Caspar Health

Caspar Health is a leading German digital rehabilitation company offering innovative and personalized rehabilitation and aftercare solutions through a comprehensive digital platform.

The market for digital rehabilitation platforms is projected to expand significantly, reaching a valuation of $4.87 billion by 2024, driven by technological advancements and the increasing acceptance of virtual consultation services.

Caspar Health provides white-label applications for clinics aiming to ensure effective and sustainable patient rehabilitation. As the demand for digital health services grows, Caspar Health decided to update its mobile app tto enhance user engagement and improve therapy outcomes.

Year

2023

Country

Germany

Team

5 people

Commits

1533

Development

19 weeks

Challenge

The previous version of the Caspar Health app had an outdated UI design that didn’t meet the expectations of clinics and patients. It also lacked vital functions necessary for effective rehabilitation at home.

Thus, we faced three main challenges:

1. Navigating a pre-existing application with minimal documentation and limited support from the original development team.

2. Ensuring the new UI met international accessibility standards.

3. Integrating TalkJS Chat with the existing Sendbird system to comply with German policy on patient-doctor communication confidentiality.

Process

The project workflow went through all key stages — from Planning & Discovery to QA Testing & Release.

Caspar Health contacted us to develop a completely new UI design for their mobile app. We needed to integrate all existing features into the new app and introduce a crucial new functionality: rehabilitation progress tracking.

During the Discovery stage, our team conducted a comprehensive analysis of the existing app to understand its core functionalities and user interactions. We engaged in iterative planning and feedback sessions with Caspar Health to ensure the new features were perfectly aligned with user needs and business objectives.

To deliver the app, 5 members of the Stormotion team participated: 2 Developers, 1 QA Engineer, 1 UI/UX Designer, and a Project Manager. It took about 19 weeks to create a new frontend and add the requested features to the app.

Pre-Project - 2 Weeks

Scoping

Planing

Discovery

Agile Development - 16 Weeks

UX-Prototyping

Design

App Development

QA & Testing

Release - 1 Week

Release

Solution

To overcome the lack of technical documentation, we mapped out existing features to ensure their functionalities could be replicated and enhanced in the new interface. This involved a comprehensive analysis of the old codebase.

Considering the end users can be patients with disabilities, we designed the new UI to be accessible. Using React Native Paper, we overhauled the UI/UX to enhance usability and accessibility, employing tools like Pilestone’s Color Blindness Simulator and Coolors’ Color Contrast Checker to meet international accessibility standards.

Shifting from Sendbird to TalkJS for chat functionalities to meet specific security requirements was critical. We ensured compatibility and functionality between the old and new systems through detailed testing and collaboration with backend teams. Enabling TalkJS for certain clinics while retaining Sendbird for others was a challenge managed by Caspar developers on the backend and our team on the frontend.

We also added a rehabilitation progress tracking feature, allowing users to see their exercise plans, watch videos, and track steps taken for today and one week.

Success for Caspar Health from a:

Despite limited technical support and documentation, we gathered the necessary information from Caspar Health employees and the old app version, ensuring a smooth integration of new and existing features.

Working with an established codebase may seem straightforward, but ensuring seamless functionality requires great attention to detail. We had to mirror certain features precisely as they were in the old application, often necessitating deep dives into the existing code to understand its intricacies.

This redesign significantly enhanced user satisfaction and engagement, empowering patients to take control of their rehabilitation process. We introduced a clean layout with intuitive navigation, ensuring patients could easily engage with therapy content. High-contrast color schemes, scalable text, and larger touch areas were implemented to meet accessibility standards.

Expanding the device test pool and engaging in international testing efforts resulted in a robust app that offers a consistent experience across a wide range of devices, reducing user complaints related to performance issues.

For instance, to address video playback issues on various devices, we expanded the testing pool to 15 of the most popular gadgets and collaborated closely with Caspar's QA team, ensuring consistent performance across different hardware.

Implementing automated CI/CD pipelines facilitated smoother and faster development cycles, reducing time-to-market and improving release quality. This allowed the team to focus more on innovation rather than maintenance.

The updated app significantly increased user engagement, with over 500,000 active patient accounts and an impressive 4.7 rating on Google Play. We've celebrated over 10 successful releases and continue to iterate and improve the app’s functionality.