Caregiving Apps: A Usability Heuristic Evaluation and Comparison
When it comes to interaction design, designers often use a set of general principles called Usability Heuristics as a checklist to identify potential problems and possible solutions when designing a new product or feature.
Jacob Nielsen created the 10 heuristic principles for interface design, and after 27 years, they are still the most commonly used usability heuristics to this day.
Jakob Nielsen’s 10 general principles for interaction design. They are called ‘heuristics’ because they are broad rules of thumb and not specific usability guidelines.
One of the projects for my UX Bootcamp was to conduct a heuristic analysis of competitors who offer similar solutions for a problem area of my interest. I wanted to explore the field of caregiving (where a caregiver is a family member or paid helper who regularly looks after a child or a sick, elderly, or disabled person) and how we could reduce caregiver stress and make it easier for them to balance daily responsibilities and mental health.
To find competing apps, I googled “top caregiver apps” and chose the top three.
CaringBridge
CaringBridge is an app for families that focuses on support and care for a loved one in need. It offers “a space for multiple caregivers and family members to share pertinent information, such as updates, encouragement, and arranging care. There’s a guest book offering a place for journal entries, medical updates, photos, stories, and tributes.” Its purpose is to keep loved ones connected cohesively and thoughtfully.
Lotsa Helping Hands
Lotsa Helping Hands is an app that acts as an interactive calendar that can manage “everything from sitters and errands to appointments and family gatherings.” It includes multiple features such as a newsletter, stories from other caregivers, and a space where loved ones can post encouraging messages to uplift the person in need of care.
Caring Village
Caring Village is an app specifically designed for family caregivers to coordinate and keep track of updates of their loved ones in need. It was founded by Mike Behram, who realized that the most significant concern regarding caregiving was communicating effectively and staying connected with everyone involved after he and his wife became caregivers for his mother-in-law, who has dementia. The app offers a “secure messaging system where users can create “villages” among friends and relatives to help coordinate the specifics of a loved one’s care. The app’s features also include a centralized calendar, document storage, a place to list medications, and a wellness journal that allows you to share entries with the rest of your village.” It’s all about connection.
I chose to analyze these three apps using four of Jacob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics and make it into a contest of which one meets the guidelines the best and comes out on top overall. The heuristics I’ve chosen are 1. Visibility System Status 2. Error Prevention 3. Help and Documentation, and 4. Match Between System and Real World.
My scoring system will be as follows:
3 = I don’t think this is a usability problem at all
2 = Minor usability problem
1 = Major usability problem
0 = An absolute usability catastrophe
ROUND 1: VISIBILITY SYSTEM STATUS
The design should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.
CaringBridge
When taking steps to create a new site (user profile), a progress bar is visible at the top. Progress bars are used to communicate to a user how far along he/she is in a process. Even before starting the process, the app lets you know that it will most likely take 3 minutes or less.
Once finished, the app provides immediate feedback and communicates to the user that a site has been successfully created.
Score: 3. I can tell how far along I am in the process and know immediately when I’ve succeeded in creating a site.
Lotsa Helping Hands
When users choose to volunteer for a task (loved ones can create, customize, and volunteer for necessary tasks to be done within the app), a cute dialog pops up with the big words, “Thank You!” and “Your help means a lot. Thank you very much for your contribution.” Not only does this message provide immediate confirmation that you’ve successfully clicked to volunteer, but it’s also a very thoughtful and caring gesture to users who decide to devote their time to help a loved one in need.
Score: 3. I’d click ‘volunteer for tasks’ just so I can see that message again. The celebration confetti and the applause emoji are a very nice touch.
Caring Village
When choosing a mood for their wellness journal, three options are given when determining how a user feels that day: Very Good, Good, and Not Well. The app provides feedback that a mood is successfully chosen by filling the face with color once the user clicks. Clicking a different mood will color that one instead and leave the other two blank.
Score: 3. The dramatic color change clearly communicates when the system registers my choices. There’s no doubt I’m feeling very good that day.
WINNER:
Everybody. But wait, the following heuristic evaluations will show these apps are far from perfect.
ROUND 2: ERROR PREVENTION
The design should prevent the occurrence of errors or any situation that leads the user to make a false or any unwanted decision.
CaringBridge
When customizing a personalized site address, there is a small text below that says, “Your site address cannot be changed after the site is created.” It’s helpful that the app lets users know, but more can be done to prevent the user from creating a site name they’ll regret later on. First, the text is a bit hard to read and doesn’t stand out from the rest of the text, making it easy to look over. Second, there is no confirmation dialog when you click “Next” that warns users that this is an irreversible action before moving on to the next page.
Score: 2. I’m lucky that I have decent eyesight, and I usually read most of what’s on the screen before clicking “Next,” but it would help users if the app prevents them from moving forward before being sure of their site name.
Lotsa Helping Hands
Lotsa Helping Hands uses multiple confirmation dialogs to warn a user before committing a destructive action, such as deleting an image or an event. Confirmation dialogs provide the user a chance to double-check if they are sure they want to proceed before losing something they’ve created. However, there’s a lack of consistency in its confirmation dialogs. For events, the button to confirm the delete action is clearly labeled “Delete” in red. When deleting an image, the dialog changes to “Confirm Deleting” instead of “Delete Photo,” and all of a sudden, there is a black “Yes” where a red “Delete” should be.
