Case Study
2025
Hatchwell
XR Post-Surgical Recovery App · Healthcare · Mixed Reality
A 48-hour hackathon challenge — designing an XR-powered recovery companion for rotator cuff surgery patients. Built with Team NEUROixMANCERS, sponsored by Johnson & Johnson and Mayo Clinic.
Overview
Role
UX Design & Research
Duration
48 hours
Team
5 designers · NEUROixMANCERS
Tools
Figma, Miro
Award
🏆 2nd Place · Hack IX 2025
Hackathon: Johnson & Johnson × Mayo Clinic Innovation Challenge — designing the future of post-surgical care.
Hatchwell is a personalized XR recovery companion — "Care that follows you home." Designed in 48 hours for post-surgical rotator cuff patients, combining AI, XR, and real-time sensor data to bridge the gap between clinic and home recovery.
Problem
How might we support post-surgical rotator cuff patients in maintaining consistent recovery routines while addressing both physical and emotional challenges at home?
Pain is more than physical
Post-surgery recovery is long and arduous, deeply affecting the emotional well-being of patients beyond just physical pain.
Pain prevents adherence
At-home exercise programs require motivated patients, but pain actively hinders the desire to continue prescribed routines.
Lack of real-time support
Once patients leave the clinic, therapists have no objective visibility into pain levels, fatigue, or exercise quality.
Vision
Our vision for Hatchwell sits at the intersection of market need, emerging technology, and patient outcomes.
70% non-adherence rate among 135k annual rotator cuff surgery patients
Integrate emerging XR and AI technologies into traditional solutions
Personalized recovery, higher adherence, and potential for new revenue streams
Research
Secondary research combined with a doctor consultation and two user interviews with current PT app users.
$47.59B
US physical therapy market (2024)
$83.5B
Projected global PT market by 2030
5.8–7.3%
Global CAGR 2023–2030
4.6%
US estimated growth 2025–2030
Secondary Research
Market analysis across Grand View Research, OpenPR, Precedence Research, and Towards Healthcare reports.
Doctor Consultation
Spoke with a surgeon who walked us through the full rotator cuff surgery procedure and typical 6–12 week recovery timeline.
User Interviews
Two patients actively using PT apps shared their frustrations: inconsistent motivation, no feedback on form, and feeling isolated from their therapist between sessions.
User
Primary persona derived from user interviews and secondary research into post-surgical recovery patients.
Marcus Thompson
Age 45 · Marketing Consultant
Seattle, WA · Income $140K · Married
"I want to feel strong so I can get back to living without constant pain or fear."
Needs
- Emotional support through difficult recovery
- Motivation to continue his journey
- Accept his condition and be gentler on himself
Frustrations
- Lack of independence
- Unable to do his hobbies
- Feels like a burden to those around him
Solution
Personalized recovery — powered by AI, XR, and real-time sensor data. Hatchwell leases XR devices directly to patients so there's no hardware barrier.
XR Device Leasing
Lease XR devices directly to patients, removing the hardware barrier and making immersive therapy accessible from home.
Objective Pain & Fatigue Tracking
Real-time sensor data tracks pain and fatigue beyond self-reports, giving therapists accurate visibility between sessions.
Virtual Pet & AI Assistant
A personalised companion (hatching egg → virtual pet) provides emotional support, celebrates milestones, and adapts to recovery progress.
Real-Time Exercise Demos
Guided XR exercise demonstrations with form feedback keep patients doing exercises correctly and safely at home.
Patient–Therapist Communication
Smooth, structured communication tools keep therapists informed and patients supported throughout the recovery journey.
Features
Six features that work together to make at-home recovery feel supported, trackable, and connected.
Gamified Onboarding
Patients personalise a virtual companion egg that hatches as they hit recovery milestones — making day one feel like a game, not a medical obligation.
Sensor-Tracked Workouts
The XR headset and phone sensors capture movement angles, reps, and fatigue in real time — removing guesswork from at-home exercises.
PT Logs & Live Feedback
Sessions are automatically logged and synced to the therapist. PTs can respond with real-time annotations and voice notes — keeping care continuous between clinic visits.
Calendar & Notes
Patients and PTs schedule upcoming sessions, attach session notes, and set reminders — keeping recovery organised and on track.
Milestones
Achievement badges tied to the companion's growth celebrate recovery wins big and small — reinforcing motivation throughout the journey.
Accessibility & Voice
Voice commands let patients find and start workouts hands-free. Captions, high-contrast mode, and adjustable motion intensity ensure the app works for everyone.
Design
Hatchwell's visual language balances clinical trustworthiness with gamified warmth — deep sage green as the brand anchor, soft warm neutrals for content surfaces, and cheerful per-exercise accent colors that give each session its own identity.
Brand Greens
Surfaces & Accent
Per-Exercise Colors
Typography — Nunito
Egg Companion
Hatches and evolves as patients hit recovery milestones. Each personality feels uniquely theirs.
Octopus — Secret Companion
Unlocked after 6+ milestones. A reward for sustained commitment that turns long-term recovery into something worth celebrating.
Impact
Beyond recovery outcomes, Hatchwell creates measurable business value for clinics, therapists, and the broader healthcare system.
Additional Revenue Stream
By providing therapists with a new tool that can be rented out by patients for at-home use.
Retain Users
By extending the device's usability past the recovery stage, serving as a health tracking wearable.
Improve Patient Monitoring
By providing a scalable framework that could increase the patient-to-provider ratio.
Further Refinement
To system accuracy and approach, utilizing collected sensor data for continuous improvement.
Prototype
Interactive prototype demonstrating the full patient journey — from onboarding through daily exercise sessions to therapist check-ins.
Try the Live Prototype
hatchwell.replit.app →
Learnings
things that I learnt
Designing under time pressure forces ruthless prioritisation — in 48 hours, the most impactful constraint was deciding what NOT to build.
Healthcare UX demands equal attention to emotional design and functional design — patients need to feel safe and seen, not just efficiently managed.
Mixed reality opens entirely new interaction paradigms for rehabilitation, but the real innovation is making it accessible without requiring patients to own expensive hardware.
— Sneha ✦