The situation
A healthcare brand needed to better understand the Hispanic caregiver journey for a serious cancer diagnosis, specifically to inform the design of digital information resources meant to support caregivers through an extremely difficult period. Generic caregiver research existed, but nothing specific enough to the Hispanic experience to reliably guide content and design decisions.
How we approached it
The research followed twenty caregivers of stage four cancer patients through a month-long mobile diary study, capturing their experience in near real time rather than relying on recalled memory weeks or months later. Mid-point and final debriefings added structured qualitative depth on top of the daily diary entries, combining both quantitative and qualitative methods to trace the caregiver journey from diagnosis onward.
What we found
Findings surfaced that the word cancer itself carries deep stigma for many Hispanic caregivers and patients, and that specific myths and misconceptions, some involving diet and treatment beliefs with no scientific basis, are deeply rooted and difficult to shift through generic messaging. Cultural home remedies also emerged as a central and recurring theme in how caregivers sought to help their family members.
Content was redesigned specifically to address these myths, misconceptions, and home remedy beliefs directly rather than avoiding them, alongside practical diet guidance shaped by what the research actually surfaced.
The outcome
The client saw a measurable lift in site experience once the redesigned content addressing these specific cultural findings went live, confirming that a generic caregiver resource, however well produced, had been missing exactly the content caregivers most needed.
The diary study format itself turned out to be a large part of why the findings were so specific. A single interview after the fact would likely have produced tidier, more socially acceptable answers. Following caregivers through the actual month surfaced the beliefs and behaviors they were living with in real time, not the version they might have chosen to present looking back.
The content team also noted a secondary benefit once the new resources launched: caregivers who felt the material actually understood their situation were more likely to return to the site for later stages of the journey, rather than seeking that guidance elsewhere.