During the research phase, our team conducted nine stakeholder interviews, one hospital observation, and three in-home assessment observations to understand the daily workflows, tools, and pain points of case managers and assessors within the FTH and ESP. Using journey mapping, affinity diagramming, and card sorting, we identified critical inefficiencies such as fragmented workflows, redundant documentation, inconsistent communication, and limited integration between systems. These insights validated the initial project aim and refined the focus toward automation, standardization, and improved resource utilization, setting the stage for designing scalable, high-impact workflow solutions.

During the co-creation phase, our team collaborated closely with COA stakeholders to translate research insights into actionable solutions aimed at optimizing case management workflows. We developed an “Ideal State Action Map” to identify pain points and proposed short-, medium-, and long-term solutions across enrollment, assessment, documentation, handoffs, and follow-ups. Using tools such as ideation workshops, automation prototyping, and interface mockups, we explored opportunities in tool simplification, business intelligence reporting, and CareDirector enhancements. The team also defined task management and alert mechanisms to proactively surface upcoming actions and deadlines for case managers, ensuring that critical follow‑up and handoff tasks are never overlooked.

During the refinement phase, our team conducted 26 interviews and co-creation sessions with case managers, supervisors, and the CareDirector team to validate and adapt initial solutions based on stakeholder feedback. We refined two core proposals: implementing workflow automations and redesigning the CareDirector interface. Automations addressed issues of manual data entry and scheduling inefficiencies, while the redesigned dashboard introduced task prioritization, alerts, and guided workflows to streamline navigation and reduce cognitive load. Our team also fine‑tuned task triggers and alert behaviors based on user feedback, ensuring that high‑priority tasks and client follow‑ups are surfaced at the optimal times. These improvements aim to reduce administrative burden, enhance accuracy, and increase case management efficiency in both the short and long term.

At the beginning of this phase, the team focused on polishing the two new scenarios that were created during the spring semester; What is Caregiver Burnout and Having a Conversation about End-of-Life Wishes. Once the new scenarios were refined and packaged, the team tested the experience with VR Developers and non-caregivers to receive feedback on the VR implementation as well as the educational content. This was to ensure that the entire virtual training experience was refined to the point that it was ready for testing with the greater Cincinnati caregiver community. 

During this phase, the Live Well team tested with caregivers and refined the experience based on interview feedback. The insights led to improved testing procedures and the development of tutorial material on usage of the Oculus headset and motion controllers. The team also polished the five scenarios by fixing bugs, integrating COA branding into the user interface of the experience, and adding elements to make the experience more immersive.

During this phase, the Live Well team worked with COA to dive deeper into the end-to-end experience of the VR game. This included developing take-home materials for participants, integrating hand tracking into the experience, building a public website for testers, and exploring third party options for game testing and deployment.

In the research phase of the COA PASSPORT project, our team conducted both primary and secondary research to gain a comprehensive understanding of the existing PASSPORT enrollment process. Primary research included interviews with key stakeholders, such as clients, service providers, and COA staff, which provided first-hand insights into the pain points and inefficiencies in the process. We also conducted shadowing sessions to observe the actual workflow and interactions within the PASSPORT program.

Secondary research involved benchmarking similar programs and studying best practices in Medicaid and other eligibility-based services. This helped us identify potential areas for process improvement. The research phase also revealed the need to adjust the project’s focus slightly to address issues of communication and data management, which emerged as significant barriers to efficiency.

In the refinement phase, our team focused on narrowing down and enhancing the initial concepts based on feedback from the ideation phase. We refined the PASSPORT process map and personas to better reflect the real-world challenges faced by stakeholders. The toolkit components, such as the communication template and MES training materials, were further developed to ensure they addressed the key pain points identified during research.

Final deliverables included a comprehensive toolkit categorized into short-term, medium-term, and long-term solutions. These deliverables were chosen based on their potential to streamline the PASSPORT process efficiently while laying the groundwork for future enhancements. The team ensured that all final outputs were practical, actionable, and could be implemented in phases, allowing COA to gradually improve the PASSPORT program.

Write here about next steps for the project, or include any important documents the sponsors wanted or needed at the wrap-up of the studio. Is this being carried over to the next semester?

This project is continuing in the Fall 2024 semester, where we will focus on expanding and validating the tools and processes developed this semester. Specifically, we will create onboarding documents to ensure a smooth transition and continuity into the next semester. Our goals include:

1. Developing and Validating the toolkit with key stakeholders, including COA employees.

2. Developing a comprehensive training materials for COA employees on the proposed interventions.

3. Internally test the tool proposals within COA.

4. Continuing the refinement of tools and processes to ensure they meet the needs of all stakeholders and contribute to the simplification and efficiency of the PASSPORT program.

