Re-imagining the support worker hiring experience for people with disabilities
InLife client experience
Services provided
Qualitative research
Empathy mapping
Co-design
Service design
Vision reel
Background
InLife is a not-for-profit disability support agency for people with frequent and often complex support needs, typically at least 25 hours per week.
InLife engaged Made Simpler to help them strategically design the ideal digital experience for their clients. With this, they needed compelling pitch material to help secure future investment and support.
The challenge
This audience group was particularly challenging to define and reach. Clients use their own unique mix of InLife services. Some clients were pure InLife customers, others had hybrid teams made up of Assistants from multiple service providers. Some clients we could interview directly, others were represented by a family member. As always, our interview sessions and questions were flexible to suit client schedules, their situation and their communication needs.
“At times we struggled to get carers that will stay and be reliable, because they tend to have more than one client and they pick and choose where to go and many would not turn up”
What we did
Conducted in-depth interviews with clients and client family members, to learn about their top tasks and any friction around them and to identify unmet needs
Created empathy maps to build a shared perspective for the project stakeholders
Performed thematic analysis to surface core priorities, needs, and friction points
Turned research insights into a set of user stories ready for prioritisation and ultimately for dev sprints
Designed features around the Client’s top tasks
Ran a client group feedback session and learnt how they think and speak about particular features - this helps inform labelling and micro copy
Developed a narrated visual journey, with a clickable prototype to illustrate a seamless experience for Clients as they complete key tasks — from finding a suitable support worker to preparing them for their first shift.
Presented the vision reel to the all staff quarterly meeting
The result
We delivered a rich concept, which brought to life the vision for a new way for clients to engage with InLife, showing what a more connected and user-friendly app could look like. It was easily shareable, to be used by senior executives to attract investment funding and to inspire staff and stakeholders. The InLife team have a clear vision for the ultimate client experience and practical set of user stories read to build.
“Interviewing people is the best part of being a design researcher. People are always so generous in sharing their experience”