C (Care - Connect - Communication)

RC
Feb 1, 2023
7 min read

Updated: Feb 26, 2023

"C" is a caring APP for Alzheimer patients and their family members, also to assist elders in preventing Alzheimer's disease.

Starting Point

I learned about Alzheimer's disease (AD) when I took sociology electives in my undergraduate period. I realized that AD patients and their families are suffering from inconvenient treatments with a sympathy situation. Nowadays, the trend of aging is overwhelming. That means AD patients are enlarging and have more needs to take it seriously. Therefore I want to design an APP to help AD patients and their family members.

Background Research

I have gathered some secondary research on AD patients in China and other countries. As of 2010, the number of AD patients worldwide had reached 35.6 million, with about 5 million in China and an increasing trend. By 2050, the number of AD patients worldwide is projected to rise to 115 million, with 20 million in China.

In terms of the proportion of AD patients, it is reported that among individuals aged 65-80, 5% are affected by AD. However, in individuals over the age of 80, the percentage rises to 15-20% affected by AD. Alzheimer's disease is a serious global issue, as the number of patients continues to increase.

AD patients typically experience a range of debilitating symptoms. Physically, they often experience a regression in their status, with a decline in their motor functions and sometimes a state of hypothermia that is irreversible.

The disease also affects their cognition, causing a decline in their intelligence, memory, and other cognitive functions. As a result, many patients require long-term care, as they are no longer able to take care of themselves due to their impaired cognition and stiff limbs.

As Alzheimer's disease progresses from the early to the late stage, patients experience increasingly severe symptoms. Initially, their memory becomes mixed and confused, eventually leading to memory loss. In addition to memory loss, their ability to speak, physical condition, and senses deteriorate over time. Unfortunately, the disease also affects their psychological state, leading to emotional instability. Patients may become indifferent, anxious, or frightened, and their behavior can become increasingly unpredictable. This combination of physical and psychological symptoms makes caring for AD patients extremely challenging.

[Treatments]

But also exists some different ways to relieve the symptom of AD. Here are some therapies I visualized:

Not only limited to medical or gene technic, not close to simple activities like games, art, music, sport, etc.

[Competitive Products]

As AD patients and elders are very typical social problems and discussion points, more and more relevant products come up. Here are some competitive products but with some drawbacks.

The first competitor is Smart Speaker, which is a machine that talks normally like a human. But it still is an artificial intelligence -- elders and AD patients will feel uneasy about this strange voice. Also, some of the AD patients' language systems and speaking abilities have been disordered. That is the Speaker also hard to recognize the AD patients' orders.
The second one is an APP -- Memory Arouse, which solves patients’ memory and loss problems. But the APP is lack caring solutions.
The third one is also an APP -- Timeless. It has facial recognition technology and a reminder system, which are the highlight and creative parts of the APP. However, the APP has some difficulty in enrolling, and its UI cannot cater to the elders -- as it is multifarious.

Analysis

Based on this background research, I think I need to do a complete reminder system, as there exist some pain points: children have no time to care for or chat with elders, elders are afraid of disturbing children, and elders distrust the medical treatment, as well as unwilling to socialization outdoor, etc. Thus, I can develop this reminder APP which provides a recording system for children, and simplify APP's interface, and also give an online socialization platform.

After analyzing these ideas, I noticed that it is important to know elders' and AD patients' behavior on cell phones. As most of the AD patients are over 65, here I created a 66-year-old elder: Lee. With her behaviors on the smartphone in one day:

8 am: Lee goes to the supermarket and uses E-pay to pay for the ingredients.
9: 30 to 11:30: Chat with friends by sending audio messages via SNS.
2 pm: Calling neighbor to play card games together by cellphone.
6 pm: Calling her grandchildren to let them go home.
8:30 to 10:30 pm: Chat with friends by video call. And send messages in the group chat.

And for elders' top 5 using habits on the smartphone:

The top is -- COMMUNICATION!
The second is -- Photograph
The third is -- Watching Videos
The fourth & fifth are -- Payment & Games

Interview

To prove my ideas and thoughts, I design a series of questions and take an interview with two elders, both of whom are over 65 years old:

Interview questions

1. What is the inconvenience when you got AD? Any need?

2. Have you tried some related treatment? What is your feelings?

3. What is your entertainment in your daily life?

4. Do you use your cellphone frequently?

5. Are your family and children living with you?

-live with

6. Do you need to bring up grandchild?

-live apart

7. How often do you have a talk with your child?

Interviewees and answers

Factors

Meanwhile, there also have some contradictions and benefits among AD patients, family members, and Nurses:

For AD patients, they tend to be traditional and prioritize their children and grandchildren over thown well-being. They may overlook thown health and well-being, but also fear being a burden to their loved ones. They long for more communication and social interacion but may have difficulty using cell phones or other technology. They often depend on their family members and resist care from nurses, feeling embarrassed to receive care from strangers, and worried about the high cost of care. They may also fear being abandoned by their children if they are admitted to the hospital.