These steps will help ensure the project's sustainability and effectiveness as it moves into the next phase.

At the beginning of this phase, the team focused on polishing the two new scenarios that were created during the spring semester; What is Caregiver Burnout and Having a Conversation about End-of-Life Wishes. Once the new scenarios were refined and packaged, the team tested the experience with VR Developers and non-caregivers to receive feedback on the VR implementation as well as the educational content. This was to ensure that the entire virtual training experience was refined to the point that it was ready for testing with the greater Cincinnati caregiver community. 

During this phase, the Live Well team tested with caregivers and refined the experience based on interview feedback. The insights led to improved testing procedures and the development of tutorial material on usage of the Oculus headset and motion controllers. The team also polished the five scenarios by fixing bugs, integrating COA branding into the user interface of the experience, and adding elements to make the experience more immersive.

During this phase, the Live Well team worked with COA to dive deeper into the end-to-end experience of the VR game. This included developing take-home materials for participants, integrating hand tracking into the experience, building a public website for testers, and exploring third party options for game testing and deployment.

Livewell continued the work of the previous semester working on redesigning the Elderly Services Program. The team created the current COA billing process journey map and refined the journey map to include the new financial journey and donation strategy into the process. Created a new financial evaluation process including new forms for income, expenses, and asset verification. Asset evaluation was introduced to the process, and different types of verification forms were evaluated to find those that matched the needs of ESP. Personas were developed to represent each tier. 500 new clients were added to the dashboard and used to refine the calculations. Contribution strategies were researched and developed to be further explored in the ideation phase.

The team continued to refine the financial disclosure process into the ideation phase, introducing three main paths the client might take: income evaluation, income and asset evaluation, and income evaluation with the expenses deduction process. The calculator began development, which will act as a tool for the care coordinators to calculate a clients tier and estimated bill on the spot. Twelve contribution strategies were researched and introduced to the team, which were narrowed down to a few primary methods during the ideation report-out activity. Training materials also began development and were continued into the refinement phase.

For the final phase, the team focused on refining materials and setting up the training and testing strategy for next semester. Within the contribution strategy section of this project, defined directions were picked out to test with meal providers in Warren and Hamilton counties next semester. The dashboard and calculator underwent further refinement, where many uncertainties within the calculations were defined and simplified. The tiering system also underwent minimal changes such as tier 4 paying 100% of the fixed rate versus a flat rate. Finally, training materials to educate about the new process were created. These materials consisted of the financial disclosure training handbook and presentation, ESP overview handbook, digital tool manuals, and materials for leadership.

At the beginning of this phase, the team focused on polishing the two new scenarios that were created during the spring semester; What is Caregiver Burnout and Having a Conversation about End-of-Life Wishes. Once the new scenarios were refined and packaged, the team tested the experience with VR Developers and non-caregivers to receive feedback on the VR implementation as well as the educational content. This was to ensure that the entire virtual training experience was refined to the point that it was ready for testing with the greater Cincinnati caregiver community. 

During this phase, the Live Well team tested with caregivers and refined the experience based on interview feedback. The insights led to improved testing procedures and the development of tutorial material on usage of the Oculus headset and motion controllers. The team also polished the five scenarios by fixing bugs, integrating COA branding into the user interface of the experience, and adding elements to make the experience more immersive.

During this phase, the Live Well team worked with COA to dive deeper into the end-to-end experience of the VR game. This included developing take-home materials for participants, integrating hand tracking into the experience, building a public website for testers, and exploring third party options for game testing and deployment.

For the research phase, we began by understanding the research done by the previous team, and completed aspirational benchmarking. We then created a rough prototype by rapid iteration, using the “crazy 8’s” ideation methodology to first sketch ideas for each core page. The prototype was then used to complete our first round of user testing where many valuable insights were provided. To develop the user testing guide used, we gathered an understanding of each page and developed task flows and questions from our analysis of each prototype page's design. Information architecture was refined to make the website easier to navigate but still remain familiar for users who are used to the flow of the current website. Inclusive design principles were also heavily researched and applied, determining many factors of our design moving forward in efforts to create an accessible website before being presented to COA’s team.

In the ideation phase, we completed two rounds of user testing. In the first round, we tested our prototype at COA with 12 individuals, and identified four key principles that users found valuable: clarity, proactivity, consistency, and hierarchy. We applied these goals to what we wanted to get from the next testing session. We broke down each page with How Might We questions. The purpose of this was to frame a current problem in the form of a question that could lead us to an actionable solution and focus in on our users needs and problems so that we could create solutions specifically for them. We then did our second round of testing, where we learned key insights, such as avoiding jargon and terms that do not make sense to the user. The principle of diversity was identified from testing and added to our previous list of principles, which were applied as we continued to develop our prototype.

