Help Hero
A wishlist-style app that connects long term and chronic illness patients with those who want to help through tangible action.
"Offer your help before being asked. I know it may be your first instinct to say something like, “Let me know what I can do to help,” but that actually can be a bit hard to answer.”
— “4 Tangible Ways to Love Someone With a Chronic Illness”
Problem
Those with long term illness need both emotional and tangible support but can feel like a burden on others, inhibiting their ability to ask for the help they need.
Caretakers, friends, and loved ones may not understand the actual depth of distress, and may not know what options are available for tangible support.
Goal
Connect people by giving potential helpers tangible, clearly defined options to support chronic illness patients.
Research
The problem was originally identified through an article detailing ways to help chronic illness patients and my personal experience with a long term illness. Screener surveys and interviews with both long term illness patients and their loved ones allowed for validation of introductory assumptions and further insight:
Chronic illness patients are uncomfortable asking for help.
Helpers want to help, but don’t know how.
“I get it — I wouldn’t want someone to do something for me I should be able to do myself either.. It’s like someone else helping you with that means you’re really sick.”
User profiles
Solution
A wishlist-style app where Long Term Illness Patients (LTPs) can request things they can use to assist in their daily lives like supplements, gift cards for grocery & supplement stores, and services like ride share, cleaning, grocery delivery, and healthy meal prep.
People who want to help (Helpers) are able to view the list and choose when and how they support their loved one by the different items they can select and purchase.
Main Processes
USER FLows
Long Term/Chronic Illness User Flow - Add items, save, share list
Helper User Flow - View list, select items, checkout, share
High Fidelity User Flow
New Long Term Illness Patient User creating a list from the landing page
Role: Researcher, UX/UIDesigner
Skills: Need-finding, User Experience Research, Information Architecture, Ideation, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Technology: Sketch, InVision, Optimal Workshop