Jointly is a care app that we developed for Carers UK. Carers UK is a non-profit organisation who campaign to find better ways to help carers. They also give expert advice, information and support to caregivers.
Jointly is a care app that we developed for Carers UK. Carers UK is a non-profit organisation who campaign to find better ways to help carers. They also give expert advice, information and support to caregivers.
Jointly is an app for carers who collaborate with others in providing care for a loved one. Caregiving is a little simpler, less stressful, and much more organised when done jointly. It is especially helpful for those who balance employment and caregiving.
Carers UK asked Milo to be their Tech for Good technology partner. We helped them explore ideas of what a new kind of care app for carers might look like. Jointly started life as a digital innovation project kick-started by the digital product design team at Carers UK. The team were looking at new ways to support carers through:
Carers UK approached us with a wealth of research and data which helped us really grasp the problem. In a nutshell:
Care management was the number one issue identified in research from Carers UK. However, the real opportunity that we identified was that a care app for carers should improve communication. In particular, communication between family members, medical experts, and other stakeholders in the care system.
Our user experience design team followed a Design Thinking approach. We developed a series of lean UX prototypes that could be tested with small groups of users. The lean UX process focused on designing the core user experience of the care app. Our UX team worked closely with Carers' digital product development team in order to accomplish this. The main goal was to concentrate on getting feedback from stakeholders and users as soon as possible. By gathering input, the UX team was able to choose which features to add in our carers app. Now we could design a feature roadmap for next software releases.
Our UX team worked closely with the digital product design team at Carers UK. Together, we developed and experimented with numerous care app concepts. The prototypes underwent testing with professional and occasional carers. Our first prototypes were printed on paper and put through user testing with the aid of a facilitator. After that, using a drag-and-drop interface builder, we jointly developed an interactive web prototype. As a result, the Carers UK team was able to contribute to the prototype's design. Users and stakeholders participated in the testing of this interactive prototype. The findings of this research helped prioritise features for the Jointly Beta care app.
Before it was released to the app stores, the Jointly Beta care app underwent several iterations. With a soft launch, we could keep testing the app among early adopters. Early adopters were highly motivated to provide feedback and had even started searching for an app for carers. We incorporated their suggestions into fresh product design and app development sprints. As a result, the Jointly care app has continued to get better and new versions have been consistently released.
With the Jointly app users can create a circle of care for the person you are looking after. Once all carers are inside the circle, they can use Jointly to organise care.
Jointly combines group messaging and to-do lists with other useful features, including medication lists, calendar and more. Jointly makes communication and coordination between those who share the care as easy as a text message. The Jointly app for carers has received the following comments:
Looking after someone can be so complicated. Jointly helps me stay on top of things and share information easily with everyone involved in my son’s care.
I think it’s a great idea –a great way of sharing information with the people I choose. This app helps me to keep everyone in the loop. Thank you!
I'm a junior doctor who has just started using your excellent app for the care of my grandfather, and it's been a really useful tool.
Many forward-thinking businesses and service providers offer Jointly for free to carers in their workforce or community. There are two main advantages:
We were delighted to offer the Jointly app to our colleagues. Jointly is an innovative service that supports carers to manage care for a loved one, which is very helpful for carers who balance their caring responsibilities with work.
Sainsburys
We feel Jointly is an innovative product we can offer carers in order to support them in their caring role. It is especially useful for those who are juggling work with care and those carers who are sharing the care with other family members, friends or neighbours.
Surrey county council
Jointly is a cross-platform application. It can be accessed on the Web and downloaded from iOS and Android app stores. Because Jointly was developed as a cross-platform app, our app developers were able to:
Jointly was initially developed using Cordova for iOS and Android smartphones. Cordova enables the wrapping up of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript code depending upon the platform of the device. It extends the features of HTML and JavaScript to work with the device. Later we took the decision to redevelop Jointly as a React Native application. Use of React Native had the following benefits:
A multidisciplinary team was required by Carers UK. The group collaborated on cross-platform app development as well as user experience design, initially using Cordova and then React Native.