For family members, they face a significant financial burden, not only for the cost of medical care for the elders but also for their children's education. They are also concerned about their career status, which can limit their availability and personal time. They must balance their responsibilities of taking care of their elderly relatives while also considering the quality of care provided by nurses.

For nurses, they possess authoritative knowledge, systematic care skills, and advanced equipment. However, their services can be expensive, and the quality of care can vary. They can work collaboratively with AD patients' family members, but the treatment outcome may be uncertain.

Journey Map

to analyze my project deeper, I made a journey map for the early stage of AD patients and their family members, which shows their schedule in one day, with some pain points and opportunities:

Card sorting & Main functions

Based on the journey map, I use some sticky notes to record the needs of both patients and families in my APP.

For AD patients, the functions they need are navigation, action monitoring, social activities, communication, medical treatment, memory storage, and a reminder system. While the family members also need a recording system, communication reminder, body condition monitor, remote control, and route monitor.

Therefore, I organized these notes, and compile them into a form to show my APP's main functions clearly and in detail, which are: supervising system, reminder system, communication, and two different interfaces for elders and children.

Design

For my APP's branding, I gave it the name called "C", which stands for Care, Connect, and Communication between elder AD patients and their family members.

For the typeface, I chose a san-serif type: Acumin Variable Concept. For the elder's version, the size of the font is big, which ranges from 65pt to 120pt, to let them see it. For the child's version, the font size is normal, which is from 48pt to 60 pt.

For the colors. Different versions have different main colors. The elder version is red, because it is warm, and it can show the concept of caring directly. While the child version is green, which is the contrast color of red, combining the red color well.

and here are some icons in the interfaces:

Structure & Wireframe

With the main functions' guiding, I design the basic structure and wireframe for my app.

When installed C, users will enter the login page after the opening transition, it will use facial recognition to log in. If users have no account yet, it will guide them to the registration page to sign in. When they get the accounts, it will change the version base on the result of facial recognition.

If the user is an elder, the homepage will turn to the elder version, which is a menu that included the functions: Contacts, Remind, Entertainment, Healthy, and Daily Article Push (DAP). Also, the SOS function is set on the homepage as a shortcut key. Elders can not only dial the emergency agency's phone number but also arouse it by shouting "Help" for three times.

Elders can use the sound wake-up function to arouse Contacts and use voice-to-text to send messages as well as video and audio.

And the Remind function will shake the phone and record the reminder based on time and content: it will remind not only at present but also can record the schedule, setting time, content, and tone by voice-to-text. What is more, the system has a GPS location-sharing function and controls the reminder to start Yaw Remind automatically when elders start far from a specific distance (based on family members' customs) to family members, and then the GPS will navigate elders to go back perfectly.

In the Entertainment function, there are some games and kinds of music for elders. The game included the poker game and the memory test, both of which test elders about their daily lives, such as family, home, address, friends, and so on. The Healthy function shows elders' heart rate, sleeping period, walking, and active range daily. And it also provides hospital services, which are online advice and online registration. After that, the system will come up with a report for elders.

If the user is the elder's child or other family members, the homepage will move to the child version, including Supervisor, Custom Remind, Contact Remind, Study, and Forum.

Children can use Supervisor to track their elders' daily routines and their health. When elders are going outside, the system will synchronize the information to remind children. Also, children can custom distance, setting the yaw distance reminder, safe distance reminder, and choosing their voice as the rings to set the reminding tone. Besides, for the health supervisor, children can get the elders' daily/ weekly/monthly/yearly reports from the elder system, and the system also synchronizes the information of the hospital from it.

For the Remind system, children can custom the reminder by the function of "photo library" (which can be the resource of the memory test in the elder system) and "voice library". Children can record their voices and edit them. Then for the contact reminder, remind children to contact elders when they live apart. If children are busy with their work, the auto-reply with the audio message will be sent to the elder system. Also, the contacts of address, message, video, audio, and setting will import into the elder system to help elders memorize them.

The children's version has a Study function, which has the video class to learn caring skills and theories, as well as the articles. Children can enter the "MY" area to look up their favorites and collect classes and articles. Besides, children can discuss their elders together in the Forum area.

With this kind of structure, I made the wireframe of the APP. And here is the total wireframe of the elder-service application: C.