GlucoGuardian
Diabetes care for all,
Difference-making design.
Role: UX Designer, UX Researcher
Tools: Figma, Keynote, Miro, Google Sheets, pen & paper
Methods: Competitive audit, directed storytelling, sketched wireframes, usability testing, high fidelity prototypes, feature cards, user journey map, Kano analysis, stakeholder presentation
Impact
Developed high-fidelity prototypes and other key deliverables for MelaninMD, a start-up founded by two medical students who are seeking to close healthcare disparities within communities of color and make a difference beyond the hospital doors. Diabetes care is one of five problem areas they are tackling. GlucoGuardian aims to track food, This project is being used to show proof of concept to potential investors and collaborators.
Final prototypes, splash screen, dashboard, and notifications
“It Makes You Feel Invisible”
I conducted a directed storytelling interview with a woman of color in her 30s who had experienced gestational diabetes and shared this quote regarding lack of culturally-specific food in the apps she had previously used. Cassava, a common root relied upon as a food stable by over 800 million people worldwide, was nowhere to be found in any of the food or wellness apps she had used.
Instead of getting information from an app she could use, she relied on Facebook groups, “got really good at Googling” and used other resources to track macros and sugar content in foods she was eating while pregnant. In our interview, she also shared that the stress of managing gestational diabetes was harmful for mother and child, and that bad glucose levels could even result in stillbirth.
Clearly, GlucoGuardian would be providing value in a critical area. In addition to seven more directed storytelling interviews conducted by our team with people who had Type 1, Type 2, or gestational diabetes (healthcare and diabetes are sensitive topics, we wanted to hear about real experiences, not survey data numbers), I was tasked with performing a competitive audit.
In the world of health and fitness, a sea of applications already exist and seeing what was already out there was instructive. The biggest takeaway from this research was: many, many, many apps track glucose or health metrics, many apps track food, some offer educational resources - none do them all.
A Path Begins To Take Shape
With initial research demonstrating a bona fide need for a “one-stop shop” app for diabetes care with a focus on inclusivity, our team was a step closer to design. To guide the process, I decided to make a user journey map for two reasons:
visualizing the user “happy path” within our potential app and identifying possible opportunities and pain points
and
providing our clients with a deliverable that could demonstrate GlucoGuardian’s potential value with investors and partners
Thinking of the scenario explained to me in the first directed storytelling interview, and the disparities facing people of color in the healthcare system, I began visualizing a user persona for GlucoGuardian.
While I worked on the user journey map, my colleagues conducted Kano analysis based on a set of feature cards designed to put many options in front of potential users to determine how desirable features might be.
Many health monitoring apps, many food tracking apps, some educational components, but no app doing them all
Users faced problems in diabetes care ranging from struggling to be seen within existing applications and lack of a centralized source for diabetes care to the cost of treatment and struggling with chronic condition management
Users faced problems in diabetes care ranging from struggling to be seen within existing applications and lack of a centralized source for diabetes care to the cost of treatment and struggling with chronic condition management
The Results Are In
While I had been visualizing the user journey, my colleagues wrapped up work on the Kano analysis. To be brief, Dr. Noriaki Kano is a Japanese educator in the fields of engineering and business management who released a paper in 1984 hypothesizing that customer loyalty to brands and products are related to emotional responses to features, and that these features are not all viewed equally by consumers. User experience designers like us like to use this method to get quantifiable data, generally about which features to implement over others.
There’s more to it, and it’s fascinating, but what’s important is:
9 users were surveyed about 12 potential features
These features were: a daily food snapshot, an appointment calendar, push notifications, diabetes education, a “get info” chat function, glucose data tracking, meal tracker with photo capability, a daily overview, food tracker with barcode/QR code, glucose alerts with food recommendation to return to normal range, a medication manager, and culturally competent provider recommendations
Through the power of spreadsheets, our data was quickly calculated and the results were in...
