Overview
An intro to ClearSignal—how caregiver-first check-ins, sudden-change alerts, and a hospital card come together for Parkinson’s care coordination.
ClearSignal
From Reddit social listening to a mobile-first care coordination prototype for Parkinson’s families—daily check-ins, sudden-change alerts, hospital card, and a 7-day timeline.
Prototype Walkthroughs
Core flows captured from the interactive prototype: onboarding, daily check-in, one-tap sudden-change alert, and hospital card handoff.
Problem
Families living with Parkinson’s often struggle to tell infection-driven sudden decline from disease progression—and to hand critical context to ER teams under stress. Existing tracking tools focus on tremors and meds; acute crisis workflows are under-served.
“No sudden changes with Parkinson’s. The most common is infection (UTI) or Stroke. This is one time to get him to an Emergency room.” — r/Parkinsons
Social Listening
I started with qualitative social listening on Reddit—an AI-assisted summary of community discourse plus hand-selected posts from people living with Parkinson’s and their caregivers. This is community-sourced insight, not clinical research.
r/Parkinsons
Patient perspective: sudden decline, loneliness, exercise, voice changes.
r/ParkinsonsCaregivers
Burnout, end-stage decisions, rapid decline, swallowing safety.
Related threads
Hospital guides, medication side effects, young-onset PD, app usage.
“Everyone with Parkinson’s should get the FREE Hospital Safety Guide from the Parkinson’s Foundation.” — r/Parkinsons
“Parkinson’s changes the voice before almost anything else. Quieter, monotone, slurred.” — r/Parkinsons
Themes Identified
Six problem themes emerged repeatedly—each mapping to a distinct pain and product direction.
Sudden decline & infections
UTIs and infections mimic progression; families often act too late.
Hospital & ER safety
Med errors, levodopa holds, and missing neurologist context in crises.
Exercise & isolation
Exercise helps but PD is lonely; hard to sustain without structure.
Voice & swallow (early)
Voice changes precede mobility issues; SLP referral often comes late.
Caregiver burnout
Constant monitoring and crisis decisions without a shared log.
Tracking gap
Tremor/mood tools exist; acute infection and sudden-change workflows do not.
Concept Selection
From the six themes, I generated three concepts and evaluated them for solo-designer feasibility and gap versus existing tools.
SteadyPath
Exercise & social hub—boxing, gait work, buddy matching, on-period scheduling.
ClearSignal (selected)
Infection & sudden-change alert system—check-in, caregiver alerts, hospital card, timeline.
VoiceFirst PD
Early speech & swallow coach—drills, checklists, SLP referral prompts.
ClearSignal won as a design-heavy, engineering-light MVP addressing one of the most actionable themes: sudden changes often caused by infection, not progression.
- Daily 60-second check-in — confusion, hallucinations, falls, urine/fever changes
- One-tap sudden-change alert — notify caregiver with symptom log
- Hospital / ER card — meds, neurologist, “do not hold levodopa” notes
- 7-day timeline — screenshot or PDF for doctor visits
Platform choice: mobile-first web—ships faster than native, works via link without App Store friction, and supports PDF export for the hospital card.
Design Iteration
Design evolved in Figma and synced to an interactive HTML/React prototype after each major pass— from code-first exploration through visual system, iconography, interaction polish, and accessibility.
User Research Findings
Five moderated usability/concept sessions with caregivers of people with Parkinson’s clarified who the product is really for and where trust and clarity break down.
- Caregiver/care-staff is the primary user — patients are often not smartphone-capable.
- “Notify care team” is ambiguous — who, when, vs. wait vs. call 911, expected response.
- Multi-person care circle — shared visibility and alert routing to a decision-maker.
- Trust blockers — privacy/HIPAA messaging and clinical credibility drive adoption.
- Check-in data quality — forced yes/no on unobserved symptoms creates bad data; need “Not observed.”
- Hospital card gaps — scroll discoverability, explicit diagnosis, contacts, recent incidents.
Near-term priorities from research: caregiver-first positioning, care-team clarity, “Not observed” on check-ins, hospital card quick wins, and severity-coded triage to reduce alert fatigue.
Final Prototype
Explore the interactive prototype: faybebe.github.io/ClearSignal
Not a medical device. For logging and care coordination only—does not diagnose, treat, or replace clinical judgment.