Project summary
CapSoul is a pill reminder digital product that allows users to choose a range of options to set up reminders. It is designed for people who have a busy schedule juggling school, work and anything in between.
Project Type: Academic
My Role: UX/UI Designer
Duration: 3 months
Tools Used: Figma, Invision
Setting the Scene
Below is a roadmap of my design journey
Why is this a problem?
According to Express Scripts Canada in their 2019 Prescription Drug Report, as many as 70% of Canadian patients are not taking their medication as directed by their physicians.
The Numbers
The individuals that are deemed non adherent are the patients who are taking more than 1 prescribed medication. Medical adherence for patients with a chronic illness is extremely common affecting as many as 40-50% of patients who prescribed medications for diabetes or hypertension. In a study done in 2015, adults ages 45 to 64 were the most diagnosed age group.
Medical adherence for patients with a chronic illness is extremely common affecting as many as 50% of patients who prescribed medications for diabetes or hypertension.
A Growing Concern 📈
Medical adherence is a growing concern to clinicians, healthcare systems, and stakeholders because there is evidence that non-adherence is prevalent and associated with adverse outcomes and higher cost of care.
Failure to adherence is becoming a serious problem 💊
Not only affects the patient but the healthcare system as a whole. The consequence of non-adherence are
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waste of medication
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reduction of functional abilities lowers the quality of life
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increased use of medical resources (nursing homes, hospital visits, hospital admissions).
Project plan and goals
My project goal was to create an application that allows people to better manage their medications.
Goals
Discover individuals pain points, goals and motivation in regards to their treatment
Tools & Method
Qualitative method by conducting interviews via Google Meet
Participant Criteria
Individuals ages 20 to 35 years old, who are currently or has taken in the past prescribed medication
Location & Schedule
Interviews were held virtually on Feb 14 to 15 2021 via Google Meet
Opportunity
Why I chose to conduct interviews 20 to 35 years old 🤔
Although time was a constraint it led me to an opportunity to make a decision quickly to gather insights from my peers and classmates.
Why I chose to do video calls 👩🏻💻
I decided to conduct an interview through video calls. There is no better way to find out an individual’s insights by just talking to them directly.
Insights
I found from my interviews that the #1 reason for medial non-adherence was forgetfulness.
Common themes
I was only able to interview 4 participants in a span of two days. The three most common themes I found were forgetfulness, managing side effects and motivation.
Forgetfulness
Forgetfulness played a significant role and caused uneasiness in some of participants daily activities
Managing side effects
Side effects were more difficult than managing the dosages prescribed
Motivation
The motives from the participants were that they wanted to improve their quality of life
Interview Findings Reflection
When research participants were taking medications, they were managing school, working a part-time job, having a social life, and trying to manage their health all at the same time. Therefore I chose the archetype of a student.
Archetype:student
Goals & Motivations:
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Looking for an effective way to remind themselves on taking their pills
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Wants to stay on top with their studies and keep up with their part-time job
Pain Points:
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When they skip their medications they often feel wary and anxious
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Sets alarms on their iPhones but sometimes find it very annoying from the alarm sounds
Behaviours:
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Often forgets to take medication at least twice a week
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Looking for alternatives to set reminders
How might we...
How might we help students ages 20 to 35 years old to set reminders on taking medications so they are less forgetful?
Mobile Concept
After reflecting on my interviews and deconstructing my data I found that the research participants were overall annoyed of being reminded. What the research participants would like to see is having more options on how they would like to receive their reminders.
Why design for a mobile application?
Considering 20-35 years olds are digital natives, I made a logical decision to design an application for mobile since research participants were setting reminders on them.
Selected user flow
This task flow was created to show how a user taps on medication to update their sound. I chose to show this pathway so that the user can see what their reminder options are.
CapSoul
Testing and feedback
With my task flow completed, I was ready to take my ideas and build out wireframes. Below are some of the Before and After screenshots and features I've changed based on user testing.
Before
After
I added an overlay so that user can still have quick access to their plan for the day
Before
After
My sound list had too many options which can overwhelm the user instead of having 12 different sounds I narrowed down to 8.
Before
After
I added a feature that allows the user to have an option to have “Critical Alerts” turn on or off. If turned on, the user will still get notified when their device is put on mute or “Do not disturb” mode.
Before
According to WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) , the accent colour failed normal text ratio.
#976F93
After
This colour reaches more people in my target audience
#5B3747
Final Design
After testing from my peers, feedbacks from my educators and countless iterations, I have made my final prototype.
Marketing Responsive Web Design
I created a marketing website for my digital product. This gives potential users a tool to evaluate my work before they commit to downloading and trying it out.
Below is the view of the desktop marketing website followed by the mobile version.
Learning outcomes
Asking the right questions 🧠
As I reflect on the questions I asked, I followed every single question like a script. I recall feeling like a robot. I wish I asked more follow-up questions such as “why did you feel this way?”. For example, the participants were dealing with anxiety and depression and I never asked specifically why they felt this way. I wish I dug a little deeper into this.
Design journey is a process 🏞
I learned as a designer you might not be satisfied with your work, decision-making is an important part of the design process, as I found myself constantly making iterations. I learned to be okay with what I have.
Final thoughts & Conclusion
How might we cater to the older population?
As mentioned before, there is a huge stress on the health care system for medical non-adherence. Although I could not gather my primary research on the population that is affected the most. I think about how the design project would be if my target audience were adults ages 45 to 64. What would my design look like? How can I create a memorable experience for this type of population?
What I’ve learned is that design can really push our boundaries to think divergently and creatively.