Smart Medicine Reminder - (Smidire)

Medicine reminder app for older adults and alzheimer’s patients

Role
Research, Ideation,
Visuals, Prototyping
Timeline
March – September 2019
Type
Mobile App Design
Tools Used
Figma, Illustrator, MAXQDA,
Pen & Paper

- Understanding The Challenge -

It is a frequent observation that people give their work and other material things more preference than their health care. The condition can be worse for our parents and grandparents; however, working adults can also forget to take adequate medicines.They frequently forget to take or overload their prescriptions, resulting in additional health deterioration, thus a platform was needed to remind them of their medicine time and quantity while also sending a notification to their caregiver.

- Research and Analysis -

To design the platform concept, I applied a design case study approach that consists of three phases. These are illustrated below and due to time constraints we focused on the two first phases of the framework. In the first Phase, I conducted user interviews to better understand their perspectives, and after analyzing the results, I designed the app in the second phase.

Interviews

Performed semi structured interviews. Eight volunteers agreed to be interviewed. Two were doctor and other six were patients to better understand their perspective and issue they face. I found a number of factors during our semi structured interviews which later helped me to see things more deeper according to the target group requirements and to finalize design idea.

- Design -

Participatory Design

Based on the findings of the interviews, I refined my concept. To engage users, I conducted a design workshop to develop the platform’s design concept as well as how users perceive the platform and desire to interact with it.

Sketching w/ Pen & Paper

Entering the design phase, I kept in mind everything I had collected so far – interviews data, their pain points, and the new flows. I started visualizing stuff by roughly sketching out concepts. I was able to obtain some heuristic feedback from my peers before starting high-fidelity design.

High-Fidelity Design

In this phase, my emphasis was put on visual consistency and how my interface and interaction could serve the core functionalities.

01.

User has to sign-in first  to use the app.

02.

If the user does not already have an account, they could create one by clicking the sign up button.

03.

Users will be redirected to the home page after signing in, where they will be able to see the medicines listed for them along with the time, as well as remove it from the right side.

04.

Users can view the exact details of each medicine by clicking on the medicine in the home page, and they can even modify the medicine plan.

05.

On the home page, users can add medicines by clicking the Add Medicines button, where they can enter the details of the medicine and set the medicine reminder time.

06.

On the Home page, on the right side, below, users can click on the setting option to see the four options. They can add user information, set notifications, check medical history, and get assistance and support.

- Evaluation & Iteration -

After the prototype was finished, smidire went through a set of usability tests. One feature that was lacking was the medical history component, which we eventually implemented based on user feedback.

- Visual Design -

Colours, typography and icons that make up smidire

- Future Steps -

In this concept of smart medicine reminder there is a room for bringing further improvements in the communication between doctor and patient, caretaker. It can be made possible that doctor can receive consistently the information about the patient regarding different aspects including heat rate, blood pressure and others which will be helpful for the doctor to monitor the health of patient instantly and on the basis of which doctor can suggest the patient what he/she should do to take care of possible issues they may face on the basis of automatic information which doctor will receive real time. For this purpose there needs to be some sensor s that will allow information transfer and it can be done.

- Reflection -

I gave my best in this design project and learned a ton.

The Importance of Planning

With a broad problem in hand, I needed to plan the research and design process in order to narrow down to the core of the challenge.

The Voice of The User

I am glad that I kept the process user-centered. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to look at the problem with neutrality, nor can I spot some of the most fatal usability issues in my original design.

The Just-Do-It Attitude

I have always found it hard to make decisions, especially design decisions that would potentially influence way more people than I could imagine. This time I practiced forcing myself to use not just what I learnd from the user, but also instincts as a designer, to quickly get the ball rolling. It is always the iterative process that brings a design to a better state, and I just have to start somewhere.

Key Takeaway

Great products take time and patience to create. You must be able to go back and improve on your existing ideas as you learn and gain insight from others.

© Yasir Abbasi 2022  | UX Designer |  yasirabbasi.se@gmail.com