 Health (Reconceptualized)
My Roles
UX Researcher
UX Writer
UI Designer
Tools
Figma
Miro
Zoom
Challenge
Health monitoring apps provide users an in-depth look into their health. And never has that been more vital than now. Apple Health provides users a rich, intuitive experience, but does lack an attention to personalization. Consider adding new dashboard, and customization.
Deliverables
Sketches, Low & Mid-Fidelity Wireframes, Iterated Wireframes, Interactive Prototype
First Health Check
Me & The Project
As a Product Designer, we are often brought into a project at various stages. That was the case for me in this particular project. I was brought in half-way through the research phase.
What's already in the market?
Understanding which companies are already in the market space is essential. It is vital to see which elements makes then successful, aligns the team with industry standards, and illuminates the team on what could make our product unique. This must be understood before conceptualizing a solution.
What are the users saying?
To gain perspective on the current user experience, the team and I devised a plan on how to obtain and conduct user interviews.
Competitive Analysis
Key insights
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Apple Health separates itself from the other apps because they provide the user with access to their health records from their providers
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Apple Health and GoogleFit are mainly used/ downloaded because they are free. Interestingly, Lifesum also has a considerable amount of downloads, is #33 in Health & Fitness iOS app store, and Editor’s Choice despite it being subscription-based on the pricier side ($22 to $44 quarterly)
Market opportunities
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Including health records from providers
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Personalization
User Interviews
Research:
What's already in the market?
Understanding which companies are already in the market space is essential. It is vital to see which elements makes then successful, aligns the team with industry standards, and illuminates the team on what could make our product unique. This must be understood before conceptualizing a solution.
What are the users saying?
To gain perspective on the current user experience, the team and I devised a plan on how to obtain and conduct user interviews.
Competitive Analysis
Key insights
-
Apple Health separates itself from the other apps because they provide the user with access to their health records from their providers
-
Apple Health and GoogleFit are mainly used/ downloaded because they are free. Interestingly, Lifesum also has a considerable amount of downloads, is #33 in Health & Fitness iOS app store, and Editor’s Choice despite it being subscription-based on the pricier side ($22 to $44 quarterly)
Market opportunities
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Including health records from providers
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Personalization
User Interviews
Key insights
Users expressed a need for convenience and how Apple Health was easy to use because it automatically tracked their steps for them without manually inputting data
Users reported that they would like to have different or more features on the Apple Health app:
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Better guidance prompts in syncing with different apps
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Calendar, so that it's more intuitive to use
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Personalization, they felt as if the current dashboard had info that was not relevant to them
Users didn’t know about the additional categories within the Apple Health browse section, but also didn’t care for it as it didn’t pertain to them
There were decreeable users. Some used theses apps to track fitness, other to track health conditions. And for those that used apps to track both, it was a must for them to do it in one app.
Medical users have more difficulties using the app and think it's too overwhelming, whereas Fitness users think the opposite
Affinity Diagram
Objective
Since we had all of the vital information from users, what we did with it was essential. I advocated for, and the team agreed to conduct an Affinity Diagram exercise. It helped us sort the data into identifiable trends.
Problem Statement: First Iteration
Objective
After the competitive analysis, user interviews, and affinity diagram were completed, it was time to synthesize that data into a unified problem statement. A proposition that clarified the teams ambitions, something we could aim at with our design solution.
The health-conscious professional with health conditions needs an intuitive and user-friendly way to monitor their health data and provide individualized approaches to subdue their health conditions so that they can lead a healthier quality of life.
Synthesis: User Check-In
Who are our users?
After the team acquired a health amount of research on the market and user needs, we were ready to start defining the issues presented in the data. We used many UX techniques to help us define the problem the users were having.
Affinity Diagram
Objective
Since we had all of the vital information from users, what we did with it was essential. I advocated for, and the team agreed to conduct an Affinity Diagram exercise. It helped us sort the data into identifiable trends.
User Persona
Objective
At this time in the design process, personifying the data that was gathered will help the team build a design solution for this hypothetical product.
Primary persona
Jeffrey represented our highest ideals of a user of our potential solution. The goals this hypothetical users wants to accomplish are the goals that we have to achieve in our design solution.
Problem Statement: First Iteration
Objective
After completing some UX techniques to synthesize our findings we have enough data to create a problem statement. A proposition that clarified the teams ambitions, something we could aim at with our design solution.
The health-conscious professional with health conditions needs an intuitive and user-friendly way to monitor their health data and provide individualized approaches to subdue their health conditions so that they can lead a healthier quality of life.
Ideation:
What are potential solutions?
