ParentTablet
Client
Redefining product experiences,
one brave step at a time.
Designing a connected care experience for elderly parents and their families
ArtFledge
Client
ArtFledge
Client
HeathTech
Industry
What we did
Tablet & Mobile Applications:
Strategy
Wireframing
UI Design
About ParentTablet
The design challenge
Keeping families connected in everyday life
What we learnt
ParentTablet was ultimately not able to sustain itself as a product, and the company behind it eventually shut down.
Looking back, the project taught us that solving a problem well is not always enough to make a product work.
ParentTablet brought together a lot of useful ways for families to stay involved — calendars, reminders, medication schedules and other care-related tasks. But every additional feature also asked family members to adopt another way of managing something they were often already handling through familiar tools such as phone calls, messaging and calendars.
The experience reinforced the importance of validating the behaviour and problem before expanding the product around it. A feature can make sense in isolation and still not be compelling enough for someone to change the way they already do things.
That lesson has stayed with us in the projects we take on today: before designing more, we try to understand what problem genuinely needs solving, who needs to solve it, and what would make them change their existing behaviour.
The project continues to influence how we approach new products today: understand the problem first, validate the need, and only then decide what needs to be designed.
ParentTablet was designed to help families stay involved in the everyday care of elderly parents, even when they couldn't always be there in person.
The product brought together two connected experiences — a tablet for the elderly parent and mobile applications for their family members. While the tablet focused on everyday activities and routines, the mobile experience gave families ways to stay involved and manage aspects of care remotely.
Empowering families in
remote eldercare
One product, two very different experiences
The challenge was not simply to make an app easier to use. We were designing for two audiences with very different needs, levels of familiarity with technology and roles in the care process.
The elderly user's tablet needed to feel simple, familiar and approachable. At the same time, the family experience needed to provide enough information and control to help them stay involved without making everyday care feel like an administrative task.
A shared family calendar brings important events, appointments and reminders into one place, helping family members stay involved in the parent's everyday routine.
Family members could create and manage events such as doctor appointments, bill payments and medication schedules from their mobile experience. Relevant information could then be surfaced through the parent's tablet, keeping both sides of the experience connected.
Logistics Manager
Simplifying everyday logistic operations
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