Why The Pivot?
From Frustration to Function — Redesigning Hope in Healthcare
If you had told me ten years ago that Create Ape would become a specialized UX/UI agency focused on medical technology, I would’ve laughed and handed you a jungle-themed business card. Back then, our strength was our flexibility — a nimble, creatively ferocious team that could swing into any industry and leave behind better user experiences. And to be fair, we were damn good at it.
But something shifted.
Over the last couple of years, we found ourselves increasingly drawn to projects that made a real impact on people’s lives. Not just "optimize conversion rates" or "improve KPIs" — I’m talking about real-world outcomes. Helping patients better understand their diagnoses. Enabling surgeons to interact with smarter interfaces. Designing AI tools that support longevity, accessibility, and healing.
So we made the leap — and now, months later, we're seeing the impact of that choice in everything from the quality of our work to the alignment of our culture.
About eight months ago, Create Ape officially pivoted toward working with MedTech, HealthTech, and digital wellness clients. We didn’t make this decision lightly, and the journey since has been incredibly revealing. But the more we said "yes" to projects in this space, the more our team lit up. The more our skills aligned. The more our mission became clear.
Why MedTech?
Because design in healthcare is broken — and it doesn’t have to be. We’ve seen firsthand how poor UX can create confusion for patients, inefficiencies for practitioners, and even risk for end users. But when done right? Great UX can literally save lives.
We’ve built HIPAA-compliant flows, ADA-accessible patient dashboards, and UI systems for medical devices with LED readouts and tactile feedback interfaces. We’ve run discovery sprints with clinicians and product owners, helping bridge the gap between the human experience and complex backend systems. It’s the kind of challenge we love — and more importantly, the kind of challenge that matters.
Niche Focus, Sharper Skill Sets
Niching down into MedTech has given our team a new level of focus. We’re no longer trying to be everything to everyone — we’re refining the tools that make us deadly effective for the clients we serve. That means:
- Deep understanding of regulatory frameworks like HIPAA, GDPR, and FDA Class II/III device guidelines
- Component libraries tailored to medical workflows (like intake, e-prescribing, charting, compliance)
- Custom GPT workflows for analyzing user interviews and generating patient-friendly copy
- Systematic accessibility testing and continuous QA across devices
This pivot hasn’t just shaped our work — it’s shaped our culture. There’s a deeper sense of purpose behind every design sprint, every stakeholder call, every usability test. We’re no longer just solving UX problems. We’re helping people live better, longer, healthier lives.
AI, Longevity, and the Future of Care
We also believe that AI will play a defining role in the future of healthcare — not just as a back-office tool, but as a deeply human one. That’s why we’re integrating AI into our UX processes and helping our clients build ethically aligned, explainable AI interfaces.
During the final weeks of my grandmother's life, she was in a hospital room at Cedars-Sinai, and there was a robot stationed in the corner. It wasn’t just a novelty — it would remind her to take her medication, suggest when to use the restroom, and answer simple questions when the nursing staff was occupied. She actually found it humorous — the way it spoke, the timing of its reminders — and that small sense of amusement brought her moments of joy during an otherwise difficult time.
Watching her interact with it made something click for me. It wasn’t just about efficiency — it was about dignity. It was about emotional support. It was about extending the reach of care in a way that felt futuristic and profoundly human. But I also noticed gaps: the language wasn’t always natural, the tone sometimes too sterile, and the interface clearly wasn’t designed with someone like her in mind.
That experience stuck with me. As a UX founder, I couldn’t help but see how thoughtful UX could’ve taken something already helpful and made it truly remarkable — something comforting, intuitive, and human-centered in a moment that mattered most.
Because if AI is going to help extend life and improve care, it’s going to need to be usable. Understandable. Trustworthy.
That’s where we come in.
Final Thoughts
We’re still the same jungle-loving UX nerds at heart. But now we’re swinging through different trees — ones that matter more. Ones where our work ripples out into families, hospitals, and futures.
So if you're building something in the MedTech or HealthTech space and need a partner who knows how to bring it to life with elegance, compliance, and soul — let’s talk.
We're not just designing interfaces. We’re designing what’s next.