This stage of the design process is filled with excitement, creativity, and - I can not stress this enough patience. When we as a UX team begin to ideate, that is, take all the research and synthesis and start conceptualizing solutions - it can be convoluted. As you will see, we will ideate, refine, and ideate again, always keeping the user's needs in mind.
Diverge Sketches
Objective
By putting pen to paper, UX Designers start to conceptualize design solutions. Before this point, we did not know the user's needs, and without that vital information, we would not have conceptualized workable solutions that met the user's goals. This particular exercise is meant to be messy and has the purpose of being critiqued by team members and stakeholders.
Concept 1: Dashboard
Process
Since we worked as a team, I advocated for, and the team agreed to break up our sketch concepts. For example, I worked on the dashboard and profile portion of the concept. And others work on various parts. For instance, another teammate conceptualized how a user would all blood pressure data to the app.
Screen 1
I came up with the idea of a dashboard. Where the medical conditions that they are monitoring are listed. Along with some insights, that they can edit. For example, they can add things like heart rate and temperature.
This displays a profile view. Here is where the personalization comes in. Consistent with the current Apple design language, the profile photo is on the top right. And then they will have access to their health board, here is where they can put alignments that they are tracking and vitals that they want to see.
Screen 2
You can view the complete diverge sketches down below.
Second Health Check
So much ambiguity
User experience design has many intricacies, and as designers, we are skilled in focusing on the solution goals. But that does not mean that dealing with ambiguity disappears. It is as fundamental as the design process itself.
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Right after the team gave feedback to each other about the diverge sketches, things felt overwhelming and hazy. There were lots of ideas on the (surgery) table, and we need to hone in on what exactly we needed to take from this exercise. We concluded that conducting a heuristic evaluation would help the team focus on what heuristics the current Apple Health app practiced, and where we could focus some of the great concepts that we imagined.
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We also had to use techniques that would put into perspective elements that we needed to account. We use a priority matrix to dictate what we needed to fix in order of urgency and importance to the user.
Heuristic Evaluation
Objective
This helped the team clarify the current usability issues with the Apple Health app. It informed us on aspects that needed to be improved for our design solution.
Process
Each team member conduct their own individual heuristic evaluation, and then we compared as a team on our findings. As you will see below, a heuristic evaluation must have a set of evaluators that represent usability metrics.
Priority Matrix
Objective
Informed the team on which elements of the potential design solution needed to be conceptualized first. For example, deciding between personalization over better onboarding.
Process
We used the collaboration tool Miro. Each team member got their own sticky notes and started writing points that users mentioned as important to them. Then we placed them in one of the four categories that you will see below. We then placed blue dots on elements we concluded were the highest priority.
Site Map
Objective
Since we now had diverge sketches, refined usability understanding (heuristic evaluation), and know what we need to focus on (priority matrix) we could start structuring the design solution.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes & Prototype
Objective
Once there is a site map, a UX team can now take everything that has been learned up to this point and start conceptualizing design solutions, digitally.
Process
As a team, we worked in Figma and started wireframing. We then used Figma to create a clickable prototype.
View the all wireframe screens down below.
Video demo: Prototype
Implementation: It's time to test!
What do users think?
Everything that we have done up to this point, research, synthesis, ideation, have all lead up to us testing our design solution with users. This is where we gain insights on the improvements that we have made.
Usability Testing
Objective
To gain insight on the usability of our design solution. Is the flow easy? Do the purposes of the screens make sense? Theses are just some factors that we will be looking to receive from our users.
Process
Recruited users via online survey. To conduct the test we used Zoom and had the user screen share.
Key insights
Participants mentioned that navigating the app was slightly difficult because of the hard distinction between medical categories, medical data, and medical details
Most of the participants had a hard time linking their medical records because they saw it on Favorites first
Participants mentioned that the exporting personal information should be not at the bottom but somewhere where they can easily have access
Some participants expressed that they like the plus button from the tutorial Dashboard layout rather than the label of “Edit"
Final Health Check: Key Learnings
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As someone that came into the project once it had begun, it was essential for me to adapt into the already established team dynamic. That doesn't mean that I didn't bring new techniques and insight, I definitely did. But knowing that the group was working well prior, and I just added to the great dynamic.
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This project was the most convoluted that I have worked on so far. Meaning, that since Apple Health was already a successful digital product, knowing that our only task was to improve very specific user needs was - at the beginning hard to grasp. But since we worked at it as a group through various techniques, we were able to end the project successfully.
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Because of this project, I have further confirmation that I work best on a team. My personality fits well in a team dynamic, and I offer my unique insights that help the team function.