Case Study · 2026 · Care Economy / Digital Identity
Turning everyday care work into trusted digital identity, verified work history, and economic opportunity.
Team · Mercury Seekers
“I led a team of six designers, united by one mission.”
I led the team as Product Design Lead through the 60-day Vouch hackathon project. I owned the overall product-design direction, coordinated research and synthesis, facilitated ideation and design decisions, aligned the team around the core problem, and guided the evolution from research insights to the final web + IoT wearable experience.
01 · Executive Summary
Millions of care and domestic workers build valuable experience through everyday work, yet much of it remains informal, undocumented, and difficult to transfer into future opportunities.
During a 60-day DFC hackathon, I led a six-person product design team to explore how technology could make this work visible, trusted, and portable—without forcing workers through complicated documentation.
We designed a web + IoT ecosystem connecting identity, work history, employer endorsements, skills, and safety signals into a portable digital profile.
“Don’t ask workers to prove everything. Create a system where their work gradually becomes proof.”
02 · Project Snapshot
Problem framing
UX strategy
Research synthesis
User journeys
Information architecture
Product flows
Concept development
UI direction
Design-system decisions
Prototype development
Team coordination
Design storytelling
03 · The Context
Years of practical experience can disappear at the moment a worker changes employers.
Years of work can create
What travels to the next job?
?
No portable professional proof.
04 · The Problem
How might we
make caregivers’ efforts visible and transferable into economic opportunity without forcing them into complex proof or documentation?
No lengthy forms
No certificate burden
No complex systems
No extensive records
No repeated proof
05 · Why This Matters
Secondary Research Estimate
$11T in invisible value
A missing infrastructure for turning care work into recognized opportunity.
4.75M
Domestic workers in India, with the majority being women
0.3%
Registered under a formal employment scheme
10–12%
Estimated contribution to India’s GDP through unpaid and underpaid work
73%
Report having no written employment contract
<5%
Have access to any form of employment insurance
₹3,000–₹12,000
Average monthly wage range, with no increment mechanisms
06 · Target Users
Primary
Ages 20–40, working in urban apartments and housing societies, with varying levels of digital confidence.
“Let my work speak for me.”
Secondary
07 · The Existing Experience
08 · User Journey
09 · Research
Before designing Vouch, we investigated how informal workers find work, build trust, prove experience, manage payments, and move toward better opportunities.
“We studied both sides of the ecosystem — the people performing the work and the people hiring, managing, or depending on it.”
Research at a glance
24
Research participants
16
Worker-side participants
8
Employer / recipient-side participants
12
Work types identified
Work-type categories are overlapping observations across the participant dataset and should not be interpreted as mutually exclusive participant groups.
Research considered both sides of the informal-work ecosystem.
Research questions
Worker
Trust
Employer
Participant ecosystem
Research surfaced a broader invisible-work ecosystem spanning household work, caregiving, maintenance, security and multi-skilled services.
Informal work
Connecting both sides
Work-type research
Domestic household work
9
Cleaning, cooking, household support
Building / maintenance
3
Watchmen, apartment cleaners
Caregiving
2
Elder care, childcare
Multi-skilled labour
2
Cleaning, painting, plumbing, electrical
Other informal labour
3
Loading, tutoring, retail, construction security
Documented work-type clusters · overlapping categories
Categories overlap. These are documented category counts, not a mutually exclusive demographic breakdown of the 16 workers, so percentages are not calculated from them.
Research stories
These are reported participant examples. No average income is calculated, and they do not represent the whole market.
Experience ≠ economic mobility
Research suggests long experience existed, but it did not reliably create a portable signal of skill, credibility or economic progression.
15 years experience
Meena
₹3,300/month
Fewer years of experience
Different participants
Substantially different income levels
Participant examples revealed no consistent link between years worked and pay.
Payment visibility
90%
Payments were reported as cash-based with no receipt, payslip or digital record.
Workers therefore had limited durable evidence of their income history.
Today
Opportunity
Finding from the documented primary research dataset; not generalised to the entire Indian domestic-worker population.
Digital accessibility
Some workers had education only up to approximately primary-school level and relied on recognising icons rather than reading large amounts of text when using apps.
