Before you launch: test with a few people, then make it simpler
Small usability tests and simpler forms are two of the cheapest ways to improve a new website, app or digital product before launch. Here is how to do both.
Designing for unpaid carers: services that fit around a caring life
Unpaid carers are often the people who find, book and manage care for someone else. If your service works for them, it works for a lot of people.
A big group, often hidden
Many of the people who use care services, health apps and information websites are not the person receiving care. They are a daughter, a partner, a neighbour or a friend. According to the Office for National Statistics, Census 2021, an estimated 5.0 million people aged 5 and over in England and Wales provided unpaid care in 2021. [S21]
For many of them, caring is close to a full time job. The same census estimated that 1.5 million people provided 50 or more hours of unpaid care a week. [S21]
Behind those numbers are people who are juggling work, family and appointments, and who often meet your service at a difficult moment: after a fall, a hospital stay or a new diagnosis.
What that means for design
When we design for unpaid carers, a few things come up again and again.
- Time is short and broken up. Carers often deal with you in a spare five minutes, on a phone, in a car park or a waiting room. Every task should be possible in a few steps, and easy to pick up again later.
- They act on someone else's behalf. Forms, logins and consent often assume the user is the person receiving care. Make it simple and clear for a family member to help, with the right permissions.
- Several people share the load. Care is often split between relatives. Shared updates, clear ownership of tasks and a single place for key information save a lot of phone calls.
- Stress changes how people read. Plain English, short sentences, clear headings and one action per screen help everyone, and they matter even more when someone is worried.
- Reassurance matters as much as information. Knowing that someone is OK today, or that a visit happened, can be the most valuable thing a service offers.
Small changes that make a big difference
You do not need to rebuild everything. Some of the most useful changes are simple.
- Name carers in your content. Say plainly that family members can contact you, book, ask questions and manage things on someone's behalf.
- Offer a short route as well as the full detail. A clear summary at the top of a page, with more below for people who want it.
- Let people save and return. Long forms that time out or lose answers are a common reason people give up.
- Design for small screens first. Many carers will only ever see your service on a phone.
- Test with real carers. Watch a few people use your website or app and you will quickly see where it gets in their way.
An example from our own work
We built Coming Home: Family Care, our own iPhone app, for families looking after someone at home. One of its central features is a daily "I'm OK", a single large button, also on Apple Watch. If it has not been tapped by the time the family chooses, the people in the care circle get follow ups in the order they set. It does one job, and it is designed to be easy for the person using it and easy for the family to trust.
Where we can help
If your service, website or app is used by families and carers, our New product design and Bespoke web apps and iOS apps services can help you design around them. Our Marketing strategies and collateral service can help you reach carers with materials that speak to them clearly.
To talk it through, book a discovery call.
Sources
- Office for National Statistics, Unpaid care, England and Wales: Census 2021, released 19 January 2023. [S21]
- Caresque, Coming Home: Family Care case study.
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