Designers
Tianjin Zhang, Yingshan Wu
Year
2026
Category
Concept
Country
United States
Design Studio / Department
846 Design
Three questions to the project team
What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
The immediate work is still ahead of us. We need deeper conversations with hospitals, community organizations, and volunteers to pressure-test whether the four-party loop holds in real conditions, not just designed ones. The business model needs to be validated with actual healthcare partners before scale becomes a meaningful conversation. In five years, I hope Elta has earned the trust of the communities it serves through that work, and not around it. Personally, I want to grow alongside the product, from the person who designed the system to the person who understands what it takes to make it reliable for the people who depend on it most.
What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
The low point came after onsite research. We uncovered so many unspoken needs and systemic gaps that prioritization became genuinely painful — because we knew that trying to solve everything would mean solving nothing. Every cut felt like a choice about whose problem mattered less. The aha moment was returning to the question that brought us there in the first place: what are the moments where the absence of help costs the most? That clarity led us back to two anchors — emergency response and emotional companionship — and from there, we could plan everything else as a long-term build on top of a focused foundation, rather than a compromise of a broader one.
Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
The immediate work is still ahead of us. We need deeper conversations with hospitals, community organizations, and volunteers to pressure-test whether the four-party loop holds in real conditions — not just designed ones. The business model needs to be validated with actual healthcare partners before scale becomes a meaningful conversation. In five years, I hope Elta has earned the trust of the communities it serves — through that work, and not around it. Personally, I want to grow alongside the product: from the person who designed the system to the person who understands what it takes to make it reliable for the people who depend on it most.
