What if there was a way to make sure your loved ones had all the information they needed to feel relieved that your end-of-life wishes were respected?

What if they were able to concentrate on grieving instead of all the paperwork?

Afterlife is an application that organizes and keeps all the information regarding death safe until it is needed. Unfortunately death is a part of life. What is even more unfortunate is the amount of people who don’t get to grieve properly.

Maybe there is…

The task of arranging their funeral from start to finish, along with the months, sometimes years, of settling the estate takes that from them.

Afterlife

The Problem

As a Mortician myself there were many hiccups families ran into when faced with the death of a loved one. Be it that the decedent was either unorganized or maybe even estranged, families had the daunting task of figuring out all the vital information needed by (me) the mortician. Sometimes the decedent would have to be held in the refrigerator until the funeral home had all the vital record information to apply for the death certificate in order to gain a permit/certificate from the state to commit (bury) or cremate the decedent. This was due to the vital information not being available to the bereaved. Seeing this is heartbreaking for anyone, no matter how close (or not) you are to the decedent .

Problem Statement

People need a way to gather important documents, vital record information, wishes, and have available to them checklists/to-do lists for all the things they have to prepare for or experience in the event of a death.

Understanding the User

I remember the day we had to meet with the funeral director to arrange my mothers funeral. Well, kind of…

I was in the grief trance, but I wasn’t grieving. I was too busy inside my head worried about what she would have wanted, if my father and I were making the right decisions, and what was gonna happen in this world without her. How we were gonna find everything necessary to finalize her estate. Not to mention the confusion of what we even needed to find to complete the task.

My Role

UX Research, UI design

Breaking Down The Process

Research

Objectives

-Discover needs that the bereaved wished they would have had during and after funeral arrangement process-final committal.

-Learn about needs the Mortician/Funeral Directors have during the arrangement process-final committal.

-Identify Pain Points people have when faced with death

-Understand if people have a need to organize vital information, documents and access to a checklist, in the event of a death

-Identify if there are any other applications of this nature

Global Questions
• What were the hardest parts about the process of finalizing a loved ones life?

• How did the bereaved access all the vital information of their deceased loved one?

• Did bereaved have frustrations or pain points while arranging the funeral (during and after)?

• What are the most common pain points a Mortician/Funeral director faces when assisting a family in the final arrangement of life?

• What would be most useful for Mortician/Funeral Directors to have access to in order to help the family more efficiently ?

Methodology

User interviews- to gather qualitative data to determine if the pain points of the bereaved and Mortician/Funeral Director align in any way, and gather important information regarding needs and wants of all.

Assumptions/Risks

As a Mortician myself I am very well versed in the documentation needed, and the entire process of finalizing life, from TOD to Committal. It is my assumption that the vital information input, document upload capabilities, and final checklist for financial affairs will be sufficient for the end to end mobile application MVP.

Insights & Take Aways

Common Pain Points

-Not having all the information they needed for the Vital Records (needed for Death Certificates)

-Not knowing how many Death Certificates they would need, or who needed them.

- Not knowing the deceased wishes

- Not knowing where to start with estate finalization

- Family feuds over wishes, money, estate items

Hardest Parts

-Not having enough time before during and after to get everything sorted with reference to the funeral and estate

-Questioning whether they were making the right decisions for their loved on

-Feeling like they had to “be a rock” in order to get all the tasks accomplished, and for everyone else. Leaving them unable to grieve properly.

-Feeling defeated when they got to the estate matters, not knowing how to start. They struggled with how to organize the process and time, what accounts they are even trying to close, understanding timelines on filing with the court, etc…

Take Aways

-People need a way to keep all vital record information and important documents in one place

-People need help preparing for their loved ones funerals and even their own

-People need lists of how to start and go through the process whether they are just making the arrangements or making arrangements and settling the estate

-People need resources they can find the answers to the questions they are needing answered without having to hire a lawyer

-People who don’t wanna talk about death with loved ones need a way to prepare for themselves

From the Research Participants Themselves…

“I don’t even know if I was really aware of what was even going on around me, my head was spinning and I was in the grief fog. I kinda just let other family members do what they wanted ”

— Donna

“My fathers estate wasn’t huge, but I struggled with were to start. He was very organized and being that I had some experience with the end of life process, I knew where to find everything I needed. It was the what do I do, and how do I do it, part that got me.”

— Barbara

“If it weren’t for my sister and I taking the lead on my Fathers funeral, nothing would have gotten done. I don’t know how my Mother would have gotten through it alone”

— Theresa

Meet Santiago

As a person who is now faced with the death of a loved one, I’m beside myself in these moments. I am trying to be a rock for everyone while feeling like I’m in a dream world. Am I make the right decisions? Why is everyone trying to pressure me to do what they want?

