Overview

Elderly care today is deeply fragmented. Seniors and their families juggle multiple apps for medication reminders, emergency support, transportation, and daily assistance. This fragmentation not only increases cognitive load, but also leads to missed medications, delayed emergency responses, and emotional dependency on caregivers.

I led the end-to-end product thinking and design for HESS (Health, Emergency, Safety, Support), a concept for a unified elderly support platform that brings daily care, healthcare coordination, and safety into a single experience. The goal was not to replace caregivers, but to restore autonomy to seniors while offering caregivers peace of mind.

My role: Product Design Lead

Scope: Problem framing, user research synthesis, product strategy, UX and visual design, prototyping

Timeline: 3 weeks (concept to MVP)

The Problem

As people age, their needs increase, but the tools designed to support them remain scattered. Through secondary research and stakeholder discussions, three systemic issues surfaced:

1. Fragmented Service Ecosystem

Seniors and caregivers often rely on 4 to 6 separate apps for transportation, medication reminders, appointments, and home services. This fragmentation leads to:

• Repeated data entry
• Missed handoffs between services
• Increased reliance on family members for coordination

Studies show fragmented care delivery can lead to 20% higher hospital readmission rates, reinforcing the cost of poor coordination.

2. Safety and Urgent Support Gaps

• 1 in 4 adults aged 65+ experiences a fall each year.
• Seniors lose an estimated $3B annually to scams and fraud, highlighting gaps in safety and trust.

Delayed emergency response significantly worsens outcomes.

3. Healthcare Management Challenges

• Nearly 20% of seniors miss medications, contributing to preventable complications.
• 80% live with at least one chronic condition, requiring ongoing monitoring.

Missed appointments are often caused by transportation or cognitive barriers, and are non-intentional.

Understanding the Users

While older adults are the end beneficiaries, designing HESS required understanding a broader ecosystem of users who participate in care coordination.

1. Independent Seniors (Primary)

Older adults who are cognitively capable and motivated to live independently, but need light support.

• Want dignity and autonomy
• Resist tools that feel intrusive or infantilizing
• Prefer gentle nudges over constant supervision

2. Family Caregivers (Primary)

Often adult children balancing jobs, families, and caregiving responsibilities.

• Carry invisible coordination labor
• Experience burnout and anxiety
• Want reassurance without micromanagement

3. Service Providers (Secondary)

Caregivers, drivers, and healthcare professionals who need clarity and context.

• Need reliable schedules
• Require access to accurate health and task information
• Benefit from reduced back-and-forth communication

Across all three groups, one shared failure point emerged: there is no single surface for coordination and action.

The Opportunity

Rather than solving isolated problems like medication reminders or emergency alerts, I reframed the opportunity:

What if elderly care wasn’t a collection of tools, but a coordinated system designed around independence first?

This reframing guided every product decision that followed.

Exploring the Solution Space

Before defining the MVP, I explored multiple directions:

• A caregiver-first dashboard focused on oversight
• A health-records–centric experience
• A service marketplace with add-on safety features
• And a few more...

Solution Space Explorations

Each had merit, but also uncovered the following trade-offs:

• Caregiver-heavy solutions increased dependency
• Health-first approaches felt clinical and overwhelming
• Marketplace-only models lacked trust and continuity

The strongest direction balanced autonomy for seniors with visibility for caregivers, without forcing constant involvement.

Defining the MVP

I intentionally scoped the MVP around three integrated pillars rather than standalone features.

1. Integrated Daily Care Services

A single place to request and manage everyday needs, which eliminated app-switching and reduced coordination overhead:

• Housekeeping
• Personal care
• Companionship
• Transportation
• Medication reminders

Booking daily care services

Medication reminders

2. Streamlined Healthcare Coordination

Instead of acting as a medical record system, HESS focused on actionable clarity:

• Medication lists
• Appointment history
• Emergency contacts
• Gentle reminders

This approach avoided clinical complexity while still supporting continuity of care. Medication management Emergency contacts Appointment reminders

3. Urgent Support and Messaging

Safety features designed for speed and clarity, which ensured rapid coordination without requiring seniors to navigate complex flows under stress:

• One-tap emergency alerts
• Automatic GPS sharing
• Instant updates to caregivers and responders

Safety features

Design Style Guide

To ensure accessibility and trust, I prioritized a high-contrast color palette, clear typography, and intuitive iconography. This visual language builds user confidence by making complex healthcare management feel safe and straightforward, ultimately leading to better care outcomes. Design Style Guide

Validation and Early Feedback

I tested the prototype with 5 participants across seniors and caregivers using moderated walkthroughs.

Key Signals

• 5 of 5 participants found the app was visually intuitive and easy to navigate.
• 4 of 5 participants reported the unified experience would save them time compared to managing multiple apps.
• 4 of 5 participants said the emergency flow reduced their anxiety about response delays.
• Seniors consistently responded positively to language that emphasized independence rather than assistance.

Here's how one participant described the app's intuitiveness:

It’s just... so clear. I don’t feel like I’m fighting with the phone to find what I need... everything is right where I’d expect it to be.

Impact and Potential Outcomes

While HESS is a concept-stage product, early validation suggests meaningful impact:

• Reduced cognitive load for seniors by centralizing care actions
• Lower coordination stress for caregivers
• Improved adherence to medication and appointments through gentle nudges
• Faster emergency response through shared context and location

If launched, this model could meaningfully reduce preventable hospitalizations while preserving autonomy among seniors.