Score: 2. I’ve given this a two because, at the very least, I feel confirmation dialogs should be consistent. There’s also a confirmation dialog for when you attempt to sign out of your account. At this point, it’s being overused and starts to lose its purpose as error prevention.
CaringVillage
Users are unable to create an account in the account creation process unless their password meets the requirements. It can be pretty frustrating to hit submit and suddenly receive an error that tells you you need to change your password to proceed. When typing a password, no micro-interactions let users know what they need to include before they hit submit. Even worse, three separate error messages occur depending on what the password is missing, one for needing eight characters, one for needing at least one uppercase letter, and one for needing one numeric or special character. That’s three different error messages for meeting field requirements, and three times a user may have to repeat work to create a usable password.
Score: 0. Having to fill out a form three separate times because there was no contextual error warning when creating a password had me wanting to throw this app in the trash before I even had a chance to use it.
WINNER:
CaringBridge. Though it scored the same as Lotsa Helping Hands, its lack of consistency with confirmation dialogs was concerning.
ROUND 3: HELP AND DOCUMENTATION
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.
CaringBridge
When searching for another user’s site in the search bar, the app lets you know if what you’re searching for is not found. Reactive help is provided to the user by letting them know their search may have failed because “Some patients choose higher privacy settings” and suggests the user “contact the site author for an invitation” if that’s the case. If all else fails, there is a link to contact customer care on the same page for assistance.
CaringBridge also offers multiple help resources, all neatly packaged under the header “Help,” which can easily be found by clicking the “More” icon. What’s included is a How It Works page that describes what the app is all about, a detailed list of its features, a FAQ organized by categories, and options to contact customer care directly, including email, live chat support, and a phone number.
Score: 3. Reactive help documentation is easily found, comprehensive and detailed. When it says “We’re always here to help” under their contact page, they truly mean it.
Losta Helping Hands
The only option to receive help in this app is to click “Contact Support” in settings, and right away, it leads the user to an email page. This means the only way users can get help when struggling with the interface is to have to go through the trouble of signing in to an email account and sending a message to support, which can be time-consuming and frustrating when a user needs assistance fast.
There is no form of proactive help that familiarizes users with the interface and no sign of reactive help that users can quickly locate within the app.
Score: 1. The fact that I’d be struggling with the app and have zero indication of who I’m emailing for support and when they would get back to my query is frustrating. Add that I have to sign in to a completely different app to receive help seems like way too much work.
Caring Village
This app includes a link below an invitation code input box that says, “Where do I get my code?” for users who may have trouble figuring out how to join a private village. However, upon clicking the link, it leads straight to a FAQ page but with the question and answers nowhere to be found. There is no proactive help that helps users familiarize themselves with the sheer number of features listed in the hamburger menu. Finding the help center is a challenge because it doesn’t have its own header, and the FAQ page from before seemed to vanish into thin air because the “Where do I get my code?” link disappeared. I finally found the help center under the “about” section, where there is a FAQ list of 12 questions, so the included search bar seemed unnecessary.
Score: 1. There are way too many features included in this app for a new user to feel comfortable learning all at once without any additional help. It was also disappointing that I still could not find a clear answer for how to find an invitation code.
WINNER:
CaringBridge
FINAL ROUND: MATCH BETWEEN SYSTEM AND REAL WORLD
Systems should speak the users’ language with familiar words, phrases, and concepts rather than system-oriented terms. Interfaces that follow real-world conventions and make information appear naturally and logically demonstrate empathy and acknowledgment for users.
CaringBridge
Right at the launch screen, the app greets users with the words, “Welcome! We’re glad you’re here. Share, connect and rally support.” Rather than simply saying “Sign Up,” the app chooses to use everyday language and sets the context for what the app is about. People find great comfort in familiarity, and being warmly welcomed demonstrates empathy and shows the organization cares for its users.
Score: 3. The app uses familiar language and a caring tone to make users feel comfortable right off the bat. I can’t wait to see what else is in store.
Lotsa Helping Hands
When creating a custom team, users are given a list of options to choose from. It’s unclear what the list is for and the context of what is being selected because there is no name for the category; it’s defaulted to the option Lotsa Helping Hands. The list of options includes Aflac’s My Cancer Circle, My Cancel Circle, and the ALS association. Since the app doesn’t use familiar language, there is no way for users to understand what they represent. What does Aflac mean, how are these categories different, and what do they have to do with anything? A google search for Aflac turned up a site for an insurance company that did more harm than help because there was no explanation for how that tied into the app’s purpose.
Score: 0. I have no way of understanding which option to choose when there is no clarity with what I’m choosing and why. Even after googling Aflac to gain more insight, I’m left more confused than ever.
Caring Village
When prompted to select a timezone for their user profile, immediately upon first glance, users can see that none of the options in the list make sense. Almost all the options are incomprehensible because they combine countries, cities, and communities with differing timezones into one option. The list is enormous and has too many options to choose from, even if the options were to make sense. What would be more helpful and straightforward is if the user could select their location off a map and select a zone with the ability to verify the correct time depending on where they are located.
Score: 0. I don’t think I even have to explain why I gave this one a 0. It is a clear example of an app that shows a lack of concern for users and their experience.
WINNER:
CaringBridge
CONTEST WINNER:
CaringBridge! 🍾 🙌 🎉
CaringBridge demonstrates empathy and care with its simplicity in design and engagement with users through thoughtful interface design. Out of the three apps I’ve analyzed, CaringBridge outdoes them all.