In our final phase, we focused on preparing for the final handoff. Over the course of the semester, 28 users were tested with, with six individuals testing our final refined prototype to prove our design as successful. Responsive design was applied to ensure the web and mobile prototypes are adjustable for any screen width. For the final handoff, there are four key assets that are included: final prototypes (web and mobile), design library, handoff guide, and the success measurement guide. Each of these assets were cleaned up and finalized before being delivered to COA. These materials ensure that the future developer can carry out the intended design with success.

At the beginning of this phase, the team focused on polishing the two new scenarios that were created during the spring semester; What is Caregiver Burnout and Having a Conversation about End-of-Life Wishes. Once the new scenarios were refined and packaged, the team tested the experience with VR Developers and non-caregivers to receive feedback on the VR implementation as well as the educational content. This was to ensure that the entire virtual training experience was refined to the point that it was ready for testing with the greater Cincinnati caregiver community. 

During this phase, the Live Well team tested with caregivers and refined the experience based on interview feedback. The insights led to improved testing procedures and the development of tutorial material on usage of the Oculus headset and motion controllers. The team also polished the five scenarios by fixing bugs, integrating COA branding into the user interface of the experience, and adding elements to make the experience more immersive.

During this phase, the Live Well team worked with COA to dive deeper into the end-to-end experience of the VR game. This included developing take-home materials for participants, integrating hand tracking into the experience, building a public website for testers, and exploring third party options for game testing and deployment.

During the ideation phase of the project, we focused on using insights from the journey map and pain point diagram, affinity mapping exercise, personas, and SWOT analysis to inform ideation sessions. First, we conducted a brainwriting activity using the topic areas generated during the research phase. The concepts from brainwriting informed our final topic areas: packaging, food variety, partnerships, older adult wellness + education, and database + systems. We held two more ideation sessions before refining and plotting concepts along a near, mid, and far graph. From here, our team did a series of refinement and iteration sessions before organizing the concepts by topic area and conducting further research on them (based on COA’s level of interest). We concluded this phase with an exploration into a packaging example and creating the initial framework for the database.

During the refinement phase, the team collected feedback on the concepts from ten older adults and the COA team. This input was used to add more detail and refine the existing ideas. The concepts expanded upon during this phase were local partnerships (with chefs, restaurants, farms, and grocery stores), Energy Meal Packs, food truck services, provider/partner/older adult summit, meal companion, delivery strategy, Meals & More program, packaging, and overall systems. Each concept was outlined in the implementation strategy document. The team also created several system maps and diagrams explaining the new system and all services included under the Meals & More name. Three additional documents were created outlining the Meals & More Program, proposed summit, and research links for future reference. Discussions with COA lead to the idea to host a summit that would bring together local voices and experts to ideate with the COA team and COA providers. This summit will then inform further partnerships and the expansion of this semester’s concepts.

The COA team has scheduled a summit meeting to gather providers and new local partners for discussions about the future of home delivered and congregate meals. The meal companion program work will be integrated into current social isolation efforts. Ideas, partnerships, insights, and implementation plans will be carried on by the assigned COA team member to bring the ideas to life.

During this phase, the Live Well team tested with caregivers and refined the experience based on interview feedback. The insights led to improved testing procedures and the development of tutorial material on usage of the Oculus headset and motion controllers. The team also polished the five scenarios by fixing bugs, integrating COA branding into the user interface of the experience, and adding elements to make the experience more immersive.

During this phase, the Live Well team worked with COA to dive deeper into the end-to-end experience of the VR game. This included developing take-home materials for participants, integrating hand tracking into the experience, building a public website for testers, and exploring third party options for game testing and deployment.

During the ideation phase, the Live Well team focused on testing and refining the experience. Outside of testing, the group began to ideate and create supporting materials for COA to help implement the new service into their system. These materials included: educational takeaway materials for individuals or group settings, instructions on using the VR technology, brand guidelines for the new service, and a three-year business plan to help launch and sustain the new service.

During the refinement phase of the project, the team wrapped up testing to focus on polishing the experience for the final hand-off at the end of the semester. Before testing was complete, the team joined COA at a Senior Wellness Expo to test with seniors and local service providers. This experience provided context for how the service could function as a COA program and who in the community would be interested in using the training experience. Based on the feedback from COA, the team was also able to finish the educational takeaway materials, brand guidelines, and business plan.

This was the fifth and final semester for this project. The VR experience has been handed off to COA and will become their newest service offered to their clients, called EVRTalk.

At the beginning of this phase, the team focused on polishing the two new scenarios that were created during the spring semester; What is Caregiver Burnout and Having a Conversation about End-of-Life Wishes. Once the new scenarios were refined and packaged, the team tested the experience with VR Developers and non-caregivers to receive feedback on the VR implementation as well as the educational content. This was to ensure that the entire virtual training experience was refined to the point that it was ready for testing with the greater Cincinnati caregiver community. 