A Kano Table. This will make more sense shortly
(Credit to Daniel Zacarias)
... and of the 12 features suggested by the team
7 were deemed “attractive” features for implementation, meaning they would be good inclusions in the app
3 were deemed “performance” features for implementation, meaning they would vital for the function of the app
2 were deemed “indifferent.” Take them or leave them.
GlucoGuardian users believed nearly all of the proposed features were important for inclusion. Kano is supposed to help eliminate unattractive features, which robust surveying had hardly accomplished. We had decisions to make for an important project.
The decision was to prototype everything besides the medication manager feature and the barcode / QR code tracker. We split the topic areas into four categories:
Health data
Food
Education
Advocacy
I can’t turn down an infograph or chart, so Health Data was my charge.
A = Attractive Feature, P = Performance Feature, I = Indifferent Feature
Sketches And Usability Testing Mid-Fidelity Prototypes
Before rushing into a final prototype, I decided to sketch out some ideas for a dashboard and conduct a round of usability testing.
Based on the competitive audit and my general knowledge of fitness and wellness apps, I believed:
GlucoGuardian users would want data, but mostly topline information that could facilitate condition management, not overwhelm them. Higher level information could always be recorded and transmitted to the care team, anyway
Glucose should be front and center. Glucose measurements are the best indicator of how your body is processing sugar, and very abnormal measurements are usually a sign something is going wrong
Keep it simple, don’t overwhelm users, and provide value. I sketched out an idea for the dashboard, and performed (2 of 4) of our group’s usability tests on my prototype as well as my colleagues’ efforts.
General health questions such as “Could you please share how you gather information regarding diabetes health, if any?” and “Could you please share how you advocate for yourself in a healthcare setting, if you do?” were asked, as well as flow-specific questions: “Could you please show me how you would check your current glucose levels?” and “How would you review your historical glucose data?”
My usability testing would yield mostly affirmative results about the data screens, but other users would think differently.
An active user of diabetic apps would say “For a diabetes app, I expected a lot more to be there.” This user was right. In final prototypes, I was determined to add more.
Final Prototypes And The “Why”
I went back to work and fleshed out the dashboard screen, adding the ability for users to log individual events, like food and insulin. These features are integrated into the app already, so it made sense to include them in the dashboard.
I added an entire Notifications settings prototype, so users would be able to adjust glucose alert settings for greater control of their experience. Light alerts were added in case of emergency, as well as an option to automatically alert healthcare providers (or emergency responders) depending on the thoughts of the developer and further user testing. This feature exists in many personal safety apps, I thought it could provide real value in a health management app like GlucoGuardian.
A Notifications lock screen prototype was also added to show how GlucoGuardian could send push notifications, another feature rated highly in our Kano analysis.
Finally, inspired by the logo designed by a colleague in our sprint, and wanting to live up to the developer’s desire for an inclusive, welcoming healthcare experience, I mocked up an opening splash screen animation that would display the first time the user opened the app.
Sketches for the health data dashboard
Usability testing a prototype in Figma via Zoom
Final notifications lock screen and settings
A warm welcome and further data granularity and user options
Reflections
User experience is about challenging our own assumptions and empathizing with users to create products that are not just usable, but improve real people’s lives. Never have I felt that more than in the two weeks I worked on GlucoGuardian.
Rigorous testing on feature desirability created an interesting problem: users wanted a lot of features for GlucoGuardian. In the fully developed application, I hope for even more: fully fleshed out provider integration, more social integration to foster a sense of community, and embedded educational videos could add even more utility to the app
The sweet spot of “enough information to be valuable, not so much as to overwhelm” is tough to hit. In the final app, different users are going to want different data and robust toggle options should be included
I was surprised again and again during GlucoGuardian’s development. Surveyed users didn’t want medication management or barcode scannable food integration. I imagine this is because users get this functionality elsewhere, or simply prefer to read the label on packaged food items
A huge thank you to the MelaninMD team, my colleagues, and everyone who participated in this project. It was an honor. Thanks for reading about the journey.