Asthma Is Complicated,And Can Be Hard To Manage
Google.org created revolutionary technology that measures an asthma patient’s breathing patterns, blood pressure, steps, sleep patterns, and other vital statistics. They were seeking a user-centered design to integrate their wearable device into a full-scope management system.
Create Companion Mobile App To Make Managing Asthma Easier
My role was to create a companion mobile app for the wearable that included not only data visualization for the device information, but offered holistic care management for the asthma patient. This independent project plan started with multi-dimensional user research, and worked through the design process to then focus on UI, creating system branding and a web landing page to market the product.
Discovery
Having no personal knowledge of asthma care needs, the first challenge was to educate myself about the disease and current care methods.
I discovered there are a variety of distinctions between types of asthma, and care regimens are layered and complicated.
Talking to Real People
Secondary research brought on a whole new set of questions to ask. I sent out a survey to gain insights directly from patients.
“Keep it fun and interesting, make it pretty. Make the app very detailed because asthma itself is very detailed.”
The responses were informative and eye-opening. Gaining empathy for chronic asthma suffers was instant, and making their day-to-day easier with this new technology was something I would love to help with.
One-on-one Follow-ups
My survey results were informative, but I felt like I needed to have conversations with a few people to really get a sense of their lifestyles.
Of course, each interviewee had completely different answers to each of these questions, especially when comparing someone with mild persistent to severe persistent asthma. It was becoming clear that in order for the app to reach everyone it needed to, the app needed to cover a lot of information and be extremely customizable.
Persona Development
Identifying the ideal persona for this project was tricky, since there were so many variations to the care of asthma. Since only a few of the survey responders were caregivers, I felt the results were not strong enough to support a second persona right now, but this could be added with a little more time. Kaitlin became the primary persona for this project, and her needs are diverse.
Refining the Strategy
By re-evaluating the initial survey results and asking a few follow up questions in the online asthma forums, I was able to distinguish which elements needed reminders, and what wish-list items Kaitlin really wanted for her ideal app.
Sitemap
Initial Wireframes
Usability Testing
Thinking about how Kaitlin might use her new device and app on a typical day, I created an initial prototype and asked users to attempt to complete several actions to find answers to these questions:
Design Challenges
Results overall were good, but there's a lot to work on. After just two users, I made the following changes:
These changes helped the following users focus on other features. They had more feedback:
Going forward:
Concept Board
Since branding was a big part of this project, I chose to spend the remaining time working on this part of the project instead of iterations of the prototype.
Style Tile
The Latest Wireframes
Adjustments were made to navigation based on usability testing results. I also chose a stand-in for the AMMA device Google.org has developed, in order to show a few features and screen colors.
Landing Page
Google.org requested a Landing Page design to showcase the new product line, and share information to potential users.
