Amber Care Plans
Role | UX Lead
Client | The Helix Centre
Outcome | An end-to-end design of Amber Care Plans - a responsive web app which enables people to capture their end-of-life wishes.
Methods | Contextual Inquiry | End to End Product development | Persona Development | Prototyping | UI Elements Design | Usability Testing | User Flows | User Interviews | Wireframing | Workshop facilitation
Amber Care Plans is a digital tool that allows individuals to express their care preferences during illness or at the end of life. The plan captures people's likes, dislikes, wishes, and treatments they want to refuse, as well as any rituals they want to follow. The planning process helps people and their caregivers consider different scenarios, and the plans are used by medical staff if individuals become too ill to communicate.
As the population ages and medical knowledge advances, it is increasingly important to give people more choices and control over their care.
Approximately 500,000 people die each year in the UK, with half of those deaths occurring in hospitals. However, only 8% of people actually want to die in a hospital.
As part of the research and design process, volunteers from Marie Curie tested the designs and prototypes, while Parkinson's support groups and dementia memory clinics provided invaluable input. We also visited retirement communities and consulted with GPs and palliative care consultants.
Research has shown that Advance Care Plans can be effective in giving patients control during serious illness and death and that those with a plan are more likely to die in their preferred place of care.
Amber Care Plans UI Kit