Responsibility without enough support.
Caregiver interviews surfaced gaps in information, feelings of isolation, and difficulty navigating the condition.
Sahay
Caregiving · Interaction design
Designing for the caregiver
Care for the oneswho care.
Empowering caregivers and enhancing support during phases of schizophrenia.
An illustrated guidebook. Words that support. A tangible way to notice change.
Designed byPawan Kumar Mishra
ContextMaster’s thesis · IIT Hyderabad
ApproachResearch · Physical + digital prototyping
OutcomeThree-part caregiver toolkit
01 / The project at a glance
A toolkit for the everyday work of care.
Families take on a demanding role in everyday care. SAHAY explores how design can give them more understanding, a more supportive way to communicate, and a simpler way to notice change.
Three moments. One connected toolkit.
An illustrated guidebook, vocabulary cards with audio, and a tangible observation tracker address different moments in caregiving.
From research to something tangible.
Research synthesis, journey mapping, concept development, visual communication, physical computing, and expert prototype reviews.
Follow the story, or open the original research boards in each chapter.
The context behind the project.Original research & development1 board
The original background panel records the statistics and sources used during the study; the figures retain their original dates.
02 / Research · Personal motivation
It began with my brother.
The study began with my elder brother, who lives with schizophrenia, and my attempt to understand what he was experiencing.
That personal encounter opened a wider question about stigma. As the research progressed, my attention moved closer to home: to the family members trying to provide care.
Personal motivation described in the original project documentation.
A personal question became a design inquiry.Original research & development4 boards
Films, photography and stories of illness opened the research. The first brief focused on stigma; the fieldwork would bring it closer to everyday caregiving.
02 / Research · Listening
Listening to caregivers and clinicians.
Secondary research, expert interviews, caregiver conversations, and contextual inquiry brought different perspectives into the same picture.
6Experts in the scoping study
4Professional perspectives
Start broad. Then get close.
The scoping study included clinical psychiatry, counselling psychology, psychology, and neuroscience. Caregiver interviews then brought the focus to information, daily responsibility, and family life.
The research made the caregiver visible as a person with support needs of their own.
Listen across the whole care relationship.Original research & development6 boards
The process brought together desk research, professional perspectives and family experience. The original interviews, synthesis and user profiles are collected here.
Research instrumentRead the caregiver questionnaire
01 / The design pivot
See the caregiver.
Support the person.
The research shifted the brief from public awareness to the everyday needs of family caregivers.
02 / Research · The design brief
Three needs shaped the design.
Information was hard to access.
Caregivers described difficulty understanding the condition and finding useful information.
Design responseMake learning approachable through a narrative guidebook.
Care could feel isolating.
Fear, guilt, stigma, and helplessness appeared in the interview synthesis.
Design responseGive communication and empathy a place alongside practical tasks.
Support felt disconnected.
The research identified a gap between the family’s day-to-day experience and the wider support system.
Design responseMake observations easier to record and bring into conversations with professionals.
The question evolved
How might we reduce stigma around psychological disorders?
How might we support informal caregivers in India with the understanding and tools they need through different phases of schizophrenia?
The caregiver became the centre of the brief.Original research & development5 boards
The direction was narrowed against feasibility, access and testing. A stakeholder workshop then connected the caregiver’s daily role to specific intervention opportunities.
Where support falls between the gaps.Original research & development2 boards
The original framing posters examine episodic care, patient-facing tools, caregiver support and crisis response. Their broad clinical claims are project framing, not validated findings from this prototype.
03 / The toolkit
Understand. Communicate. Observe.
The journey map became a way to locate the intervention. Each part of SAHAY responds to a different caregiver need, with professional guidance connecting the system.
01 / UNDERSTANDEMBRACE guidebook
An illustrated guidebook introduces knowledge through a narrative.
Explore the guidebook
02 / COMMUNICATEVocabulary cards + audio
Vocabulary cards make conversational guidance tangible and revisit-able.
Explore the cards
03 / OBSERVETangible observation tracker
A physical tracker turns observations into a record for discussion.
Explore the trackerThese are design opportunities along a care journey, not a fixed clinical sequence.
Locate the need before choosing the object.Original research & development4 boards
The illustrated journey was translated into phases, opportunities and design criteria. Together they explain why the project became a toolkit.
01 UNDERSTAND / THE GUIDEBOOK
Understand the condition with EMBRACE.
EMBRACE turns information into a narrative that a caregiver can return to, at their own pace.
The handbook brings together explanations, myths and facts, illustrations, and questions. Its purpose is to make the first encounter with unfamiliar information less overwhelming.
Why a book?
A physical reference can be revisited and shared during conversations at home.
Why a narrative?
It offers a reading path through a subject that can otherwise feel fragmented.
From opportunity to choice
A reference that stays with the family.
The project compared a digital portal, a physical book and educational workshops. It selected a narrative guidebook, developing the content through secondary research and consultation at ASHA Hospital.
From early-stage learning to EMBRACE.Original research & development5 boards
The complete concept sequence preserves the alternatives, content process, narrative structure and final sample spreads.
