Lively + CareSync AI

My Role

Responsible for research, conceptualization, and design

Timeline

Dec ’25 | 8 weeks

Team

Sole UX researcher & designer

Tools

Figma, Figjam, Procreate, Craft, Google Forms

THE PROBLEM

Most patients forget over 60% of their symptoms by the time they see their doctor.

Not because they don't care.

Symptoms shift. New pains replace old ones. Worries blur together.

And when the appointment finally happens — the mind goes blank.

This is emotional overload — what Lisa Feldman Barrett describes as the cognitive labor of constructing emotion from raw sensation, especially when the body refuses to speak in straight lines.

INSIGHTS

What patients carry long before they reach the doctor

Uncertain sensations

that shift location or intensity before they can be fully understood.

Interrupted narratives

as flare-ups come and go, leaving gaps impossible to articulate later.

Weeks of waiting

where anxiety builds faster than answers.

Fragments of language

that never feel "medical enough" to express what the body is doing.

Traditional symptom trackers ignore this emotional reality. Healthcare systems don't have space for it. And yet — this is the experience of illness.

EXPLORATION

A few directions I explored

1

All your medical records in one place

2

A unified space to stay connected with every provider

3

Simple tools to track your health and prepare for appointments

THE SOLUTION

Two layers working together

Lively

The structural layer

Your records
Your labs
Your messages with providers
Your insurance documents
Your appointment prep

Calm, organized, legible — your entire medical world in one place.

CareSync AI

The emotional-thinking layer

Describe sensations in your own words
Unpack worries
Journal flare-ups
Understand patterns
Prepare questions for providers

Not a diagnosis tool — a space to build clarity over time.

BACKGROUND

How this came to life

I built this system because I have lived through the emotional friction it aims to resolve.

When navigating tailbone pain symptoms, I spent weeks trying to interpret sensations that never stayed consistent. I searched for language, for reassurance, for patterns. And more than once, I opened an AI chat — not for diagnosis, but for clarity.

That emotional gap — between living through a sensation and being able to explain it — is where CareSync AI was born.

FRAMEWORK

How emotional design shaped the system

Sara Ahmed

Pain as an orientation that reshapes attention and rearranges one's relationship to the world. Symptoms reorder a person's emotional landscape.

Kat Holmes

The concept of mismatch: medical systems expect linearity while patient experience is fluid, contradictory, and subjective.

Don Norman

Three levels of emotional design: Visceral (calm visuals), Behavioral (simple flows), Reflective (meaningful summaries).

Ahmed shaped the emotion, Holmes the structure, and Norman the feel — together forming the backbone of CareSync.

RESEARCH

Cognitive Walkthrough

I ran a cognitive walkthrough with someone diagnosed with PCOS, stepping through each lo-fi screen together. Their reactions revealed key emotional gaps.

Hesitation at entry

Feels like a formal system rather than a supportive space.

Cognitive load

Too many choices before understanding the purpose.

Affective lag

User wants to recall past sensations quickly but UI doesn't foreground them yet.

Vulnerability

Sharing uncertain sensations needs reassurance and clarity of purpose.

Trust fragility

Any ambiguity around what AI does or doesn't do risks emotional withdrawal.

DESIGN

Implementation

Navigation

Intuitive interactions that calm cognitive load. Each icon feels immediately recognizable.

Home Dashboard

Surface the most important information right away. Essential details visible so users don't have to search when feeling unwell.

CareSync AI Journal

Flexible ways to track symptoms — return to existing journals or start new ones based on what feels relevant.

CareSync AI Chat

Grounding prompts help users ease into describing what they feel. Flexible inputs, automatic organization.

Results & Documentation

Users control how they manage tests — reschedule, check pending results, or review past reports.

Booking & Messaging

Booking and messaging in one place. Switch physicians, find specialists, view alternative availability.

PROTOTYPE

Interactive Demo

Test navigation, journaling flows, AI summaries, and appointment tools.

TAKEAWAYS

Key Insights

01

Clarity before structure

Users struggled because information felt scattered, not missing. Surfacing essentials lowered cognitive load.

02

Non-linear paths

Flexible pathways respect the natural variability of real health experiences.

03

Small friction matters

"Is this private?" "Where do I start?" These moments shaped calmer visuals and softer prompts.

04

Transparency builds trust

Clear disclaimers and visible toggles helped the system feel honest and safe.

05

Summaries as meaning-making

Scattered sensations transformed into something organized creates emotional grounding.

06

Reduce thinking, not add to it

Immediate recognizability makes the system usable even on difficult symptom days.

One ecosystem reduces emotional labor more than any single feature. Users need an integrated flow: symptoms → summaries → documents → appointments → providers.