"I'll Just Do It": Designing for the Hidden Work of Collaborative Family Caregiving

Family caregivers of patients with chronic conditions take on many responsibilities, often at the expense of their own health. Previous studies have examined technological supports, such as information access and online social groups. While these approaches are promising, they primarily focus on easing the load of a single caregiver. Even when interventions are designed to support collaborative caregiving, they often overlook which tasks are shareable and what influences caregivers’ decisions to delegate. To address these gaps, we conducted activity-based qualitative interviews with 10 family caregivers of patients who underwent life-threatening medical procedures. Our findings show that collaboration occurs when tasks are shareable in practice, including tangible and logistical help, and when caregivers judge that the benefits of receiving support outweigh the work of seeking help. We propose that technologies should support caregivers in determining when collaboration is feasible by recognizing task types, addressing the trade-offs embedded in activation costs, and enabling both proactive and reactive assistance as situations evolve.