The Brief
Manage Asthma On-the-Go
This was a team project with myself, Amanda Cheah and Sarah Liu.
We had two weeks to design a brand new mobile app that helps people monitor and manage their asthma. It is designed to work with a new wearable that will track the user’s vitals as well as any other factors that could affect their condition. Secondarily we needed to allow that data to also display notifications on a smart watch.
For the purpose of this project it was conceived that Amazon would be used as our potential client. In recent years Amazon has been investing more and more in the healthcare space. The healthcare industry as a whole is expanding rapidly, and asthma affects 10% of Australia’s population and is increasing!
With our focus we needed to keep the brand in line with Amazon app standards and conventions, following their usage of colours as well as typography.
OVERVIEW
HMW Statements
Crazy 8's
Design Studio
Card Sorting
New Journey Map
RESEARCH
To begin with let's take a look at what important factors need to be considered for sufferers of Asthma.
-
It is a long-term inflammatory disease of the lungs.
-
Symptoms: wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath.
-
Causes: a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
-
Triggers:
-
Infection - i.e. cold and flu;
-
Allergies - i.e. mold, pollen, pets;
-
Tobacco smoke;
-
Exercise ;
-
Weather, certain medicines and stress.
-
- There is no cure for Asthma!
MARKET ANALYSIS
Next we need to take a look at what the immediate market is like.
About Amazon
AMAZON Customers are attracted by a convenient and positive experience as well as trust.
AMAZON is obsessed with their customers rather than their competitors. They offer extra services to loyal customers.
Asthma Related Products
In the market there are many companies who make a variety of asthma related products.
These include:
-
Smart inhalers
-
Mobile applications
There are a variety of wearables that still in development. On the whole they only track vitals.
There are a lot of Asthma Related Apps. But not one of them gives users what they exactly want.
On the whole complaints centre around accessibility and accuracy of readings.
There is also a need for being able to customise input to suit the user as well as customise the output received.
SURVEYS
We ran a survey on social media platforms with 31 respondents.
Here you can see the data that stands out
In summary:
-
77% of asthmatics report having intermittent asthma.
-
The majority of triggers are around infection, weather, allergies and exercise.
-
Most people are not tracking their symptoms.
-
But more than half of respondents are monitoring their symptoms.
-
People in general are not doing anything proactively to track their asthma.
USER INTERVIEWS
We were able to conduct a total of 10 interviews. They were composed of:
8 asthmatics:
▸ 5 chronic asthmatics
▸ 3 adult onset asthmatics
2 experts:
▸ 1 general practitioner
▸ 1 emergency medical doctor
SYNTHESIS
AFFINITY MAPPING
Now with all the information that was gathered we look for emerging patterns and make our affinity map.
There were two distinct groups.
-
Chronic asthmatics who had been dealing with it their whole lives,
-
and Adult Onset asthmatics who weren’t diagnosed until they were older.
-
People generally knew their triggers and some knew that exercise helped them. But on the whole they weren’t really managing their asthma nor were they really educated about their own condition
-
There was a lot of mental stress about having to worry about themselves and their dependency on their inhaler.
JOURNEY MAPPING
With our journey map we look at what is a typical situation for many asthmatic sufferers.
So with the data I could see definite pain points, needs and motivations that led to making our persona.
In developing our persona I found that it was important to keep in mind who exactly we were talking about. With maintaining our empathy I wanted to stay away from a photo and name and tried to come up with a mindset instead. Through our research we found most people were managing their asthma but not really in control of their situation.
PERSONA
PROBLEM STATEMENT
So what issues do we need to address?
Asthmatics need a way to educate themselves on their condition
so that they can have control over their asthma.
IDEATION
HMW Statement
Moving on we thought about what we could focus on.
HOW MIGHT WE...
empower asthmatics to make the best choices
for their overall well being?
We did CRAZY 8s looking at Worst and Best ideas....
Well-being
boost Tablet
Magic
Puffer
Personal
Assistant
Asthma
Vaccination
Genetic
Modification
Educational Video, Podcast
Weekly
exercise
plan
Daily
exercise
plan
Goal
reached
Connected
radio monitor
motivator
Encyclopaedic
knowledge
base
Personal
Assistant
Smartwatch vocal
notifications
constantly!
Mood calendar
+ motivator
Actively
track your
progress
Give everyone
free yoga lessons
everyday
Personal
diary
Breathing
techniques
Educational
game
Social
media
Tips of
the day
and Design Studio to come up with possible solutions:
▸ Vitals
▸ Amazon Services
▸ Medication reminder
▸ Action Plan
▸ Voice Assistance
▸ Online Community
HYPOTHESIS
When trying to create a solution it is essential that a hypothetical situation is created to test the design with users.
We believe that by creating an engaged and welcoming app experience, for asthmatics, we will achieve a great way of evaluating and educating them.
We will know this to be true when we see asthmatics feeling in control of their situation.
SITE MAP
Looking at the main things we wanted in our app we created a site map.
CARD SORTING
We then ran 5 open card sorts looking at:
-
Online community
-
Daily Forecast
-
Vitals
-
Daily Tracking
-
Profile
From this
we then redesigned
our site map
USER FLOW and NEW USER JOURNEY MAP
We then made our User Flow, looking at the Happy path that keeps the user in control of their asthma.
And from that made a new user journey map
STYLE SHEET
Here is our moodboard that was created to guide the design.
DESIGN
PAPER PROTOTYPING
It from this point that paper prototypes fuel the process of iteration .
USER TESTING + ITERATION
First we look at the Onboarding process as this is essential to Users establishing their initial setup easily.
Insight
▸ 4 out of 5 users did not use the swipe walkthrough function
Solution
▸ Combined into one screen
Insight
▸ “Where do I input
my password?”
Solution
▸ Added password input
box into mid-fidelity
prototype
Insight
▸ All users had more than one type of asthma they had been diagnosed with.
Solution
▸ Multiple answer clickable in mid-fidelity prototype.
Insight
▸ Most users didn’t remember their medication names by hard.
Solution
▸ Made drop down menu with options.
Insight
▸ “Where am I supposed to click to log my daily symptoms?”
▸ “I thought button was part of today’s plan.”
Solution
▸ Added an extra step in tutorial.
▸ Moved button to center of bottom navigation in mid-fidelity prototype.
We also took a look at the Asthma Check in conjunction with data from the wearable.
Insight
▸ Wearable detecting symptoms but did not prompt action steps or to take medication.
▸ Copy isn’t understanding or sympathetic to user.
Solution
▸ Revisited user flow
▸ Reviewed copy
There were several iterations before we felt we had a good foundation to work with. This gave us the confidence to work on a mid fidelity prototype.
Mid Fidelity Digital Prototype
Figma was used to create the UI and represent the interface.
The working prototype was modelled for an Android smartphone, with a scenario presented to the user for testing:
Onboarding Scenario
The Amazon Aalia app helps to track and monitor your asthma and you have just downloaded it from Google Play store.
You need to sign up to the App with your existing Amazon account details and are interested to learn more about how the app can help you with your asthma.
We also take a look at how Amazon Aalia works with a smartwatch
Action Plan Scenario
You just finished your daily swimming at your local bathhouse when you start to feel tightness in your chest and shortness in your breath. Your wearable has detected the abnormalities in your breathing and you have received a notification on your smartwatch from Amazon Aalia.
FINAL THOUGHTS
-
It was a challenge finding people to test on,
but if you know where to go there are plenty of people!
-
To create something starts with finding a problem.
What is it, and What can I do to help?
-
Regardless of quality, just put it out there!