A marketplace that connects the clients with their caregivers.

1. Predictive
Design for
— The ultimate marketplace
that connects the clients with
their caregivers.
Opa App
By Ruilin Zhang | 8.22.2019

2. 1.2 million Americans ages 65 and older need some kind of assisted living in
2017, but there is only 5 percent of the elderly population occupy nursing homes.
95% of the aging group that lives in regular homes need assisted living from
caregiving visitors.
The aging group that needs assisted living
An estimated 48.9 million people or 19.4% of the non-institutionalized civilians have
disabilities. An estimated 24.1 million people have severe disabilities. An
estimated 34.2 million people, or 17.5%, have functional limitations.
5% living in
nursing homes
19.4% have
disabilities
10% have severe
disabilities
17.5% have
functional limitations
The percentage of disabilities among the non-institutionalized US civilians
95% living in
regular residence
What the statistics show in Caregiving Service Industry
3

3. While there are many mobile apps found available for iOS and Android download
to provide childcare and petcare services, None is found in the App Store that is
primarily designed for connecting the seniors and the special-needs
demographics with their potential caregivers.
N/A
apps for childcare and pet care
we can find in the App Store
Approximately 11 percent of the working adult population
in the U.S. are working primarily as full-time independent
contractors in the gig economy.
Two in five seniors owns a smartphone. Around a third
of seniors report using different social media apps.
One in every two, or 72% of the adults with
disabilities in the US owns smartphones, 67% of
them are engaged with different social media
apps.
While the target user groups actively engaged with mobile
app and technology, they are NOT utilizing the same kind of
interaction to meet their needs for the caregiving
service.
X
The Current Data Model

4. Currently, all senior or special-needs caregiving facilities still are operated on physical offices. The business model relies on the customers to call the local offices
to ask for an on-site visiting to receive the services they need. In this study, I’m using Visiting Angels Senior Center as an example. Visiting Angels is one of
the largest senior service facilities in North America ( they also have offices in the UK ). Their business model is to franchise local physical offices to cover as
many of their service territories as possible. By doing so, they help to set up their independent contracted offices and provide all necessary training to get the local
offices up running.
This service model represents not only the mainstream in the senior caregiving industry but also the only model currently stands.
1.13 million elderlies that live in the regular residences, 24.1
million people with severe disabilities, and 34.2 million
people who have functional limitations are the
demographics that very likely need assisted-living. The only
way for them to request the assistance is to call the local
offices where they reside.
39.8 million active working caregivers. They rely on
various traditional job resources (online job boards, the
local newspaper, etc.) to get hired as contractors by the
local offices to visit their end customers.
Customers call the local
offices to request service
caregivers provide their service
through local offices that they
contracted under
The Headquarter spends vast resources
in setting up local offices as well as
providing training on their operations.
The Current Business Model

5. Customers go on the web or download the
app to sign up using their email addresses or
phone numbers, or simply register with their
social media account like Facebook.
caregivers sign up to the
marketplace
Replace the franchise model with a centralized marketplace by developing a mobile/web application to connect the caregivers and their
customers. The SasS model eliminates the cost and resources for managing local offices, and provides a comprehensive automated system
to connect their end users (clients and providers) through an intuitive and comprehensive service application.
By switching to a SasS model, the
headquarter saves tremendous cost
and resources from the physical
setups as well as their maintenance.
The Current Business Model