During this phase, the Live Well team tested with caregivers and refined the experience based on interview feedback. The insights led to improved testing procedures and the development of tutorial material on usage of the Oculus headset and motion controllers. The team also polished the five scenarios by fixing bugs, integrating COA branding into the user interface of the experience, and adding elements to make the experience more immersive.

During this phase, the Live Well team worked with COA to dive deeper into the end-to-end experience of the VR game. This included developing take-home materials for participants, integrating hand tracking into the experience, building a public website for testers, and exploring third party options for game testing and deployment.

During the Ideation phase, the team focused on finalizing the details of the scenarios they would tackle next, and then started development in Unreal. This entailed writing and revising scripts for Voice Actors, discussing blocking and scripting in the VR game, and evaluating Voice Actors that would appear in the game. In order to build the experiences in Unreal the team finalized character models and animations, implemented new interfaces more in tune with the new experiences, and scripted all of the events and interactions that are a part of the scenarios.

The Live Well team finished working prototypes of the next two caregiver scenarios and implemented some of the feedback heard during the ongoing testing that occurred throughout the semester. As of the end of 2020 there are working implementations of Incontinence and Hallucination education experiences that are next up for testing, and the first round of testing has occurred for the Medication Management scenario with some low hanging fruit revisions already made.

Moving forward the team will research, write and develop more scenarios and training exercises that address other key topics (some early possibilities are scenarios like optimizing home safety and managing client expectations around caregiver responsibilities). They will also will continue testing the new scenarios, and if possible, test with Caregivers themselves.

In the Research phase, the Live Well team evaluated the current system of entering the HHA field and decided to redefine the aim of the project. The team zoomed out to focus on infrastructure surrounding entry into becoming a HHA through COA. By looking through the scope of the pre-existing CDC platform by COA, the team could identify how to best align with COA’s goal, to expand the HHA workforce. Research entailed benchmarking parallel career paths and potential partners as well as stakeholder interviews. From the research, the team was able to understand COA’s background history, what worked and didn't work, and identify potential training tools. Building a user roadmap also helped break down the journey and tools necessary to becoming a HHA. Finally, the team determined the objective to be broken down in two parts: Entry + Retention. In conversation with COA, the team identified where COA’s best practices could be aligned with potential interventions moving forward. The Live Well team ultimately decided to focus on Entry.

Based on discussions with COA, the Live Well team recognized an opportunity in building off the current CDC model. The refined goal became to establish HHA entry, attracting and training a new CDC workforce. Deliverables were broken down by each step in the application process. The team continued interviewing some key stakeholders to validate decisions implemented across the proposed system. Currently, Live Well has already created an ongoing system for client + aide interaction through the OPAL mobile app. To preface this system, the team created the OPAL web platform. The OPAL web platform focuses on entry, the onboarding process for a potential HHA. Entry is broken down by a series of steps identified by examining the current onboarding process. The majority of the ideation phase focused on benchmarking what current tools look like in the caregiving market in order to create the best entry platform to attract and train new CDC workforce. Potential deliverables in the ideation phase include recommendations for each step of the onboarding process; create an account, eligibility assessment, skills screening, baseline training, payment methods, and creating a HHA profile. The final deliverables to establish entry framework were broken down by two options: attraction and training. During the Ideation report out, clients decided focusing on building components of the attraction option. The attraction option included next steps to focus on creating the applicant web portal (to make onboarding intuitive and efficient), integrating digital systems (to create less paperwork), and creating a more HHA friendly OPAL profile for the mobile app.

Since this studio does not continue next semester, the team handed off the wireframes to COA’s partnering developer, Gaslight. They are packaged in Adobe XD for best practices.

Since the Final Presentation, the team has also included a wireframe to extend what the web portal could look like post-onboarding to keep all documentation in one accessible place.

Building off work done in the semester prior, the Live Well team divided the research phase into three separate parts. The team focused on primary research in the form of stakeholder interviews, secondary research in the form of literature review, and traditional benchmarking. The goal of each of these research strategies was to gain a more targeted understanding of user needs, successful existing products, and usability standards that would define future ideation. The team then collected and categorized all insights for communication to the COA team during the research report-out.

After analyzing insights gathered from the research phase, Live Well began the ideation phase. The team worked to develop initial concepts for each portal in the system, starting with the Senior portal and branching out to the other stakeholders. The team defined a rough aesthetic that would be used across the system and explored numerous layout possibilities with both physical and digital prototyping. During the ideation report-out, the team shared these rough concepts with the COA team and facilitated a discussion around the strengths and weaknesses of the concept as well as what additional features could be added in the near and long term. The team also began to identify partners for the future development of the system.