Case Study
Elder
Healthcare UX & Trust-Driven Design
Executive Summary
Architecting a Lean home care platform and internal CRM, using brand trust and conversion UX to drive adoption.
Elder is one of the UK’s leading live-in home care platforms. Brought on at launch to establish the digital product experience, I architected Elder's initial Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in 4 weeks, followed by 3 months of data-driven conversion optimisation. Designing for elderly care requires balancing extreme emotional sensitivity with operational precision. The project encompassed an empathy-led public booking website, mobile daily care schedules, and a custom operational CRM built to match care professionals with clients based on complex medical requirements.
Impact at a Glance
Architected, coded, and deployed the complete end-to-end booking funnel and operational CRM front-end in under a month.
Optimised high-anxiety intake flows through progressive disclosure, supportive visual hierarchy, and iterative A/B testing.
Designed internal coordination dashboards that streamlined complex medical criteria matching and carer scheduling.
Client Feedback
Sky was great to work with. She's incredibly smart, efficient and always delivers. Sky helped us get the business off the ground. She worked incredibly fast and was very data-driven, which is something we were focused on from the beginning.
The Challenge
Matching sensitive medical needs with speed, clarity, and trust
Arranging home care for an ageing relative is emotionally charged and overwhelming. Families require immediate reassurance, transparent pricing, and simple intake steps, while internal operations teams need clear data-capturing mechanics to evaluate medical needs (e.g., Alzheimer's, Stroke, Mobility) and match clients with vetted carers.
How do you design an emotionally reassuring intake funnel that reduces family anxiety while engineering a high-speed back-office CRM to manage complex medical care profiles?
Brand Identity & Visual Design Strategy
To establish immediate trust for families navigating care decisions during high-stress moments, I built Elder's foundational visual identity system and public marketing UI from the ground up:
- Empathetic Visual Language: Created a warm, approachable colour palette, accessible typography hierarchy, and visual component system designed to project warmth, professionalism, and security.
- Homepage Trust Architecture: Designed the marketing landing experience to highlight core trust indicators, transparent pricing tiers, and direct access to care advisors.
- Demystifying Care Workflows: Built step-by-step visual guides on the "How It Works" page to set clear expectations and reduce anxiety for family decision-makers.
Trust-Driven Conversion Funnels
Following the initial launch, I established an iterative A/B testing framework on the primary Care Request intake funnel to reduce completion friction and boost booking conversion:
- Variant A (Structured Multi-Select): Built clean multi-select category grids for medical conditions (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's) and care requirements (Bathing, Medication, Mobility) to clarify intake options.
- Variant B (Visual Iconography Grid): Designed and tested custom icon-driven selection states to decrease cognitive load and visual fatigue during high-stress decision-making.
- Funnel Friction Reduction: Streamlined care schedule selectors (Live-in, Overnight, Hourly visits) into progressive step-by-step disclosures, increasing inquiry completion rates.
Operational CRM Architecture
Working alongside Elder's customer support team, I designed an operational CRM to automate client-carer matching and session scheduling:
- Medical Profile Matching Architecture: Structured UI inputs capturing carer qualifications, location radius, and specialised training to allow coordinators to pair profiles efficiently.
- Operational Dashboard System: Designed unified administrative tracking tables to manage placement statuses across Live-in and Visiting schedules.
- Advanced Filter & Search Tools: Created granular search controls that enabled care teams to instantly filter hundreds of professional carer records against client medical profiles.
- HTML/CSS Prototyping & Handover: Hand-coded production-ready HTML/CSS UI components and data tables for the internal CRM, ensuring seamless design handover to backend engineers.
Mobile Schedules & Real-Time Coordination
To bridge the operational backend with front-line care delivery, I designed lightweight mobile views for carers and families on the ground:
- Mobile Daily Schedule Web App: Designed responsive mobile schedule UIs enabling carers to review daily shift tasks, check emergency instructions, and confirm check-in times.
- Real-Time Family Status Updates: Created accessible client views allowing family members to confirm carer arrivals and monitor care notes transparently from any device.
- Responsive Mobile Architecture: Architected fluid layout patterns ensuring readable data density, rapid scanability, and clear touch targets across all mobile viewports.
Strategic Takeaways
Key learnings from healthcare platform architecture
Trust is a Core Conversion Metric
In high-anxiety domains, user conversion is directly driven by visual empathy, transparent hierarchy, and reassuring copy choices.
Operational Shadowing Eliminates Bottlenecks
Designing backend platforms alongside active service coordinators ensures CRM tools reflect real-world workflows rather than assumed logic.
Rapid Delivery Sets Up Data Iteration
Launching a clean MVP in 4 weeks provided the immediate data baseline needed to run structured, high-impact A/B conversion experiments.
Tools & Capabilities
What powered the build
UX Architecture & Front-End
Brand & Operational Systems