THE PROBLEM
The Project
We all enjoy the benefits of healthful living. Homeopathic medicine is safe, effective, scientifice, natural, helps build resistance and is for all ages. This app called SymptomMatch allows millennials, Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers to input their symptoms to discover what homeopathic medicines they should use to alleviate their symptoms and how often to take the medicines.My Role
For this project, I played the the role of principal UX architect for my team of 1. I interviewed key members of the target audience and then created deliverables for this case study.The Challenge
Health is the cornerstone to well-being and success no matter your age, aspiration or goals. Even those in the best health have regular issues crop up as they age. Western medicines can prove to have very harsh side effect so more and more people in the millennial and Generation X demographics are turning to natural remedies that work, specifically homeopathic medications. The problem is finding the medication, dosage and frequency to remedy your particular symptom. The internet is unreliable and physical appointments with doctor who know the craft are hard-to-come by and expensive. The answer is SymptomMatch.The Tools
I used the following software to complete this project: Google suite, Sketch, InVision, Adobe Creative Suite, Optimal Workshop, Sublime Text 2 and Cyberduck.DISCOVERY
The Client
The stakeholder is Ragunath Prasad. He is the patriarch of a large Indian family in the western United States that wanted a tool that the younger people in the family could use going forward. The client wants to create a tool that most of the family (about 95%), who are 50 years and younger would be able to use. The primary target audience is heavily reliant on their smartphones and are comfortable using Google products. They want a low-maintenance product that most are comfortable using and that would take very little upkeep over the years.
Design, discovery and validation
One of the key parts of discovery is learning about the target audience for the product. This informs the design and validation of the product. The target audience for this app are adults in the Swaroop family. They range from 18-year-olds to those in their 80s. The target audience is split into three segments:
Competitive analysis
The next step was taking a look at the competitors of SymptomMatch and discover the usability issues and sweet spots of each. The competitors I studied included ABC Homeopathy, Boiron Homeopathic Medicine Finder and National Center for Homeopathy. I reviewed each on all 10 usability heuristics developed by Jakob Nielsen. After collecting the data in this chart I wrote a Heuristic Evaluation Case Study on my findings.
The high-level findings included:
- • Registration flow: Make this simple. Ask for a username, password and email address. If there is any other information that is necessary, ask for that when the user fills in his/her profile.
- • Finding a medication based on symptom: It is necessary to ask for specific symptoms in addition to the general ones the user inputs into the search bar. However, to make sure the user understands what is about to happen provide instructional text that tells them that in addition to the symptom they inputted they will be asked for more specific symptoms to make sure they get the right homeopathic remedy.
- • Provide help: Even if the website seems straightforward to those creating it, it is important to have a Help tool like an FAQ, onboarding tool or some sort of documentation that answers common questions.
UX RESEARCH
Interviews
The first step is understanding the users' frustrations, motivations and goals for SymptomMatch. I created an Interview Script and interviewed 10 people from my target audience which includes both elderly adults, middle-age adults and young adults living in Orange County and in the Marin County. Immediately after the interviews I wrote Interview Summaries and then wrote a UX Insight Report to synthesize my findings.
The high-level findings indicated that the users wanted to:
- • Be able to search for symptoms
- • Be able match medications with symptoms
- • Be able to see how medication potencies and frequency of application work
- • Be able to see if any medicines clash and be able to look up antidotes
Persona & empathy map
Once I had completed my research, the next step was created a set of personas and empathy maps based on those interviews. My analysis showed three clear customer types which I named Vidya the homemaker, Yash the provider and Roshni the millennial.
Scenario maps
Once I had built the personas and empathy maps for Vidya, Yash and Roshni from the research I had completed, I was all set to create the scenario maps. This was intended to look at the step-by-step journey each of my personas took to use SymptomMatch and the ideas, questions and comments that arose from that journey. Here is what I came up with.
Storyboard
This storyboard is based on the Vidya scenario map that you can see above. The main draw of a storyboard is that easy to consume and accessible to all from high-level CTO's to production level staff. They are fun, entertaining and informative. This one tells the the story of Vidya, her grandson Ram and SymptomMatch.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Card sort, insights and site map
I created a list of tasks that the user would need to do on SymptomMatch. These tasks were turned into cards for an open card sort using Optimal Workshop with completed results from 9 members of my target audience.
Based on the user data, shown in the Similarity Matrix I drew the following insights:
- • 85% to 100% agreement on tasks that should go in the Login/Register for new account.
- • 100% agreement on the Shop page and the focused tasks that it should include.
- • 57% to 100% agreement on the prime importance SymptomSearch functionality and how it should be paired with functionality that will tell the user if a medicine works with another, clashes with other medicines or is antidote for a clash.
The card sort revealed some surprises about how the users would prefer to see SymptomMatch organized. You can read the full insight report at the link. Based on these insights, it was clear the site map should include the following pages: Login/Register, Home, Shop, Help and Profile as shown in the site map below.
