Project overview
A new product for the growing healthcare market
Client’s product idea is a hub-like device that can automatically save and display the vital sign data you measure on different devices (blood pressure, blood sugar, etc.).
The plan was to build a 2C version for personal use at home, and 2B versions for various healthcare organizations.
My challenge
Out client’s request was to design the user experience of the 2C version for them. In this project, my main challenges were to:
Define the core value of the product that has a very unique idea
Design the unprecedented interface that displays personal health info on a hub
Defining the core value
In our client’s proposal, the product was aiming to solve various problems for both elders and their family, and it was unclear whose problem was the most important to solve and was real.
1. Find the real needs of elders & their family
So I planned and conducted user research interviewing elders, their family, and also healthcare workers who work with elders. I asked the elders about their daily routines related to personal healthcare, and asked elders’ family how they take care of the elders.
In order to be on the same page with our client more effectively, I asked our client’s PMs to sit in the interviews and discuss findings right after each session.
2. Pinpoint the problem to solve
What caught my attention was the tension between the elder parent who have chronic disease and used to be in emergencies, and the worried mid-aged child who cannot be around often.
The biggest tension comes from the parent not willing to ask for help when they don’t feel well because they don’t want to be a burden, and the child who are frustrated about it because they worry that emergencies could happen again.
elder parent
70-90 yrs old
have chronic disease
used to be in health emergency
worried mid-aged child
40-60 yrs old
mostly not at home
My dad never tells us that he’s feeling unwell.
I’m worried that I get the same chronic disease, so I sometimes remind myself to check if my vital signs are OK.
Another surprising finding was that the mid-aged child talked about how, because they have witnessed what happened to their parents, they are worried that they might have the same chronic disease.
I could feel the strong emotions below the surface when they were talking about these. And I believe strong emotions means there’s strong motivation. On top of that, the idea of syncing vital sign data with a hub can be of help.
3. The core value of HealthHub
Always in sync, immediately get notified of irregular signs
A reminder to check in on not only their parents but also themselves
4. Define and prioritize features
Based on the core value we defined for the product, we went back to the client’s list of features and started building the basis of the user experience from here.
Hub
Mobile App
Core features
Filing vital signs
choosing whose vital sign it is
Vital sign dashboard
for checking the latest and history
Measurement reminder
mainly for the mid-aged children
Irregular sign alert
get notified of potential emergency
Vital sign dashboard
for checking the latest and history
Others
Settings
Notification
SOS call button (for elders)
Designing the unprecedented interface
One of the biggest challenges in this project is to design for a product with nothing else looks similar to it. Most digital products have competitors that look similar, but it’s not the case with this product, a hub that displays family health information.
1. Looking at indirect references
I decided to take a look at (a) other hubs and (b) other products that also display family health data.
Based on how there are no obvious similarities in the layout designs, I supposed that there are no interactive patterns that users are used to and would expect from any hub device.
Another thing I’ve learned was that all of these hubs that are being used at home all went with a casual visual style.
Aside from the products with similar device type, I also looked at products that also displays family health info.
Usually when you think of a dashboard with multiple profiles or data sources, you think of combining the data in one display, for example, a shared calendar. However, I found out nor did Chiline or Apple Health App do this. They all keep each family member’s health data separated, and I think that’s because there’s no benefit in, say, looking at every one’s blood pressure in one view. It does not add additional insight in getting a hold of your family’s health conditions.
2. Ideating information architecture & main page layout
I started ideating the information architecture and sketching the layout of the main page with the following goals in mind:
display info by person
simple and casual visual style
3. Exploring ideas
I went through rounds of exploring ideas and going into heuristic evaluation sessions with senior designers.
We then decided on the below IA & main page layout because it:
was clearer that it’s a shared device
has a simpler navigation: it doesn’t need an additional layer (a lock screen) to display reminders
has a more casual visual style
Final version of the main page
4. Designing core features
Prioritizing list view for vital sign history
One core feature is for users to see the history of a particular vital sign.
Speaking of personal health data, we are used to seeing graphs of, say, our steps. But I saw in research that elders are used to document their blood pressure and blood sugar on a little notebook handed to them from the doctors. And on that notebook are lists, which are easy to scan for irregular signs.
So we decided to prioritize the list view for vital sign history.
Customizing trend graphs for vital signs
I studied how to read the trends for blood pressure and blood sugar, and designed the data visualization based on it.
For blood pressure, it’s mainly about comparing the numbers in the same time period of different days because the numbers fluctuates throughout the day. So I designed the graph with a button to show only the numbers of a certain period of time.
For blood sugar, it’s mainly about comparing the numbers before or after meal at the same time of the day. So I designed the graph with a button to show only the numbers before or after meal.
Conditional data saving flow to maximize automation
When hub receives a new data entry from vital sign measurement machines, it doesn’t know which person in the family it belongs to.
It’s best if elders don’t need to perform any task to save the data, but, according to our TA profile, it is likely that both the elder and their family use this product and there will be multiple user accounts on the hub, so I created a conditional user flow.
If there is only one person using the hub (only one account logged in), then hub automatically files the data to that account, and there will only be a notification showing that it has saved the data, with an option to edit if needed.
If there are more than one person, it asks users to file the data to a specific account.
Results
Product successfully launched in April, 2023
And on the news
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