The WE app, a 2025 Honoree in the Core77 Design Awards, represents a thoughtful exploration of how design can mediate between vulnerable users and complex systems. Developed by QIMU Design, with designers Shuting Jiang and Tianyue Wu, the project asks what it means to create tools that do more than solve functional problems—they create trust, dignity, and belonging.

The design team began with a fundamental insight: immigrant women navigating healthcare in a new country often encounter not one but multiple layers of friction. Language, cultural expectations, and opaque bureaucracies intertwine, producing not just logistical hurdles but emotional strain. Rather than attempting to "fix" users' abilities, Jiang and Wu reframed the challenge as a systemic design problem. How could technology serve as a bridge without replacing the human relationships that make healthcare meaningful?

The answer emerged in a hybrid model. WE's AI assistant provides translations optimized for medical contexts, but more importantly, it frames information in ways that empower decision-making. At the same time, the platform offers in-person companions who accompany women to appointments, ensuring that empathy and reassurance are not sacrificed in the pursuit of efficiency. This pairing illustrates a critical design insight: tools alone rarely resolve vulnerability; it is the thoughtful choreography of digital and human touchpoints that makes an experience supportive.

This app helps women navigate healthcare when they don't speak the language of their providers.

Through research and iterative testing, QIMU Design refined features such as simplified insurance comparisons and multilingual community forums. These are not flashy add-ons but carefully considered responses to real user needs. What makes WE compelling from a design perspective is its refusal to separate usability from dignity. Each interaction—whether reading policy options or entering a waiting room—was treated as an opportunity to reduce anxiety and build confidence. In doing so, Jiang and Wu show how design can operate not just at the level of interface, but at the level of systems and emotions. WE is less a product than a case study in how empathetic design can reimagine access to care for those most often left at its margins.

See all the outstanding Apps & Platforms honorees from the 2025 Core77 Design Awards here.

If you're developing an innovative app, product, service, or space, we invite you to showcase your work in the 2026 Core77 Design Awards—Call for Entry opens January 2026.