6. Meet Opa: The ultimate application that
connects the end users and their caregivers
The data
collection
Client’s location,
Client’s gender, age
Client’s physical conditions
Client’s home address
Client’s phone# or email address
Client’s social media account/public info
Provider’s location
Provider’s gender, age
Provider’s education background
Provider’s legal status
Provider’s active status
Provider’s email address and phone#
Provider’s social media account/public info
Opa is a service app that connects the users from both ends. It is
developed with features that provide a precise match between the
client and the provider. It is also time-efficient when sending out
information. The application is essentially designed by relying on
personal data from the users to allow the engineering to develop the
algorithm and identify useful patterns to set up the connection
between the clients and their caregivers.
Here is the overview of the development process of the app:
• Applying geolocation API in the application to identify the users' locations from the client-end and the provider-end for a
fast and accurate match.
• Using the collected data, such as age, gender, and physical needs the application can be built with functionality to match
various types of requests with the relevant services.
• The application is programmed to collect user's personal information such as phone#, email address and social media
account, then to use SMS notification API to send out time-sensitive notifications by identifying the active status of the
users (the provider-end).
Ultimately, the application will match the client’s request bases on these key factors:
• Location
• service type
• active status (the provider-end)
The New Data Model For The Predictive Design
7

7. The Predictive Design of the Opa App
User sign up using
facebook or email/
phone#
Integrate Google geolocation API
to provide nearby caregivers
information based on Zip code
Users review and
select their desired
caregivers
Users request their desired services by
answering the pre-formulated
questions to help the app to build a
better match
The system generates the best
result based on the information
provided by the users
Client Portal I

8. The Predictive Design of the Opa App
User provides home address
User provides the date and
time where and when they
wish to have the service
Payment process
A security code will be sent to user’s unique
cellphone# using SMS verification API to
confirm the requested service
Client Portal II:
Payment and Verification Process

9. The Predictive Design of the Opa App
User sign up as a caregiver User to allow location access
from the app to be connected
with potential clients
User’s personal information
needs to be collected for
matching with their potential
clients as well as a standard
background check
User upload required legal document
as part of the background check
process. All user files will be safely
saved in the application's database
system
User completes the registration
Caregiver Portal I

10. The Predictive Design of the Opa App Caregiver portal II
matching process and job
notification
User receives the notification
from the app about the job
from the app
User is directed to the
notification details by tap on
the alert in step 1.
User can choose to decline
or confirm the job.
In order to build a seamless matching process
when connecting the clients and the providers,
the app will only reach out to the active users
from the service-end. Declining jobs frequently
will idle/deactivate user status.
When user declines the job, the ask-to-
confirm message acts like an Error Prevention
in Norman-Nielsen’s 10 heuristics to warn the
users about their active status.
The notifications
page where user
review job alerts.
Fold
A preliminary
design of the
Caregiver’s
User Account
page
If the user chooses
to take the job a
confirmation
message will be
sent to the user to
let the user know
the address and
time for the visit.

11. Product Prospect
The demonstrated user flow presents a preliminary
medium-fidelity design of a single path of
requesting and receiving a service. The two
distinguishing platforms show the functions of the
Opa app serves as the marketplace for a better user
connection. UX, engineering and user testings are
required to proceed with its MVP development.
Marketing Prospect
Option one:
independently run as a SasS business model
Userbase of the caregivers can be built through the
various job board, social media, etc., which is a
similar process of hiring CNA and caregiver
contractors in the current caregiving service industry.
Userbase of the clients can be developed by
partnering with senior living communities, the cities
senior service centers across Southern California.
Option Two:
Sell the use of the license of the product to the
caregiving businesses, and white label the product
to allow customization in branding.
12

12. Resources:
https://www.pewinternet.org/2017/05/17/technology-use-among-seniors/
http://www.serviceandinclusion.org/index.php?page=basic
http://scholarworks.csun.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/190202/JTPD-2017-p50-66.pdf?sequence=1
https://nation1099.com/gig-economy-data-freelancer-study/
https://www.pewinternet.org/2017/05/17/technology-use-among-seniors/
https://www.pewinternet.org/2017/05/17/technology-use-among-seniors/
http://www.serviceandinclusion.org/index.php?page=basic
https://www.caregiver.org/caregiver-statistics-demographics
https://www.visitingangels.com
Clickable prototype video demonstration
https://vimeo.com/356115503
13