MedApp

This is a medication tracking app designed with users from emerging markets with smaller screens in mind

OVERVIEW

Problem

I have noticed that a significant number of people the world over with ailments that require them to take medication frequently or on a daily basis. These people tend to face difficulties with keeping track of the medication they take. This problem is even more important in emerging markets as there are no apps that particularly catered to them.

Timeline

5 weeks

Goal

The aim is to design an app that helps people in emerging markets keep track of their medication intake 

My role

Product Design, Visual Design, User Experience Design, Prototyping

UNDERSTANDING OUR USERS

Research

I interviewed 8 adults above the age of 60. I asked questions mostly about their experience if any with medication apps and how they keep track of all their pills. If they have any frustrations that they experience when taking the medication. I found that:

  • Most of the participants do sometimes forget to take pills

  • They have not found any apps that are catered to them and easy to use

  • Some people even noted that they had run out of pills because they had failed to keep track of their pills

  • They also noted sometimes they confused the pills especially if they had changed the pills

‘‘ I am really struggling with managing all the medication I have to take. My daughters are starting to get worried”

User Persona

I created a persona based on the goals and pain points collected from the research with the 8 adults

User Journey Map

To better understand the flow that users go through I created a user journey map that highlights the points and tasks that bring about anxiety and frustration from our users

Pain Points

From there, I made a list of the main pain points I found through research.

Forgetting to take pills

Most users expressed they have forgotten to take their medication quite a number of times

Losing track of pills taken

The users I interviewed have difficulty keeping track of the pills they have and have not taken in a day

Running out

Users usually forget they are about to run out and that they need to refill soon

Competitive analysis

To find out what was missing from current medicine tracking app experiences, I looked at popular apps, specifically Dr. Pills and MedList Pro, to see if there were possible areas of improvement and areas to take inspiration from.

IDEATION

Brainstorm

With this in mind, it was time for me to formulate a solution. I lead a brainstorming session with some of my research participants where we came up with ideas to tackle our problem based on the research and pain points. The main ideas from this brainstorming session were:

  • Having alarms as reminders would be good

  • Having a very simple predictable flow

  • Using a lot of images for pills to limit the possibility of mixing up medication

  • Having different colors to signal when medication has not been taken

Initial sketches

Based on the user pain points and brainstorming, I sketched out possible ideas and picked the features that I liked from each idea, and combined them into a low-fidelity mockup. As informed by research when ideating I wanted key things to appear on the screens:

  • A calendar or day and time to allow easy tracking of times to take medication

  • Medication to be taken on that day

  • The progress in one day in order to easily signal how much more still needs to be taken and how much has already been taken

  • Any reminder to keep users aware

Low Fidelity mockup

In order to get a better understanding of how my user flow would look I camp up with a low fidelity mockups.

  • I designed the log in screen because users would like to keep their medical information private so I designed a log in page that would be password protected on the first log in

  • The Homescreen has weekdays at the top for easy reference on what day it is, showing progress in a pie chart and upcoming meds that can be checked off. The upcoming meds addresses the pain points of users forgetting to take pills and losing track of pills taken. I wanted to maximize on the visuals because any text heavy information would overwhelm our users.

  • The medication screen goes into detail about the progress of the certain medication, how much medication is left and when the medication was taken in that particular week. The progress chart addresses our users pain point of running out of education and not knowing it

  • The is the calendar screen where users can pick any day and see all the medication taken in that day.

  • The is a health tips screen that keeps users updated on ways to stay healthy.

Initial High Fidelity mockup

In order to get a better understanding of how my design would look I camp up with a high fidelity mockups. That I then used for user testing.

REFINEMENT OF DESIGN

Usability study findings

The high-fidelity designs were tested on a group of 10 adults and these were the main finding and changes made to the design based on these usability study findings

FINAL PROTOTYPE

REVISITING THE PAIN POINTS

LEARNINGS AND TAKEAWAYS

What I learned:

  • It is always important to iterate

  • Always keep your users needs at the core of your design

Impact:

  • We tested the prototype on 10 people and most users liked the simplicity f the app and the easy navigation is had

  • “I would love to use an app like this it will definitely help keep me organized” - Charles

Future goals:

  • Working with a team to get is built

  • Syncing up with a medicine storage unit .