MedVault - End-to-end MVP mobile app to assist users in reducing drug-drug interaction risks and streamlining prescription medication management.
OVERVIEW
My role: UX Researcher
Led the research efforts and helped define the requirements through the discovery of user behaviors and preferences.
Conducted user interviews and usability testing to validate design decisions, ensuring alignment with direct user insights.
Timeline Type Industry
4 months Mobile Application Healthcare
Team
UX Researchers(2), Project Lead(1), UX/UI Team(4), Visual Designer(1)
Methods
Secondary research, Competitive analysis, User surveys, User interviews, Card sorting, Usability testing with Maze
PROCESS
BACKGROUND
Today, the mixing of different medications can be risky for patients, known as drug-drug interactions (DDIs), a significant concern for patient safety. Many individuals with multiple health conditions take various medications, increasing the instances of potential negative interactions between drugs.
According to the National Library of Medicine, approximately 28.9% of hospital patients experience severe interactions between their medications, posing potential risks.
Reference by National Library of Medicine
GOAL
How can we increase users' awareness of adverse effects when taking multiple prescription medications to reduce the chance of potential drug-drug interactions (DDI)?
DISCOVER
Understanding diverse patients: During our initial research, we pinpointed three user groups
We aimed to understand the factors contributing to severe interactions between their medications, posing potential risks, and identify the types of patients affected. To achieve this, we decided to conduct thorough research to validate our assumptions from the initial user research before progressing to the brainstorming phase
Our team faced a decision challenge regarding the prioritization of EHR integration, prompted by a critical finding from the research—revealing a 96% discrepancy in medication records when patients switch doctors.
We found multiple doctors handling a patient's care led to inaccurate medication information. A study showed a 96% disparity between patient-reported medications and doctors' beliefs. EHR integration increased serious interaction warnings by 20% and combined warnings by 17%. We decided to revisit and prioritize this issue as it involves the substantial task of integrating systems, taking into account the scope of our project. Our team recognized the complexity and importance of the task within the broader context of the project.
Existing healthcare apps lack emphasis on the significance of drug interactions, making it challenging for users to be aware when combining medications.
To gain a comprehensive understanding of the existing solutions in the market, we downloaded five healthcare apps and assessed 12 common features, considering their key strengths and weaknesses. We identified a few areas where our competitors lacked effective solutions or failed to address certain issues, as outlined in the following image.
HYPOTHESIS
Users managing multiple medications face challenges in proper medication intake, organization, and may be at risk for Drug-Drug Interactions (DDI).
About 70% of participants weren’t informed about potential interactions but had partial knowledge.
We conducted user surveys with 58 participants aged 18 to over 65 to understand users' awareness of potential drug interactions while taking medications and to explore their current methods of managing multiple medications.
Key Insight:
60% took prescription medications or supplements on a daily basis.
>72% faced challenges in managing medications due to forgetfulness.
>67% relied on routine and memory for taking medications.
DEFINE
Based on our research, we identified specific user groups to define the target audience for our product.
Jasmine is a woman in her 50's who takes vitamins and prescribed drugs on a daily basis to manage her health conditions. She uses a calendar and a pill organizer to help remind her to take her medications.
We chose two key features to address core user issues: medication forgetfulness and unintentional mixing leading to side effects, identified as significant areas in our research.
We aimed to efficiently manage our time by prioritizing features critical for project timelines, focusing on those problems as they were identified as the most crucial areas during our research.
IDEATE
We conducted closed card sorting, tasking users with grouping each card into the categories they find most appropriate. This exploration of information architecture aimed to visualize how users would navigate the app.
We identified four main areas:
- Dashboard - Interaction checker
- My medications - Profile and Settings
Based on our previous exploration, we developed user scenarios and flows to illustrate the sequence of steps and interactions we envisioned for the user.
These wireframes represent our initial draft, which will be tested through clickable prototypes with users.
💡We chose the mobile version over the web. The health industry is predicted to reach $12.1 billion by 2030. With the introduction of COVID-19, many patients are taking more of an interest in monitoring their own health. There is a growing demand for personalized healthcare solutions that enhance patient safety and well-being.
TESTING & ITERATIONS
User flows achieved a 90% success rate, but 65% of users experienced misclicks.
We conducted 5 remote unmoderated usability tests with clickable wireframes, assigning users two tasks for each of the two user flows.
Below are the major iterations that we analyzed, addressing issues uncovered during our usability test.
Based on the feedback from the usability tests, we iterated several times and finalized our MVP.
We plan to iterate based on more user feedback and add new features to evolve the MVP.
Full Prototype
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Full Prototype 📱
Full Prototype
What have I learned?
The main challenge in this project was the time constraints. I learned that we can’t accomplish everything within a small period of time so we had to prioritize based on the effort and value matrix to get an MVP that can be used as the baseline to cover the main problem space of our users.
What comes next?
In phase 2, we plan on expanding on the MVP to include new features that will be prioritized based on the feedback from more users as they continue to use the app.