User Flows
Having just completed the card sort, user research and, I used the insight I gleaned from this process to create user flows to complete my thought process on how best to get Yash, Vidya and Roshni through SymptomMatch.I created three primary task flows including registering for an account, finding a medicine using SymptomSearch and finding an antidote.
User stories
Based on the research I gathered about the users and SymptomMatch's competitors, the next step was to then develop the user stories to help determine the directions of the app with its core features. User Stories were created around the core features of the following: Login, SymptomSearch, Relationships, Help, Shop and Profile
DESIGN
Sketches
I started off sketching the screens for the SymptomMatch app following Luke Wroblewski's Mobile First methodology. I began with the Splash Page based on best practices and research before resuming the task for the whole app. As a practice, I generally makes at least three sketches of the Home Page for the client to choose from. Here are the finalized sketches:
Wireframes
When I reach the wireframes stage, I get very detail-oriented. In this step I go from the general idea I provide in the sketches to wires that provide every type of functionality that will be in the final prototype. In the wireframe stage, I stay away from color, real content in photos and text as well as stylized font.
Style Guide
This is the style guide for SymptomMatch. It includes the colors, typography, icons, photographs display, grid and logo that will be used in the app which will be represented in the prototype's visual design. The colors and typography were chosen to reflect the brand and target audience's needs. Since most of the audience are made up of iPhone users the typography is San Francisco Display which is commonly used in this app community.
Mockups
The mockups incorporate the styles established in the Style Guide as well as real content including photographs and copy to show what the app will look like in its final stages. This is the stylized version of the wireframes.
Prototype
Using Figma, I created an interactive prototype for SymptomMatch. This includes colors, typography and content used in the app. This was based on the wireframes and style guide I have created to accommodate the needs of Vidya, Yash and Roshni as they interact with SymptomMatch.
TESTING
Methods
The team of one human factors graduate student and professional UX-UI designer compiled the information contained in this report. This person created a usability test plan following steps
- 1. Determine User Goals: Determined via User Needs Analysis of n = 6 homeopathic patients
- 2. Determine Customer Requirements: Determined from information from client, a homeopathic doctor, and preceding qualitative interviews with target audience
- 3. Determine Goals of Evaluation: Determine how well the existing iteration of the prototype provides readily-available, easily-accessible and important information to current patients (task performance). Identify usability issues that hinder access to relevant information or cause frustration in those using this application (user satisfaction).
- 4. Determine Evaluation Methods: Usability evaluation
- 5. Detail Methods Being Used: Moderated formative usability testing (appropriate for iterative design, limited participants, and quick turnaround time)
- 6. Identify test metrics
- • Time on task
- • Task success rate
- • Self-reported task difficulty
- • System usability scale for Websites (SUS)
User needs analysis
The first step in the process was to perform the user needs analysis, which determines who your users are, their characteristics, what demands the system will put on them and what performance criteria you will evaluate. This is an outline of the users for the SystemMatch medical application:
- 1. Identify the different classes of users (patient categories).
- • Elderly patients
- • Middle-aged patients
- • Flight test director
- • Gen-Z patients
- 2. Characteristics of users (that will affect how they use/interact with product)
- • Gender: Male or female
- • Age: Between 21 and 80 years old
- • Frequency of usage: None
- 3. Operational procedures
- • Determined by the users
- 4. Performance criteria (speed, accuracy, quality, consequences of not meeting criteria)
- • Completion time
- • Accuracy
- 5. Task demands (physical, perceptual, cognitive, health and safety)
- • Physical, perceptual, cognitive, health and safety
- 6. Environment where product will be used
- • Over Zoom call with training provided beforehand
- 7. Availability of technical assistance
- • None except what can be found on prototype
Customer requirements
The second step in the process is to understand the context in which the tool will be used in and the requirements set by the customer.
- Use case: Patients and casual users of homeopathic medicines said difficulty in finding the appropriate medications stopped them from using homeopathy as a means to resolve a medical ailment. They needed a reliable tool that allows searching, shopping for and providing a cataloging of side effects and harmful interactions to improve trust in the diagnosis.
- • Create a mobile that allows patients to search for a medicine by single or multiple symptoms.
- • This tool shall cue users to input symptoms in an easy way that prevents overloading the user.
- • This tool shall also tell the user where to buy these medications.
- • This tool shall also inform users of side effects or harmful interactions with other medications.
Goals of evaluation
Determine how well the existing iteration of the prototype provides readily-available, easily-accessible and important information to current patients (task performance). Identify usability issues that hinder access to relevant information or cause frustration in those using this tool (user satisfaction).
Method being used
Efficiency, effectiveness and usability of this product will be evaluated using a moderated formative usability test which is appropriate for iterative design, limited participants and quick turnaround time.
Metrics being used
- • Time on task
- • Task success rate
- • Self-reported task difficulty
- • System usability scale (SUS) for websites
COMING SOON
RESULTS
I am currently working on testing this prototype with participants in the target audience. Working from a test plan, I will use the interactive prototype to get quantitative data including response time, accuracy data and self-reported System Usability Scale (SUS) scores. Stay tuned for those results.