Overview
When IBM partnered with Medtronic to create a mobile application to help patients with type 1 diabetes, I immediately wanted to be on the project because of the impact it could have for the user.
The project objective was to create an application that could be paired with Medtronic insulin pumps and a continuous glucose monitors. The app connects to the Watson cloud and will provide insights based on an analysis of both information entered by the user as well as data from the connected devices. The application will be able to track the data and eventually predict a hypoglycemic event within 3 hours.
Challenge
In 2013, my daughter Sophia was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. She was only three years old at the time, and this was by far one of the most difficult periods of my life. When I was selected for the project I had three years of diabetes care under my belt; but understanding that I am only a single user type, I still researched all I could about Medtronic and their users. The team flew to Northridge, CA and, after talking with the wonderful team there, discovered how Medtronic wanted to differentiate themselves with this application by taking the daily life of someone with diabetes into consideration and see how the things a user experiences (such as activity, diet, mood, etc.) can impact them.
Once I got home I began recruiting sponsor users because we need user insight. I reached out to the Joslin clinic and interviewed doctors and nurse practitioners. I attended a conference held by the JDRF and spoke to people about what they would want, what type of information would they find valuable, and what type of information they would want to track.
*This product is still in development and this showcases a certain time frame of the project.
Team
Creative Director
3 Designers
Information Architect
Business Analyst
Project Manager
Agile Development Team
Solution
The team and I spent three weeks working to generate an idea. After a while (and some long weekends) we had a concept that we were excited about: an application that could generate insights from Watson, in a friendly and absolutely helpful voice. This app also has a social media-like stream that shows inputs, insights, live data and historical data. The user can take these easily digestible insights and make positive behavior changes.
Diabetes is a very complicated disease. The user has a number of things to take care of every day due to their condition, and the last thing we wanted to do was add another step. If we were going to add anything to their busy day we were going to reward them with valuable insights. The user can enter information about the food they are eating – such as how many carbohydrates are in each food item. The carbs can be tracked by time of day, how much activity the user has engaged in, and how their body has reacted in the past to those carbs vs. the insulin administered.
The user can access their live reading like a typical CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor). In the body of the interface the user can see the stream we developed, which is the principal communication for the user to see what happens with the data they enter. If the user taps into the top Live section it takes them into an expanded view where they can look through historical data. I was primarily responsible for the design of the graphical display of this quantitative information. This information is important because the user can begin to identify trends over set amounts of times that can be filtered and sorted as needed.
My Role
This was a tremendous team effort and I find myself saying "we" a lot. Specifically, my role was the lead designer on the project. I handled everything from the overall look of the design to the the information architecture. I worked closely with the Medtronic team to interpret their branding in order to ensure that this application, while new and refreshing, would look like it’s from the Medtronic family.
As mentioned, research was extremely important for the success of this project. Getting to understand other user types was essential. It was important to have playbacks with the clients and developers on a weekly basis to make sure everything we were making was feasible. I was involving stakeholders and users in playbacks, design reviews, and even a workable prototype that we could put in someone's hand.
This was by far one of the most complicated applications that I've ever worked on. It includes robust functionality and a complicated user flow. We needed to constantly determine the value of each screen and features, and craft the experience around our users unlike ever before. I focused on bridging all of the disparate experiences in the app together in a cohesive way. We made sure the live data is as prominent as the historical data. Time was also a huge factor; and, after working closely with the client, we quickly transitioned from wireframes to high fidelity mock ups in order to ensure accurate feedback and stakeholder buy-in.
*This product is still in development and this showcases a certain time frame of the project.