Dementia is a general term for impaired cognitive functioning that interferes with a person’s daily life and activities. Personality changes, changing ability levels, safety concerns, new routines, and tough conversations, are just a few of the many new things that caregivers need to navigate, which can lead them to feeling lost and overwhelmed.
Being able to find resources and services to help with these changes and to organize and keep track of important information, are things that would be helpful to many caregivers of loved ones with dementia.
Create an app that curates dementia information and services in Vancouver and provides a place to save and share important medical, safety, and appointment information.
None of the competition provides community specific resources and information for Vancouver or provides curated content based on the stage of dementia being experienced.
Based on the insights from my primary and secondary research, these are the reasons why Shine is needed and would benefit caregivers who care for someone living with dementia:
While my app’s focus shifted slightly, the scenario of Danielle searching for respite programs that her mother can attend still applies for why a caregiver would use Shine.
A wireframe of the app, as well as a feature list that was ranked by my caregiver consultant.
At this stage I was still working with clickable wireframes, and I was planning on designing an app that focused on providing a directory for dementia respite services in the Vancouver area.
Since this was the focus, the user flows are related to the respite finder.
These are some of the main screens of the second prototype, which is the first prototype to contain all of Shine’s current features. At this stage the app started to become more tailored to each caregiver's specific needs with the addition of more thorough onboarding.
A large part of this project in the beginning was collecting a list of local dementia respite services in Vancouver.
Sharing information and news with loved ones, care partners and program staff can be important to keep everyone on the same page and aware of important health information. For this reason, parts of the profile and calendar sections are shareable.
As I began to add more detailed onboarding questions, the process became quite long.
For this reason, I chose to split it up into onboarding questions and profile questions. The profile questions can be completed anytime once a caregiver has entered the app, and are used to save personal and medical information of the person living with dementia.
The sun at the top of the app moves across the the screen as the time changes. During the night, the app switches to a night colour scheme that replaces the sun with a full moon.
The video features Ray (Shine’s mascot) introducing Shine and giving the audience a tour of the app.
Dementia affects each person differently, so being able to access information, services, and resources tailored to each person’s unique needs is valuable for caregivers. Also, having the ability to save and share important medical, safety, and appointment information are features that many caregivers want and look for.
The final outcome is an app that I hope gives caregivers relief, support, and an optimistic outlook on their loved one’s diagnosis.
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