Why User Experience (UX) Matters in Home Care Software

According to Skills for Care, there’s a 31.1% turnover rate of care staff in the UK homecare sector and a shortage of available caregivers to meet this demand.

Home care agencies increasingly rely on telehealth to fill the gap.

Paper forms previously used to record common tasks, such as care planning, staff scheduling, monitoring patients, etc have all gone digital.

With this in mind, the best home care software puts exceptional user experience (or UX for short) at the forefront.

Here, we look at why user experience matters in home care software and the potential impact on your home care business and care clients.

Understanding UX in Home Care Software

UX design is about making the user experience the best it can possibly be. Users should enjoy a positive, seamless and efficient experience from your home care software.

Best practice for user design and how it translates specifically to domiciliary care software include:

Research & Testing: Look at your complete user journey carrying out in-depth quantitative and qualitative research before choosing software. Pilot testing carried out by real users is vital to ensure the design works for your agency and mirrors how your carers like to work.
Ease of use: The dashboard (or user interface) is the first place users land, so UX is critical here. If it’s overly complicated, your carers may lose interest in engaging with and learning how to use the system.
Accessibility: The software must allow for a variety of users with different requirements. From care staff to care clients with disabilities or impairments, or even family and friends who may not be familiar with technology. Colours and fonts used are important to consider. Some users could be colour blind or have visual impairments.
Mobile Access: Your care staff are out in the field working in people’s homes. Therefore, software needs to be responsive, load quickly and work across all devices: mobile, tablet, laptop, and even wearables.
Intuitive: Consistent, clear design and well thought out navigation saves time, builds trust and eliminates confusion and frustration for your users. Carers and patients should feel confident to complete tasks effectively and efficiently and be able to find important information when they need it.
Speed: Good, responsive design means the software will be faster and easier to use, addressing patient’s needs in real time.

The Impact of UX on Home Care Businesses

User experience in home care software can have a huge impact on your home care business and the quality of care given to your clients.

Some examples include:

Time Efficiency: Research has shown that using home care software to produce digital records can reduce admin for your care staff by 20 minutes a day. Therefore, good UX design could allow more time for actual care, helping your team to care better.
Training and Adaptability: Well-designed software can make training new staff quicker and easier. If the software is user-friendly and intuitive, staff are much more likely to feel comfortable using and engaging with it.
Stress Reduction: Carers may experience lower levels of stress if the software is easy to use and helps them to do their job better. It could also mean they are less fearful of the tech and may even find they enjoy using the software once they realise the benefits.

ProFad Care Agency started in 2016 and now operates 10-15 branches throughout the UK. Fay Howell, registered Care Manager at ProFad told us: “The system has made such a big difference to ProFad. Our carers find the system really easy to use and navigate, and training new staff is a quick and seamless process. When we have new staff on board, we’re able to train them quickly – and with the additional support included from the Tagtronics Care team, new carers can pick up the system within a day or two.”

The Ripple Effect of UX on Care Clients

Improved Accuracy and Responsiveness: Good UX can lead to fewer errors and faster responses to client needs. If your care team can easily find what they’re looking for and are confident using the system, mistakes are minimised and issues can be dealt with quickly and efficiently.
Enhanced Communication: Clear and straightforward software that is simple and easy to use can help your care staff to communicate better with their dedicated clients. This knock-on effect allows them to better understand the patient’s individual needs, build more meaningful relationships and improve their overall care.
Personalisation of Care: Well-designed software allows you to tailor care plans to individual patient’s needs. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) encourage person-centred home care software and it’s a key requirement to comply with their 5 fundamental standards.

Cosgrove Care moved all its systems over to our digital platform in 2021. Rory Jamieson, Assistant Team Leader says: “The Tagtronics system is tailor made for the care sector. It’s an intuitive…simple process, no matter where you are in the system. So far, the staff love it – the experienced carers have found it really helpful, and the newer staff found it extremely useful to have all the extra information they need in one place, that’s easy to refer to if they need it. The system takes a lot of pressure off our staff. It’s been such a time saver, and the confidence it’s given staff will be really beneficial for years to come.”

There you have it. UX design matters in home care software as it can have a major impact on your care clients and your home care business. Key elements to bear in mind are the software needs to be user-friendly, responsive, easy to learn, accessible, intuitive and person centred.

Is your home care software easy for your care teams to learn how to use?

As one of the leading home care software providers since 2000, Tagtronics has designed person-centred, dedicated homecare software with user experience firmly in mind.

For a demo of our all-in-one home care software solution, call 01254 819205 or email howcanwehelp@tagtronics.co.uk.