Minimal text
Voice input
Regional language support
Picture-based verification
Few interactions
Design implication derived from research observations. No literacy percentage is claimed, because the research does not provide a validated population-level figure.
Pain-point map
Design implication
Make contribution visible and attributable.
Design implication
Create portable professional identity.
Design implication
Make safety and workload visible without creating a surveillance-heavy experience.
Design implication
Give workers clearer records and stronger evidence of contribution.
Design implication
Turn work history into a durable economic signal.
Recurring
Recurring across multiple participant profiles
Significant
Documented as significant where observed
Qualitative frequency labels are used because the research does not provide validated participant percentages.
Work-type pain-point matrix
| Work type | Common reality | Key pain |
|---|---|---|
| House cleaning | 7–12 hour days / multiple houses | Extra work without extra pay |
| Cooking | Long periods standing | Physical strain |
| Full-service domestic work | Multiple household tasks | Scope creep / overload |
| Building maintenance | Full-day presence | Extra work inconsistently compensated |
| Caregiving | Continuous care | Long hours / low recognition |
| Multi-skilled work | Multiple skills | Skills not formally documented |
Employer research
Workers need
Proof + flexibility
Trust
Employers need
Proof + accountability
Research tension
“How do we create accountability without turning the system into surveillance?”
Framing question from synthesis, not a direct participant quote.
Current experience
Stage 01
Problem
No searchable professional profile.
Stage 02
Problem
Verbal-only verification.
Stage 03
Problem
Scope creep.
Stage 04
Problem
No receipt / payslip / income record.
Stage 05
Problem
Experience does not travel with the worker.
Today’s loop
Opportunity
Research synthesis
| Evidence | Insight | Opportunity | Design direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workers rely on word-of-mouth. | Trust already exists offline. | Digitise trust rather than replacing it. | Vouches + referrals + endorsements. |
| Workers lack durable work histories. | Experience disappears between relationships. | Create portable work identity. | Verified work history. |
| Extra work is often invisible or inconsistently compensated. | Contribution needs a record. | Make tasks and work contributions visible. | Work/task records. |
| Employers struggle to verify reliability. | Hiring requires trustworthy evidence. | Make proof simple and mutual. | Verified profiles + endorsements. |
| Low digital familiarity creates interaction barriers. | Text-heavy systems can exclude users. | Reduce interaction burden. | Visual-first + voice + local language. |
| Workers fear power imbalance and rigid systems. | Verification can easily become surveillance. | Create transparent, dignity-preserving accountability. | Worker-owned data + transparent tracking. |
Affinity map
Recognition
Work is noticed when missing, not when completed.
Income
Extra work and inconsistent payment reduce financial predictability.
Trust
Existing relationships are the main hiring mechanism.
Documentation
Experience is difficult to carry from one employer to another.
Mobility
Workers want better opportunities, not simply more jobs.
Cluster statements are research synthesis, not direct participant quotes.
Secondary research
4.75M
Estimated domestic workers in India
ILO 2020 — as cited in project research documentation.
15–17%
Estimated economic value of women’s unpaid domestic and care work in India, depending on valuation method.
₹30.7 lakh crore
Estimated value using minimum-wage valuation.
≈ $384 billion · ≈ 5% of GDP
₹34.5 lakh crore
Estimated value using weighted-average wages.
≈ $431 billion · ≈ 17% of GDP
76.2%
Share of global unpaid care-work hours performed by women.
3.2×
Average time women spend on unpaid care work compared with men.
Secondary-research statistics are presented as cited in the project research documentation. Verify original source and publication year before final portfolio publication.
The invisible economy
India
Global context
The formality gap
Verify sourceFigures cited in project research documentation.
0.3%
of domestic workers registered under a formal employment scheme
73%
reported as having no written employment contract
<5%
reported as having access to employment insurance
₹3,000–₹12,000
reported average monthly wage range in the cited project research
ILO
Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work
[ADD VERIFIED SOURCE URL]
ILO
Time Use / Unpaid Care Work research
[ADD VERIFIED SOURCE URL]
India Time Use Survey
National time-use data
2019 · [ADD VERIFIED SOURCE URL]
OECD
Informal Care and Long-Term Care research
[ADD VERIFIED SOURCE URL]
Project research documentation
Vouch / Mercury Seekers
[ADD VERIFIED SOURCE URL]
Research synthesis
Across the research, workers were already building skills, reputation and relationships through everyday work. The gap was that those signals rarely travelled with them beyond the relationship in which they were earned.
