RemindMe App
I created RemindMe. RemindMe is a fabricated nonprofit organization committed to helping people of all ages stay organized during their patient journeys. RemindMe’s medication reminder app and responsive website offer users a simple and easy-to-understand way to schedule and track their medication subscriptions day-to-day.
Role/Service
UX/UI Design
Website
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Sector
Medical
Research + Empathizing
Develop a new design for the hgIQ tool that was simpler and more intuitive.
Foundational research
According to my research, there are several factors that contribute to 50% of people in the US not taking their medication properly – yes, 50%. Among them were: fear of side effects, forgetfulness and a simple spirit of rebellion. With this information, I wanted to hone in on what might be the 1 or 2 main reasons I can address in my design.
I came up with 9 interview questions to conduct user interviews. I reached out to friends, family and peers to collect a cohort of 5 people – ranging from ages 20–69 – that I knew took prescribed medication.
Questions asked:
What do you do for a living?
What do you use to remind yourself to take your medicine?
How many medication reminders do you miss on average every week?
What is the #1 reason why you think you forget to take your medicine?
Do you have any medical issues that would increase the probability of you forgetting your medicine?
Would you consider yourself a busy person?
Do your friends and family know you take prescriptive medication?
What are you typically doing when you forget to take your medication?
What are you typically doing when you remember to take your medication?
User Personas
Chidera, 67
Education:
Some High School
Family:
Mother of 3
Hometown:
Lagos, Nigeria
Occupation:
Private Chef
Overview
Chidera typically uses a calendar, sticky notes and daily pill cases to take her pills, but she still has trouble remembering to take them everyday. She is very ashamed by this, because she doesn't want her family to think she isn't taking her health seriously. She's used to putting others before herself, losing track of her own self care.
Frustrations
She isn't tech savvy
Her calendar and notes doesn't give her reminder notifications
The words on the medicine bottles are too small
Sage, 32
Education:
Some High School
Family:
Single
Hometown:
Miami, Fl
Occupation:
Executive Assistant
Overview
Sage is a hard workking business woman who is zealous about climbing the corporate ladder. She doesn't ahve a lot of time to herself, which is the reason why she tends to forget to take her medication. When she does set a reminder on her phone, she still misses the notification.
Frustrations
She ignores the reminders the first time they ping
She doesn't like to slow down her day to take medication
She isn't on her phone during work hours to check her reminders
I created 2 user personas that were informed by the identities, demographics and interview answers of my interviewees. Meet Chidera and Sage. Chidera typically used a calendar or planner to remember to take her medication while Sage typically used her phone’s reminder or alarm function.
User Journey Maps
After creating my user personas and getting a better sense of who I was designing for, I decided to create journey maps for each persona. I love using journey maps because they really allow me to empathize with my users’ emotions – which guide their decisions – and assign solutions that directly respond to them.
Note: At this point in my research, I knew my design would not be able to respond to the shame some might feel with taking prescribed medication. However, I made it a note to make their experience as easy and non-disruptive to their life as possible.
User Pain Points
Paint point 1
Tedious processes for setting up medication reminders
Paint point 2
Confused with keeping track of medicine that has and has not been taken
Paint point 3
Being slowed down by reading dosage instructions
Paint point 4
Loud, embarrassing notifications
Testing
Let's do a competitive audit!
I decided to conduct a competitive audit to identify the weakness, strengths, gaps and opportunities in the medication reminder market. Each app I studied had their own fair share of strengths that I knew I would be able to reiterate on and possibly incorporate into my design.
I audited: (1) Medisafe, (2) Round Health, (3) MyTherapy and (4) Lady Pill Reminder.
After creating my user personas and getting a better sense of who I was designing for, I decided to create journey maps for each persona. I love using journey maps because they really allow me to empathize with my users’ emotions – which guide their decisions – and assign solutions that directly respond to them.
What MY users need
As I learned from my interviews, my users were not happy they were taking medication in the first place. These were not users that were enthusiastic enough to utilize all of the features Medisafe had to offer, like their “Updates” tab that tells their users the latest news in the medicine world. My users needed something designed for their emotions, that they only had to think about when they take their medications for 30 seconds out of their busy days.
Defining the Goal
The problem at hand became clear…
Problem Statement
Chidera and Sage are hardworking, passionate people that need a simple, easy-to-use app that allows them to schedule and remember to take their medication because they want to remain healthy people.
The Goal
I had 2 goals, one for the mobile app and one for the responsive website to accompany it.
App Goal
Create an easy-to-use mobile app, with a simple interface and UX that allows users to schedule, remember and track their intake of their prescribed medication.
Site Goal
Create a website to compliment the RemindMe app that communicated the nonprofit's mission, solicited donations and allowed users to export their tracking reports.
Prototyping
We aren't done yet…
Information Architecture + Paper Wireframes
I mapped out the information architecture. Then, I planned for the app to begin on the schedule page, and have 3 other main pages: reporting, the medicine list and settings.
I also started to ideate design solutions with a Crazy Eights exercise.
Digital wireframes & Lofi Prototypes
I built out digital wireframes and developed a low-fidelity prototype to use for a usability study. My prototype was composed of 3 user flows that would allow the user to add a new medicine to their schedule, edit a new medicine, and delete a medicine.
Testing again
After creating my low-fidelity prototype, I conducted a usability study with the goal to find out if my app was easy and intuitive for my users.
I wanted to answer the following questions:
(1) Does the app deliver to the user an intuitive user flow and overall experience while scheduling medication?
(2) Are there parts of the user flow where users get stuck?
(3)Are there any features we can add to the app to enhance the user experience
Findings
Visibility
Users found it difficult to find the "add medicine" button on the homepage
Task Completion
Users found it difficult to know when they completed a task. Need for some sort of toast message.
Note: Participants made several statements about there not being icons on the footer navigation menu for my lo-fi prototype. I wouldn’t consider it a major insight of the study since I always had plans to update the design with recognizable iconography for my high fidelity prototype. Nevertheless, it was my mistake to not incorporate some sort of iconography for the sake of the study.
Refining the Design
It's time to develop my high-fidelity prototypes while responding to the insights from my usability study.
Here is the mobile app’s main user flow: scheduling medicine. Check out the prototype.
View Prototype
I wanted to answer the following questions:
Here are the mockups for the app’s complimentary website that allowed users to export their tracking reports and learn more about the nonprofit. I created high-fidelity prototypes for the mobile phones, tablets and desktops. The prototype has 2 main user flows: (1) export tracking report, and (2) submit a donation.
Accessibility
Reducing the cognitive load
Contrast
A high-contrast color palette and clear button labels help users easily identify the actions they can take.
Images
Medication images allow the user to identify their medication by its appearance alongside it's name.
Easy navigation
The navigation bar gives users quick and clear access to explore the app and complete user journeys (on app).
Takeaways & Next Steps
Here are a few takeaways from my time on this project
01 Usability Study fail
Moving forward, I might be able to garner better insights from my usability study participants by incorporating iconography. It’s possible its absence distracted my participants from offering other insights.
02 I 'm not God ✝️
Not every user's emotion can be responded to. Design can only do so much when it comes to taking away the negative feelings some people might feel about their need for prescribed medication. Design can't do everything.
03 Competitive Research is king!
Competitive audits are so important. My competitive audit not only gave me the foundational inspiration for my designs, but it also identify what my users DID NOT need.
Thanks for reading 🧑🏾🦲
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