Hearthstone
Helping connect caregivers and the people they work with
Combine the knowledge and processes Hearthstone Alzheimer Care had learned through their research with an easy to use interface for caregivers. The grant funded cross-platform tablet app needed to offer specialized activities like games and quizzes, plus education for the caregivers and features for planning out their day.
I managed the entire design process from meetings with stakeholders and subject matter experts, to creating a design system and front end for the application, through incorporating feedback from testing.
Building something for use by people with dementia was unique and challenging. While I'm familiar with WCAG guidelines, ARIA tags, and tools like contrast checking, I'm not an expert on working with people with dementia and alzheimers. Fortunately, the team from Hearthstone is and proved to be invaluable resources in guiding my design efforts.
I had to make several iterations of simple things like removing background colors and textures for simplicity, and tweaking the typefaces used - even so far as to disable ligatures for clarity.
MVP product shipped within original time and budget goals. The application is currently deployed in private installs, and planning is underway for a second version. The ultimate goal is a commercial release after the grant funded research phases are complete.