remedi
DURATION
8 WEEKS
User Research
UI/UX design
Wireframing
Prototyping
Iterating
Staying determined!
ROLE
ME
MYSELF
I
TEAM
September 2023 - October 2023
DATE
FIGMA
PHOTOSHOP
ILLUSTRATOR
TOOLS
THE PROBLEM
Adults aren't taking medications at the required times, reducing the effectiveness of prescribed treatments.
Approximately 50% of patients do not take medications as prescribed.
Not taking medicines has several consequences that can affect the overall quality of life in adults. These include but are not limited to:
✶ Worsening health condition - not taking medicines can lead to the health conditions that the medicine is prescribed for getting worse.
✶ Reduced effectiveness of treatment - medicines are prescribed to people with treatment goals in mind - if these medicines aren't taken, the effectiveness of the medicine can be reduced, leading to slower recovery times and prolonged symptoms.
✶ Increase in healthcare costs - not taking prescribed medicine can lead to conditions worsening, and people amy require additional medication, or other interventions, which may require additional funding.
When people are prescribed medicine for a problem they have, they are initially hopeful, and try to stay on top of their medicines. However, at time passes, or when people start to have a larger number of medicines, keeping track of these doses starts to get more difficult.
An app where users can efficiently keep track of their medicines, and other medical related issues. Taking medicines is a mundane task and people want to be done with it quickly so they can get back to what they're doing.
The solution
Daily schedule generated for each day following set schedule for medication.
✶ Quickly doesn't mean lacking in detail - the app helps to reduce the hassle of manually entering information by filling in from medical databases.
✶ Add extra identification information to save time when retrieving medicines - adding images or details of the locations of medicine can allow carers to retrieve medicines on behalf of others, as well as helping those who have conditions leading them to forget where things are kept.
✶ Avoid forgetting what medicines are for.
Persistent reminders, but only when you want them.
✶ Important medicine specifics are highlighted and always visible.
✶ Visual aid - icons and colours are customisable and can be made to match the colours of medication packets, or simply changed based on preference.
Quickly add the details of medicines.
✶ Push notifications and alarms can be conveniently enabled and disabled by the user.
✶ Medicines can be quickly rescheduled, and other times adjust instantly where necessary.
✶ Avoid second guessing with visual proof and assurance that medicines have been taken.
Breakdown of the problem
Are people really not taking their medications?!
I started off by reading research articles and essays on medicine adherence in adults. I also looked into statistics for children, but I focused on the statistics and information for adults and the elderly as medication for children tends to be an older caretakers responsibility to administer, since younger children will ‘most likely not have the physical capacity or cognitive understanding to effectively administer their own medications’.
Some eye opening statistics I came across on the national library of medicine included:
Users will most likely find out about events directly through other people.
✶ over 60% of patients interviewed immediately after visiting their doctors misunderstood the directions regarding prescribed medications
✶ Non adherence can also occur when the medication regimen is complex which could include improper timing of drug administration, or administration of numerous medications at frequent or unusual times during the day.
✶ One of the major reasons that patients become non adherent is because they forget to take their medications. Results of a study conducted showed that 49.6% of patients mentioned forgetfulness as one of the major non-intentional reasons for non adherence.
✶ Regarding the number of medicines taken daily, on an average a geriatric person receives 4-5 medicines per day.
✶ A single method cannot improve medication adherence, instead a combination of various adherence techniques should be implemented to improve patient’s adherence to their prescribed treatment. Involving the patient’s care givers would be an additional way of combating non adherence due to forgetfulness.
Competitive analysis
I analysed the three top applications related to medication reminders. The applications were all very simple in their design. - There was no convenient method for users to record their experiences with their medications, and the user flows for the adding of medications were noted to be slightly overwhelming and confusing to follow. The forms being presented in a way that makes it look like loads of effort is required is unappealing to users, who are utilising the app to make the process simpler. I believe that this leaves an opportunity for me to create a solution where this issue is addressed properly.
User interviews
I conducted a series of interviews with 8 people so I could find out first hand what their individual experiences were like when it came to taking medications. I asked them questions to find out what factors were affecting their ability to remember to take or administer medication. This included:
🧓 Three elderly people
🧑⚕️ A caretaker
👶 One parent
🏘️ Two students living in student accommodation
😀 An adult living independently
🏥 One person working in hospitality
😂 and one enthusiastic sibling
The following questions were asked:
✶ When was the last time you had to take medicine on a scheduled basis? Were you able to complete the required routine?
✶ When you’re prescribed a new medication, what steps do you usually take to make sure you take your medicines as instructed?
✶ Are there any specific types of medications that you find that you tend to forget to take more frequently than others? If so, what reasons do you think are behind it?
✶ Do factors such as the number of the pills required and the complexity of the administration routine affect your ability or willingness to take them?
✶ Do you rely on other people to remind you to take medicines? If yes, have their reminders been on time and as often as required?