I feel so unsure about the present and foreseeable future. If I had a way to access my loved ones information I could feel secure in knowing I am not going to delay their burial.

If I had access to the documents the funeral home needs, I wouldn’t have to search for these things and it would save so much time.

If I had talked to them about their wishes or at least has some way to access the information I could show my family members and they wouldn’t continue trying to pressure me to do what they want.

I just need a way to get through this knowing all the information is correct, so I can breathe. I haven’t even buried my loved one at this point and I’m already worried about the estate settlement.

I just need help, I feel so lost, and out of touch…

Santiago’s Story

Proposed solution

A end to end mobile application that gathers information, stores it along with related documents.

Design Evolution

Features for MVP

Profile-Portfolio

Users will create an account -their profile- then be prompted to create their portfolio. This portfolio will live inside their profile. This is so the user can have multiple profiles with the respective portfolio neatly organized inside each profile. Each profile is neatly organized separately inside the main users account.
Information Input and Upload Capability

This feature gathers information in order to store and organize it in its respective place according to it’s need in the process. It generates to-do lists (for the family member handling their funeral and estate) and document upload tags to keep everything organized and easy to access. User is prompted to upload documentation with the tags already displayed. they just choose which one they are uploading and the document is then placed in it respective place.
Edit Capability

This feature allows the user to edit, all information and documents in order to keep everything up to date. When new items are added and old items are replaced the to-do lists and organizational tags for documents are updated to reflect the changes. This allows the application to grow and evolve with the user.

User Flow

Here I am putting those features to work, making sure there is a seamless transition between tasks.

The application itself is made to gather a lot of information, so I wanted it to be easy to get through and broken down into small steps.

Information Architecture

UI Kit

Lo-fi Wireframes

I wanted to see the application at first in a document like style, since that was what I was used to seeing in the funeral home. This was so I could analyze and visualize how I could simplify it and make it less daunting.

Mid- Fi Wireframes

Key Screens

Mid-Fi Key Screens Explained

With the mid-fi, I needed to start dialing it in to what the final look was going to be, test the functionality, and start thinking about how to take so much information and get it into sections or screens. In order to do this, I wanted to make it a step-by-step process without too much cognitive load.

I also wanted to see what I was missing and what I could omit. So, I only detailed the super-important context and kept some of it as placeholders. What is the reasoning behind this? If I keep them as placeholders, my testers will help fill in the blanks with suggestions.

I rely heavily on user suggestions when I build a product. I feel like this brings them into the project more. This is a very emotional thing for many people, and if I could give them the gift of being part of it, it would make them happy and feel like they are doing something for the greater good.

Hi Fi Mockups

Usability Testing

I did moderated testing with participants.

Portfolio setup flow: signing up to start their portfolio
Information input: Complete the vital information step.
Upload: Upload documents related to the information step.
Return to finish tasks: testing the second flow (return user)
Edit: Edit documents already uploaded.

Usability Testing Results

Portfolio (account) Setup- Users said this feature was super easy and straightforward.
They were able to return to the profile area and the portfolio with no issues.
Success!
Information Input -users found easy and understandable.
Document Upload- users found this super simple and completed with no hiccups,
Success!
Return To Finish Tasks -This is where it got a little confusing for the user. They couldn’t originally find where they would do that. They had an idea of where it should be and shared that with me which was super helpful for the iteration phase.
Recommended for Iteration!
Edit - Users were able to successfully navigate to where they would edit and upload new documents seamlessly.
Success!

Iteration

Original-
Return to Portfolio:
Sent them to their portfolio and resources.

New-
Return User Screen:
Gives the user the option to pick backup as soon as they return to the page.

Original-
Portfolio Screen:
Sent users to their profile and gave an option to create a new portfolio for family members.

New-
Portfolio Screen:
Gives the user another
option to pick back up as soon as they return to the page.

Lesson Learned

-My fellow morticians were less than helpful with this project. They just couldn’t see the gravity of what I was trying to learn.

-Not everyone wants to help others

-This is not an easy subject for many, it really took some guts and willingness to go back through such a hard time.

Next steps

-Keep pushing to create a start-up.

-Keep researching and finding ways to improve the concept.

-Incorporate the feedback I gather into the application.

If you’d like to know more about this project, I’d love to connect

In Loving Memory Of

Barbara Jean Elder

11/15/1950- 4/24/2004