Designing for the Caregiver in the Middle
Exploring emotional design through caregiving personas
Some of the most stressful moments in caregiving do not happen in hospitals. They happen in carpool lines, grocery store parking lots, late-night text threads, and rushed phone calls that begin with, “Wait… no one told me that changed.”
While researching the realities of caregiving for our student-led User-Centered Design project at Northwestern University, one theme appeared repeatedly: caregivers have become the system.
Our project focused on expanding MyChart, a secure online patient portal that supports more than 185 million users throughout their healthcare journeys. Our team explored how existing digital health systems could better support caregivers navigating complex care coordination responsibilities. Rather than designing an entirely new platform from scratch, we wanted to build upon a system that caregivers and patients are already actively using in their daily lives.
Through our research, we identified a major gap in the current experience. While MyChart works well for individual patients managing their own care, caregiving often extends far beyond one person handling their own health information. Caregivers are coordinating across multiple family members, providers, schedules, and communication channels, yet the systems supporting them remain fragmented. When communication breaks down, caregivers are left piecing everything together manually. They track medications in Notes apps, search old text messages for appointment details, and rely on memory to fill in gaps that healthcare systems were never designed to support.
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That insight became the foundation for creating Mark Ramirez.
Mark is a divorced father of three trying to stay actively involved in his children’s healthcare despite shared custody and fragmented communication with his ex-wife. He is not irresponsible or disengaged. In fact, he cares deeply. The problem is that the systems around him were not designed for someone navigating care across two households. Every appointment, medication update, and doctor instruction feels scattered across calendars, text threads, and partial information. I wanted Mark to represent a type of caregiver that often exists in the gray area of healthcare systems: someone who is expected to help coordinate care without being fully included in it.
While building Mark’s persona, I was heavily influenced by Aarron Walter’s article “Personality in Design,” where he argues that products should communicate personality traits that create emotional connection and trust with users (Walter, 2007). Walter explains that users emotionally respond to products similarly to how they respond to people. That idea shifted how I approached the persona creation process itself.
Instead of treating Mark like a static demographic profile, I focused on the emotional environment surrounding his experience. Walter (2007) discusses several ways products can express personality, including voice, visual identity, and brand traits. I intentionally incorporated these principles into both Mark’s persona and the envisioned personality of the expansion of MyChart.
First, I focused on voice. Caregiving already creates enormous cognitive load, especially for someone like Mark who is balancing work, parenting, and inconsistent communication. Because of this, the voice needed to feel calm, reassuring, and digestible rather than overly clinical. I imagined a system that explains information clearly without overwhelming users with medical jargon. This aligned directly with Mark’s need for “simple, digestible summaries” and clearer communication tools.
Second, I considered the product’s brand traits. Walter (2007) describes how products can embody human-like characteristics, so I defined MyChart as dependable, supportive, organized, and emotionally reassuring. Those traits directly respond to the pain points uncovered in our research, particularly the feeling that caregivers are constantly “playing catch up” with fragmented information. The goal was not simply to make another feature for MyChart, but to design a product that feels like a stabilizing presence during stressful moments.
Finally, I used visual personality cues to reinforce this emotional tone. The soft teal palette, rounded shapes, approachable illustrations, and warm photography throughout Mark’s persona were intentional design decisions. Healthcare platforms are often visually sterile and transactional, but caregiving itself is deeply emotional and personal. I wanted the visual identity to reflect empathy and human connection instead of feeling cold or intimidating.
Creating Mark reminded me that personas are not just brainstorming tools for UX teams. They are storytelling methods that help designers understand how users feel. By applying Walter’s framework, I was able to think beyond usability and toward emotional design: designing a product that helps caregivers feel informed, supported, and less alone while managing incredibly complex responsibilities.
References
Walter, A. (2007, May 15). Personality in design. A List Apart. https://alistapart.com/article/personality-in-design/
