DoseWell

Inspiration

The idea came from watching an older parent at home trying to balance multiple daily prescriptions while family members checked in from another city. When someone takes several pills a day, the real question is rarely about scheduling; it is about certainty.

Did she take the afternoon dose, or did she just intend to? For the person at home, calls asking "Did you take it?" quickly start to feel like nagging. For the family member far away, not calling feels like neglect.

We built Dosewell to bridge this gap: giving older adults an effortless, non-intimidating way to track their day while giving loved ones quiet confidence from afar.

What it does

Dosewell presents a unified daily medicine routine designed for two perspectives: an older user (Meena) and a distant family caregiver (Ravi).

• For the older adult (Today View): Eliminates confusing menus and displays only what matters right now—the next dose, scheduled time, instructions (e.g., "With lunch"), and a massive "I took it" button. A dynamic half-circle arc tracks the full day visually from morning to night.
• For the caregiver (Family View): Caregivers view the exact same day in real time. They see whether a dose was completed, skipped, or still pending, along with a 7-day adherence overview and a one-tap option to send a gentle reminder directly to the parent's screen.
• Inclusive & Accessible: Features a switchable Large text mode, Atkinson Hyperlegible typography, non-color-exclusive status indicators, and an instant Undo toast so accidental taps never cause distress.

How we built it

We built Dosewell as an ultra-fast, zero-dependency single-file web app engineered around semantic accessible patterns and web standards.

• Accessible Front-End: Semantic HTML5 structured around two synchronized persona views with built-in accessibility focus management.
• Dynamic Arc Timeline: A visual arc that intuitively tracks day progression across morning, afternoon, and night doses.
• Inclusive Typography: Styled using Atkinson Hyperlegible (engineered by the Braille Institute for low-vision readers) alongside Noto Sans Tamil.
• Instant Local Sync: Reactive client-side storage delivering zero-latency updates and instantaneous Undo capabilities for accidental taps.

Challenges we ran into

• Designing for aging vision without clinical harshness: Large targets and high contrast often end up looking like sterile hospital monitors. We used warm marigold tones for pending doses to keep the interface friendly, gentle, and non-intimidating.
• Non-color dependent status: Color blindness and aging eyes make standard red-yellow-green indicators ineffective. We ensured every single state pairs clear words and distinct shapes:
  • Taken: Solid green badge, checkmark icon, and confirmation time.
  • Next: Warm amber badge with a gentle pulsing ring.
  • Skipped: Muted neutral border and dash symbol.
• Zero-Friction Reversibility: Accidental taps are common among older phone users. Designing a simple persistent undo loop that restores exact prior states without cluttering the screen took careful iteration.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• The Single-Tap Flow: Distilling complex medication schedules into one massive, easy-to-hit tap target with instant visual confirmation.
• Zero-Cognitive-Load Day Arc: An older adult can see "2 of 3 taken" at a single glance without reading small tables or parsing calendar grids.
• Two Views, One Truth: Enabling immediate state parity where a tap on Meena's phone immediately reassures Ravi hundreds of miles away.
• Empathetic Microcopy: Tapping "Not now" gracefully registers the dose as skipped without judgment, red warning sirens, or guilt-inducing alerts.

What we learned

For older adults, subtraction is more powerful than addition. Traditional health apps fail because they force older adults into calendar and schedule managers. By hiding future complexities and reducing the interaction down to one dose, one time, and one massive button, adherence becomes completely natural.

What's next for Dosewell

• Remote Cloud Sync: Simple pairing links to connect caregiver phones across different devices.
• WhatsApp & SMS Channels: Delivering gentle reminders through familiar chat apps rather than requiring app installations.
• Tamil Voice Guidance: Voice prompts in everyday spoken Tamil (e.g., "Meena, time for your afternoon tablet").
• Blister Pack Scanner: Adding medications simply by photographing the pill strip or prescription label.

Built With

• claude
• css
• html
• javascript