia Tech and our guide, who also served as our professor. We emerged victorious, securing the top prize among seven competing institutions across Virginia.
My contribution to this project entailed designing the digital interface and overseeing user experience in collaboration with another student, while the remaining team members concentrated on shaping the physical and service aspects.
Overview
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Problems
After conducting short, 30-minute conversational interviews with provided caretakers, we were able to narrow our scope. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that 43.5 million adults in the US provide unpaid care to a dependent elder or child. This can oftentimes be laborious mentally and physically, leading to great stress that ultimately deteriorates the quality of care. When we seek to improve the caregiver's life, we can improve the lives taken care of.
Goals
Our problem statement has been specifically zeroed in on caregivers of Alzheimer's patients, who typically are family members juggling other obligations in their lives.
Considerations
"It takes a village" was the mindset we adopted when approaching this project. We identified three key stakeholders: the primary caregiver, the caregiver's reliable friends/family, and finally, the receiver.
Iterations
Our process involved rapid iterations on each key flow: messaging your network, accessing medical info, and keeping tabs on the cared-for's schedule. We only had 24 hours, so we allocated about 3-4 hours on low fidelity mapping.
Final Submission
Our final submission won the grand prize of the hackathon. It focuses on a clean, calm-inspiring design with attention to emergency situations that may arise with the patient.
The final project also includes a physical component, a printer that lives in the cared-for's home. The device can deliver an "omscript", a type of informational notice for those standing in for the primary caregiver if they do not have access to the app, or are less technologically savvy.
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