Key user stories:
“As a full time employee with a lot of work to complete every day, I want to remember to take all of my medication on time so that I can work peacefully with better focus and reduce the pain of my migraines”
“As a busy teacher and mother of three young children, I want to remember to pack and take my medicines and give the kids their vitamins so that I can heal from my joint pain faster and make sure the kids grow healthily”
“As a caretaker for multiple people in the home, I want to make sure I'm administering the right medicines to the right people at the right times, so that their health can remain in good condition as they get older.”
I was able to use these stories to help inform my initial designs.
Whats an example of a typical user journey?
MAIN Insights
Users are looking for easy shortcuts. Medication taking is a mundane task and interviewees want to get them out of the way. They are more likely to correctly fill in medical information when the wording is clear and broken down in a way that makes it easy to understand.
Users are motivated by visual reassurance of their progress. Medicines work internally and they may not provide an instant change - a visual documentation of the medicines being taken provides positive reinforcement and makes users feel like they are actually achieving something. Celebratory visuals provide motivation for users to keep the streak going.
Users feel like once they miss a set time, there's no space for redemption. Interviewees felt that if they couldnt fit in all medications into the remaining time in the day, then there was no point in taking any. The ‘incompleteness’ of the medicine cycle makes users feel unfulfilled.
user personas
The design student julia, 22
“I JUST KEEP FORGETTING TO TAKE MY TABLETS - I HAVE SO MUCH SCHOOL WORK TO FOCUS ON.”
julia is a busy student who has a lot of work to complete on a day to day basis. she lives in a studio accomodations for students and has the room to herself. lately, she hasn’t been feeling to well, made worse by the stress of her workload, and hasnt been eating often enough. her mother suggested that she buys some vitamins to take during the day. she wants to find a way to make sure that she takes all the vitamins she has purchased so that she can work with a clearer mind.
Goals
take medicines at the right times so they work effectively
Track which medicines she feels are effective
Motivations
easing her mind of stress
Feeling refreshed when waking up after resting
Doing well in studies and making progress
Reducing brain fog and emembering the things that she plans to do each day
More active social life
Frustrations
forgets to take medicine and cant match daily recommended dosage
sometimes gets confused by the similar names of medicines
The working mother katherine, 31
“my medication is really important - my body is quite reliant on it during my recovery”
katherine is a hard working mother of two who works as a teacher in a school not too far from her home. she has a lot of homework to mark when she gets home from work but always makes sure to make time for her kids, and helps them with their own homework when needed. she sometimes has to spend longer amounts of time at school and isn’t able to come home until later in the evenings.she prefers to take some of her medicines during her lunchtimes and some later in the evening due to their side effects affecting her work.
Goals
give her kids vitamin gummies with meals to aid their growth
take her medication to speed up her recovery after giving birth
Motivations
Children staying healthy and happy
Quicker postpartum recovery time
Reduced amounts of stress stemming from pain preventing her from completing tasks
Frustrations
sometimes get overwhelmed with the amount of medicines to take
can’t find medicines sometimes
Design process
I started off by completing a crazy eights ideation exercise to help me generate some quick ideas for different pages in the app based on the user requirements from my initial research, and the new gaps discovered in the competitive audit. I aimed to make the design as simple as I could while making sure it remained comprehensive.
major features decided on
Medicines are all listed with their due times on the homepage
Key information such as the size and specific taking requirements will be visible at all times which will save the user the time that would be spent trying to find or recall medicine taking instructions.
Easy to use diary
A diary will allow patients to have a place to write any symptoms they may be feeling at the time that they are feeling it, which can then allow them to be quickly retrieved and brought up during appointments.
Medicine customisation and optional extra detail
Automating the medicine addition form as much as possible allows a much more comprehensive amount of information to be collected without exhausting the user and leading to drop off.
Including features that allow users to select personal colours for medication can also help with identification of the medicines packaging.
Location and visual descriptions paired with optional photo attachment options can assist people with memory problems or visual impairments, or simply help carers who may not know where medicine is being stored.
going with the (wire)flow
WEBSITE TESTS
a few iterations later…
the prototype can be viewed here↗
takeaways
sometimes you need to sleep on your idea - i guess this can be said for most design disciplines, but when coming up with a design, when i cant decide between trivial things (is 7% or 8% opacity better?), taking a step away from what im designing realy gives me a clearer mind, and when i’m using other apps in this time, i can think about their apps and wonder why they made certain design decisions, and use this thinking to aid mine.
there are so many different forms of research - i know its easy to box everything into the standard ideas of research - interviews, surveys, user tests… but i was able to find many other forms of learning through this project that i hadn’t tried before.
user testing is so important - when i was researching and looking through the existing solutions in the market, i was surprised to see the number of issues that were encountered with the app simply because of it’s design, even if there are no major bugs in the code. user testing properly and effectively makes sure that these kinds of shortcomings arent overlooked in the final product. errors in design like these cause massive losses for companies.