Overview

Caily is a HIPAA-compliant care coordination platform for senior living — automated daily updates and secure messaging connecting communities, staff, and families. Live at caily.com.

The build had been stalled for ~2 years when I was brought in to recover it. I audited 1,000+ legacy screens, rebuilt the information architecture and the permission model, and defined component architecture as explicit design contracts with engineering. The platform shipped to production within one month of my joining.

The Ask

Recover a ~2-year stalled legacy build and get it into production — without a full rebuild, and without breaking HIPAA compliance.

Constraints

• ~2 years of stalled build; no single source of truth in design

• EHR-adjacent data: inconsistent, incomplete clinical records

• HIPAA privacy and permission requirements across roles

• Multiple audiences: staff, families, community admins

• Fixed release window already promised to communities

What I Did — UX Architecture

The defining reframe: Caily is not a messaging app with health features — it is a permission-first care system. Roles and privacy boundaries were formalised before any screens: who can see what, when, and why. Adaptive UI patterns absorb inconsistent clinical data instead of breaking on it. Component architecture was defined as explicit design contracts with engineering to minimise frontend implementation effort.

Interaction Design

Interaction design focused on making privacy legible. Every surface answers not only "what is happening with my loved one" but "who else can see this". Care updates, messages, and clinical data surfaces stay in sync with the permission model — so a family member, a nurse, and a community admin each see a coherent, role-appropriate picture of the same care circle. Inconsistent or missing clinical data degrades gracefully instead of producing broken states.

Key Screens

• Care circle dashboard: daily updates, activity, and status at a glance

• Role-based permission & privacy flows: invitations, visibility control

• Clinical data surfaces: adaptive cards tolerant of incomplete records

• Secure messaging with full communication history across shifts

Outcome

Shipped to production within one month of joining, after ~2 years of stalled build. Live at caily.com, serving senior-living communities and families. Component architecture adopted by engineering as the implementation contract.

What I'd Do Differently

Run the permission-model audit as a standalone first sprint, before touching any screens — it would have surfaced two edge cases earlier that cost rework in week three.