Second:
Care for Caregivers
A caregiver-first platform designed to strengthen caregiver confidence through adaptive guidance, education, and community.
My Role
UX Research
Product Strategy
Co-Design Facilitation
Affiliation
Microsoft
In Collaboration With
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America
Alzheimer’s Association
NYU Steinhardt
Timeline
3 months
Research Methods
Expert Interviews, Caregiver Interviews
Co-Ideation Workshops, Field Observation
Industry
Healthcare
Project Type
Healthcare Design, Service Design
Digital Product Design
Team
4 Designers
Overview
A supportive space that lightens caregiver burden through guidance, learning, and a community that understands.
Background
Dementia affects over 55 million people globally, placing intense emotional and logistical pressure on those providing daily care. Caregivers often navigate fragmented systems, limited support, and constant uncertainty.
Research Goal
Our goal was to understand caregivers’ emotional load, daily decision-making challenges, and unmet needs to design a system that meaningfully supports their journey rather than the patient alone.
Outcome
We developed a caregiver-first platform offering adaptive guidance, bite-sized learning, and community support, shaped entirely by qualitative research across experts, organizations, and care partners.
Why Caregivers?
Caregivers carry the heaviest emotional and decision burden in dementia care, yet most tools overlook them. Supporting caregivers directly improves stability, confidence, and the patient’s overall quality of life.
Research Process
Exploring the ecosystem
of dementia care
Our research process integrated literature review, netnography, field observations, and interviews with caregivers, experts, and organizations to build a grounded understanding of dementia care. We investigated how emotional strain, fragmented information, and inconsistent support systems shape the everyday realities of caregivers.
Interview Insights
Number of Interviews
12 interviews
Target Audience
Primary caregivers
Secondary family caregivers
Care partners and experts
Personalization is Essential
Caregivers need personalized tools because every patient’s behavior, mood patterns, and daily routines vary, making standard dementia resources ineffective without individual adaptation.
Caregiving Feels Scattered
Idan Motors is a forward-thinking brand committed to delivering a seamless and personalized experience for customers, fostering strong relationships with dealers and partners,
Caregivers Drive Tool Adoption
Caregivers determine which tools succeed, as dementia-friendly solutions often fail when designed for patients rather than those managing decisions, routines, and daily care.
Collecting Data Using
Qualitative Research Methods
We used immersive, human-centered qualitative methods to observe how caregiving unfolds emotionally, spatially, and socially. Each method provided a different lens into the realities of dementia care.
Observing a Dementia-Friendly Apartment
We visited a dementia-friendly apartment to study environmental adaptations—contrasting colors, memory cues, spatial layout, and safety features. These observations helped us understand what caregivers must manage in the physical environment and what design interventions can reduce confusion or fall risks.
Interviewing Organizations, Experts, and Families
We spoke with Alzheimer’s organizations, occupational therapists, social workers, and multi-generational caregivers to understand their routines, responsibilities, and system-level frustrations.
Analyse Data and
Interpret Findings
We compared stories across interviews to identify where caregivers struggle the most—moments of overwhelm, confusion about next steps, and the burden of remembering schedules, symptoms, and behavioral changes. These friction points became anchors for our design direction.
Isolating Patterns Across Caregiver Roles
By analyzing differences between primary and secondary caregivers, we identified shifts in responsibility, emotional load, and decision-making authority. This helped us understand which pain points were universal and which were role-specific.
Translating Findings into Opportunity Areas
We interpreted recurring patterns—like personalization needs, scattered information, and lack of emotional support—to define three core opportunity areas: empowering caregivers through education, personalizing care routines, and carving out time and space for caregiver wellbeing.
Design Implication
How might we
ease caregiver burden
by unifying guidance and support?
Design Principles
Balanced
Design that supports caregivers’ functional needs while creating space for emotional ease. The goal is to reduce cognitive load and allow caregivers moments of clarity and calm.
Adaptive
A system that evolves with the caregiver’s journey, offering guidance based on changing behaviors, routines, and emotional rhythms. The platform should feel responsive, not rigid.
Simple
Information should be digestible, direct, and free of complexity. Clear pathways and easy choices empower caregivers to make confident decisions during demanding moments.
Co-Ideation Process
Bringing Caregivers and Experts into the Room
We hosted four co-ideation workshops with caregivers, students, and dementia experts to understand lived challenges and gather early design directions rooted in real caregiving experiences.
Translating Needs into Concept Directions
Participants mapped pains, ideal routines, and emotional triggers, helping us shape three opportunity areas: personalized care, accessible education, and emotional ease, each forming the foundation for concept development.
Iterating Through Prototypes and Feedback
Two prototype-testing workshops refined clarity, tone, and task flows. Caregiver feedback emphasized the need for simplicity and adaptability, guiding refinements across content, interaction patterns, and overall platform behavior.
Next Steps
Partner with Dementia Care Experts
Collaborate with Hospitals and Clinics
Run Extended Caregiver Pilots
Refine Adaptive Guidance Models
Test Long-Term Engagement Patterns
Expand to Other Care Contexts
Takeaways
Co-Ideation as Insight Discovery
Working directly with caregivers and experts showed me how co-ideation can unlock nuances that traditional interviews often miss.
Learning Through Spatial Immersion
Visiting a dementia-friendly apartment helped me understand how environment, cues, and layout fundamentally shape caregiver workload and stress.
Interpreting Multi-Layered Narratives
Synthesizing perspectives across families, clinicians, and support organizations taught me how to navigate contradictions and extract opportunity areas without oversimplifying complex realities.
"At Second, care partners come first"
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© Shriya Agarwal 2025