Today
With Vouch
Research → Opportunity
The research pointed toward a different kind of verification: one where the system carries the complexity, while the worker carries the value of their experience.
10 · Research Findings
01
Design implication: Capture evidence progressively rather than demanding documents upfront.
02
Design implication: Let people who experienced the work contribute to professional identity.
03
Design implication: Make verification a by-product of work, not a separate administrative task.
04
Design implication: Connect a portable profile with a physical safety layer.
These findings are presented as supplied and should be paired with source evidence before publication.
11 · The Opportunity
How do we help workers upload proof?
12 · Product Concept
Vouch
Identity + work history + employer trust + skills + safety, connected into one evolving worker profile.
Digital Identity
Work History
Safety
Trusted reputation → better opportunities
13 · Core Product Principles
01
Don’t make workers become administrators.
02
Every completed job can add to professional history.
03
Changing employers should not erase history.
04
Endorsements add context documents cannot.
05
The physical and digital experience work together.
14 · Information Architecture
15 · The Key User Flow
The worker doesn’t need to manufacture credibility. The system helps them accumulate it.
16–20 · Key Design Decisions
Design decision 01
Problem
A worker’s professional identity is fragmented across employers and informal networks.
Decision
Create a simple digital identity that belongs to the worker and travels with them.
Evidence to add
Design decision 02
Problem
Formal documents rarely capture the quality and context of an everyday working relationship.
Decision
Let employers verify the relationship and contribute evidence based on direct experience.
Design decision 03
Problem
A broad claim like ‘eight years of experience’ is difficult for a future employer to interpret.
Decision
Structure experience through roles, duration, responsibilities, endorsements, and skills.
Design decision 04
Problem
Useful skills often exist without certificates.
Decision
Let repeated work and verified responsibilities build a legible skills profile.
Replace this illustrative set with the validated skill taxonomy from the product.
Design decision 05
Problem
The work happens in physical settings where safety, presence, and connectivity matter.
Decision
Extend the digital identity into a wearable safety layer with SOS and secure connectivity.
Vouch Band
SOS
Connectivity
Trusted contacts
21 · Why Web + IoT?
22 · Visual Design Direction
Deep purple creates a stable foundation.
Restrained gold highlights earned value.
A dark, high-contrast interface feels focused.
Real-world context keeps the system grounded.
Clear SOS and status signals prioritize urgency.
23 · Testing & Iteration
Evidence to add
Evidence to add
Evidence to add
Evidence to add
24 · Before → After
Before
After
25–26 · Final Solution
A portable identity that belongs to the worker.
Experience becomes structured and visible.
Trust comes from people who know the work.
Experience becomes recognizable capability.
A physical safety layer connects the ecosystem.
27–28 · Impact & Metrics
No project outcome metrics were supplied, so this section avoids unsupported claims and keeps measurement gaps visible.
Potential value: More visible work history, greater recognition, easier transfer of experience, lower documentation burden, and greater safety visibility.
Potential value: A connected ecosystem for worker identity, employer trust, job opportunities, skills, and safety.
Potential value: Product direction, system framing, core flows, visual language, prototype scope, and team alignment.
—
Research participants
—
Core flows & screens
—
Testing completion
—
Connected components
Replace each dash with validated project data before publishing performance claims.
29 · My Contribution
Translated a broad social problem into a focused product opportunity.
Defined how identity, work history, trust, and safety connect.
Structured the Vouch ecosystem and key worker and employer journeys.
Established the visual and interaction language.
Coordinated six designers toward a unified product direction.
Turned fragmented concepts into a coherent narrative.
30 · What I Learned
01
Documentation should not be the starting point. The work itself can become evidence.
02
For informal workers, trust directly affects opportunity.
03
Worker, employer, identity, opportunity, and safety are interconnected.
04
A good system can be powerful without asking the worker to understand its complexity.
31 · Closing Statement
Vouch explores a future where everyday work becomes visible, trusted, and portable—not by asking invisible workers to prove more, but by designing a system that recognizes the work they are already doing.