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American Cancer Society
My Hope Lodge
UX Design & Strategy
A concierge app designed to assist cancer treatment patients during their stay at a Hope Lodge facility
Quick facts
Background
in lodging costs saved per year
$55M
The ask
My Role
Freelance UX Designer
Duration
4 months
(Nov 2023 - Mar 2024)
Team Members
Product Owner
Product Manager
Creative Director
Art Director
Copywriter
QA Engineer
Toolbox
Sketch
InVision
Zeplin
Client
HLK Agency
Deliverables
UX Research
User Journey Map
Wireframes
Mockups
Style Guide
'American Cancer Society Hope Lodge is a home away from home for people facing cancer and their caregivers when cancer treatment is far away. With 30+ Hope Lodge communities across the country, they provide a free place to stay during treatment so people with cancer can focus on getting better. These communities provide comfortable guest suites with private baths, as well as inviting spaces with all the comforts of home, including a communal kitchen, dining area, laundry rooms, and places to gather or find a quiet respite – all at no cost to guests.' (via Cancer.org)
nights of free lodging per year
500K
nights of free lodging to cancer patients since 1970
6M
cancer patients and caregivers served
per year
29K
Our product team has been tasked with developing an app that can quickly and easily assist Hope Lodge guests and their caregivers during their stay. This concierge tool would offer valuable information and resources to guests in one convenient location, helping them to make the most of their cancer treatment and overall experience.
American Cancer Society Gene and Jerry Jones Family Hope Lodge in Dallas, TX
Assessing the data
American Cancer Society (ACS) expressed their desire to compile several existing disparate sources while introducing new content with this app. We had to focus on what guests wanted to know, needed to know, and information they didn’t know they needed to know.
At the time, ACS distributed information to Hope Lodge guests via a variety of methods like the cancer.org website for cancer-related resources, TV monitors throughout the lodges for day-to-day activities, paper handouts and signs posted throughout the facilities.
App Feature Requirements
Existing Info
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Cancer info and articles
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Healthy Living
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Healthcare & Insurance Portal
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Connect with NCIC
New Features
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Local Directory
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Lodge Events Calendar
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Your Hope Lodge Info
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Community Recognition
Visiting the Lodge
To better understand what we would be building and who we would be building for, our team split up and conducted site visits at 3 unique locations - New York City, Honolulu, and St. Louis. I participated in the St. Louis Hope Lodge walkthrough where the Assistant Manager guided 3 of us on a tour of the facility, answered questions, and provided insight into recent guest and staff feedback.
Understanding goals, key takeaways & pain points
We gathered all the individual site visit feedback and synthesized the data. I highlighted the commonalities as well as pain points to understand what features needed to be prioritized in the app.
Goals
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Create a home-away-from-home tool for guests to be comfortable and maximize their treatment experience.
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Make all relevant and valuable info easily accessible for guests.
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Establish a strong sense of community with other guests.
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Mobile-first designs with secondary tablet designs.
Key Takeaways
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The average age of our target user skews a bit older (50+).
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Lengths may be one night to several months, depending on the treatment.
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A high percentage of guests donate after their stay (via $$, merch, or wishlists).
Current Pain Points
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Pre-arrival mindset: very nervous about the unknown, uncertain of the quality of accommodations, and not sure what to bring.
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Top guests' questions are regarding food and transportation.
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The staff struggles to communicate all guest announcements promptly.
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Lodge activities are displayed via TV monitors in the kitchen and are not always seen or discovered by guests.
Brainstorming & Inspo
After understanding the basics of the app, I began brainstorming and researching similar apps to get a feel for the layout and information architecture. I also broadened my inspiration scope to adjacent apps that provided similar services but weren't necessarily in the same industry. Two of the apps that I pulled inspiration from were the My Disney Experience and Marriott Bonvoy.
My Disney Experience App
Marriott Bonvoy App
Laying out the app structure
To create an effective layout and information architecture, I started by defining the user flow and identifying the key actions and information that users needed at each step. From there, I began loosely building out the screens. I considered factors such as visual hierarchy, navigation, and accessibility. Afterward, I reviewed my initial layouts with the product team to ensure it was in alignment with the client requirements.
Wireframing
After building a solid foundation for the app and making adjustments to incorporate team feedback, I drafted the first set of wireframes. I presented my wires to the team which were then passed to the client for feedback. During this stage, I brought in concepts from the existing design system and began to focus on high-level copy, CTA logic, content, and flow.
Feedback & Iterations
During this stage, we had 3 rounds of presentations and feedback where I presented my designs and gathered feedback from our product team, the client team, and current Hope Lodge guests.
Key Feedback
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Remove full site search capability and implement Resource search instead
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Full map functionality would require lots of backend code which would jeopardize our timeline; rethink the display of Near Me
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Incorporate more American Cancer Society branding into app (guests oftentimes forget our affiliation with ACS)
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Remove Insurance and NCIC connections (already exists on ACS site)
Mockups
Following the last iteration, I increased the fidelity - adding in colors, more content, and subsequent pages. Additionally, I designed the tablet designs.
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Design system updates
American Cancer Society already had an established design system from their existing sites; however, I had to create a new style guide for the app.
Launching the app & learning from the pilot
My Hope Lodge app officially launched in the iOS App and Google Play Store in March 2024 as a pilot for 3 locations - New York City, NY, Lexington, KY, and Baltimore, MD. The plan is for the pilot program to run for 6 months and collect feedback during this time. Afterward, we plan to reconnect with ACS to iterate on all the user feedback collected and launch V2 to the remaining locations nationwide.