Overview
Problem:
Healthy living has become a lifestyle in the age of smartphones and smartwatches. Therefore, many people already know that measuring specific body and health data is part of everyday life. However, most find it challenging to interpret their data because it's abstract and, at times, overwhelming due to its amount. As a result, there is a large gap between access to health data and healthy living.
Healthy living has become a lifestyle in the age of smartphones and smartwatches. Therefore, many people already know that measuring specific body and health data is part of everyday life. However, most find it challenging to interpret their data because it's abstract and, at times, overwhelming due to its amount. As a result, there is a large gap between access to health data and healthy living.
Solution:
Ease is a smartphone app that adapts to the user's routines and acts as a companion and helper. Instead of unmanageable amounts of data, users receive personalized messages that put their data in context and contain recommendations to maintain or improve health.
Ease is a smartphone app that adapts to the user's routines and acts as a companion and helper. Instead of unmanageable amounts of data, users receive personalized messages that put their data in context and contain recommendations to maintain or improve health.
Responsibility:
UX Design & Research
UX Design & Research
Methods:
Analytical Research, Contextual interviews, Personas, Problem Tree, User Journey, User Tests, Prototyping
Analytical Research, Contextual interviews, Personas, Problem Tree, User Journey, User Tests, Prototyping
Tools:
Adobe XD, Illustrator, After Effects
Adobe XD, Illustrator, After Effects
Project background
Ease results from the university studio project Mobile Care in the summer term of 2020. Covid forced everybody to work from home and made health a more important topic than ever. So, with my fellow student, Celine, we set out to rethink our approach to health.
Research & interviews
During my health research, we identified two big problems that sparked my interest. Firstly, although it's easy nowadays to track health-related data (heart frequency, steps, stress level, weight, sleep routines, and more), it doesn't necessarily contribute to our health. Secondly, health prevention doesn't get enough attention. Interviews with friends validated my discoveries. On top, they revealed various causes and effects of the problem. To develop a better understanding of the problem, we used the Problem Tree method.
User journey
Next, we created a user journey to understand the users' behavior and identify pain points and opportunities for a solution. Through that, I learned: (1) health care needs to be individual and personal; (2) data is most valuable when presented in a context; (3) health care is an ongoing process that requires perseverance.
Based on our research and findings, we defined a concrete design challenge: How might we help people stay healthy and increase their awareness of their mental and physical condition?
Prototyping
Through a design sprint, we developed the idea to create a virtual assistant for preventive health care. The idea seemed promising as it could work as a smartphone app allowing users to interact with the assistant frequently throughout the day, track various data, or access data from other apps. To test our idea, we started to prototype the experience by manually chatting with test persons and tracking their health status.
Learnings & iterations
The initial tests revealed: (1) People struggled to put their health status in numbers. (2) They didn't know if their routines were good enough. (3) Many questions at once make it less inviting to reply as it requires more effort.
Based on this learning, we iterated our test. We sent the questions in their appropriate time and context throughout the day. We asked the test persons to respond verbally (not numbers); we included helpful facts in the message (e.g., how much water is enough to drink per day); we formulated the messages more personal.
Solution & result
To close this discrepancy between technical potential and user-friendliness, we developed the concept of Ease. This smartphone app adapts to the user's routines and acts as a companion and helper. Through a chat interface, users, on the one side, receive personalized messages that put their data in context and contain recommendations to maintain or improve health. On the other side, they can reply with text or voice messages to questions about their health and wellbeing. As a result, users gain more awareness of their health status and can easily engage in health prevention.
Personal and contextual messages
Ease interacts with you via chat, helps you reflect on your health status, and interprets your verbal expressions.
Ease interacts with you via chat, helps you reflect on your health status, and interprets your verbal expressions.
Your profile and data
Ease provides a constant overview of your activity, data, and prognoses for your overall wellbeing.
Ease provides a constant overview of your activity, data, and prognoses for your overall wellbeing.
Add more data manually
Ease allows you to track additional data like meals, sports activities, and more.
Ease allows you to track additional data like meals, sports activities, and more.
Gamification
Ease keeps you motivated through a level system and rewards your progress.
Ease keeps you motivated through a level system and rewards your progress.
Outlook
Ease doesn't intend to replace visiting physicians regularly. However, Ease can help to see a physician in time if it recognizes any irregularities and might allow for more informed and individualized health treatments.