The complete handbookRead EMBRACE
02 COMMUNICATE / VOCABULARY CARDS
Find more supportive words.
The cards explore how a caregiver might pause, consider their words, and respond with greater empathy.
Paired examples contrast conversational approaches. NFC-enabled audio explores how tone can accompany the written phrase.
A tangible cue
The prompt can be picked up, discussed, and revisited without navigating a long resource.
Words + tone
Audio extends the prototype beyond written language to how a phrase is delivered.
Prototype examples illustrate the design concept. Individual communication needs require guidance from the care team.
From opportunity to choice
The phrase and the way it is spoken.
IVR and a separate audio device were considered alongside vocabulary cards. The selected direction paired printed prompts with audio, using the phone to explore tone without adding another dedicated device.
A conversation made tangible.Original research & development6 boards
The full development trail follows the acute-phase opportunity, concept selection, interaction scenario, printed prototypes and audio-access experiments.
03 OBSERVE / A TANGIBLE TRACKER
Turn observations into a useful record.
A physical interface explores a simpler way for families to record everyday changes and discuss them with a professional.
The prototype combines labelled inputs, a microcontroller, and Adafruit data collection and visualisation. The intent is to support continuity between home observations and clinical conversations.
Notice a change/Record it/Review together
A research prototype. Its alert logic is not a clinically validated relapse prediction or diagnostic system.
From opportunity to choice
Less recording effort. A more useful record.
Journaling and visual pattern tracking were compared with a tangible device. The prototype explored labelled inputs for negative and cognitive symptoms, with a microcontroller passing records to Adafruit for visualisation and warning logic.
The observation-to-review loop.Original research & development8 boards
These boards preserve the category selection, product form, use scenario and connected prototype. Warning intervals shown in the sketches are illustrative prototype logic, not clinical thresholds.
Using the prototypeRead the tracker instructions
02 / From insight to interaction
Less effort to record.
More room to care.
The paper-tracking exercise exposed the effort of logging and interpreting observations. Making the tracker tangible became the next design step.
04 / Development · Making and testing
Test the recording, then the device.
Paper tracking revealed the effort of recording, counting, and interpreting observations. Those difficulties guided the move towards a tangible interface.
LEARNING 01
Recording is only half the task.
Families found the dots difficult to scan and the counting time-consuming. The record needed to be easier to interpret.
LEARNING 02
Care is a shared activity.
The exercise raised a practical question: how could more than one family member contribute to the same record?
DESIGN EXPLORATION
Test the mechanism, then the form.
Mechanical trials, input sketches, electronic components, and enclosure prototypes made the interaction tangible enough to discuss.
Make, test, notice the friction, repeat.Original research & development6 boards
The seven-day recording exercise informed data-storage sketches, mechanical experiments, warning feedback, tap-to-register inputs and the working enclosure.
04 / Development · Visual language
A visual language built around care.
Embracing hands, illustration and conversational content give the physical toolkit a shared, approachable identity.
The guidebook and cards share a visual vocabulary. Colour helps distinguish content, while words and illustrations carry the meaning.
Palette drawn from the existing toolkit artwork.
Illustration as an entry point.
Hands and gestures connect the materials to care, communication, and support.
A clear reading path.
Short sections and a recurring page structure help organise unfamiliar information.
More than one way to engage.
Physical objects, written prompts, pictures, and audio explore complementary ways to access support.
03 / Learning from the prototype
Make it tangible.
Then listen again.
Two expert-review rounds helped clarify the use case, language, physical form and access to audio.
05 / Expert review
Expert feedback shaped the next iteration.
Two documented expert-review rounds at ASHA Hospital explored the tracker and cards. The feedback identified both promise and practical changes to pursue.
Make the use case more precise.
- Clarify when the tracker is appropriate in the care journey.
- Explore more nuanced symptom categories.
- Use everyday language in caregiver-facing cards.
Make the system more accessible.
- Explore self-tracking as a possible use case.
- Consider a sturdier physical enclosure.
- Investigate QR access as an alternative to NFC.
Status: two formative expert reviews. Clinical effectiveness and long-term use have not been established.
Expert-review recordingOpen the original audio resource
06 / Reflection and next steps
Caregivers need support of their own.
What the project contributes
SAHAY translates caregiver research into a connected set of physical and digital prototypes. Its strongest contribution is the link between a need, a moment in the journey, and an interaction that can be tested.
Design recognition
The project received a registered design from the Patent Office, Government of India, in 2026.
What I would test next
A longer home-use study with caregivers; clearer shared logging; accessible alternatives to NFC; and clinician-led evaluation of what observations are useful and how they should be interpreted.
What I would carry forward
Make learning approachable. Respect the caregiver’s time. Keep the person receiving care at the centre. Let the technology support the relationship.
The longer-term ambition
From one family’s experience to a wider support system.
The original impact poster sets out ambitions for fewer crises, less disruption to family life and a path towards continuous support. It proposes a clinical pilot, regulatory assessment and a manufacturable low-cost version.
These are intended future outcomes. The work presented here establishes a design and prototype direction, not measured health or economic impact.