Intro
Discover
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Overview
An app to help users manage chronic pain. Users input their symptoms and pain data to receive information on various conditions. The app also features a comprehensive wiki with trusted health information. ComfortCheck simplifies pain management, making it easy to track symptoms and remained informed about personal health.

ComfortCheck:
A Health Management App for Long-Term Pain

My Role
User Research
Sketching
Story Boarding
Interviews
Wireframing
Prototyping
UI Design
Team
Harrison Smith
Jason Zepahua
Sean Scretchen
Sydney Schalk
Zane Stephens
Timeline
3 months
2023

    Problem Statement

    Bridging the Gap in Chronic Pain Care

    Two people on our team had chronic health conditions. Their lived experience helped guide the direction of the project created an empathetic foundation for everyone on the team.
    Common Gaps in Healthcare
    • People often endure misdiagnoses and distress due to inadequate information and communication within the healthcare system.
    Need for Convenient Support
    • People with long-term pain often resort to online resources rather than their healthcare provider due to the costs and convenience.
    Empowering With Technology
    • What if there was an app that helped people track their symptoms and provided reliable information to empower users managing pain?
    How Did We Get There?
    Our project follows a standard double-diamond roadmap
    What makes this project particularly interesting is how a willingness to pivot our design direction while guided by our key values improved our final product. As such, my focus here is especially on those pivot moments and how they affected our work.
    Introducing ComfortCheck
    ComfortCheck is a health monitoring app for chronic patients, people with long-term conditions, and family members to log-in and track daily progress and personal health information.

    Discover

    Understanding the Users' Pain
    Over the course of three weeks we conducted interviews with 20 participants of varying condition and two experts in patient care.
    We conducted remote semi-structured interviews lasting around 30 minutes. Participants began by filling out a brief questionnaire describing the nature of their pain. To establish user requirements, we wanted to know three things:
    Interview Demographics
    We discovered a lot of challenges patients with chronic symptoms experience in symptom management and communication.
    We coded the participants’ interviews, categorized affinities, and analyzed them on a Miro board. Then, extracting from our data, we uncovered three main issues to focus on for next phases of design and ideation.
    Research Synthesis
    Key Insights from the Users
    My Responsibilities
    I wrote the research session guide for partners,  recruited all 20 participants and was the only point-of-contact with participants to set up interviews. I delegated team members to facilitate interviews, and out of the 20 interviews, I moderated 7 of them and note took for 8 of them.

    Define

    Design Informing Models
    Through synthesizing our primary research findings, we were able to create simple models to help inform the rest of the design.
    We coded the participants’ interviews, categorized affinities, and analyzed them on a Miro board. Then, extracting from our data, we created multiple design-informing diagrams to establish task hierarchy, user classes, and advanced flow models.
    Hierarchical Task Inventory
    Understanding the problems users face and what they want out of a health management app, we started to map the tasks and subtasks within our system.
    Work Roles
    Stakeholders include the user's family or caretaker if they're the ones tracking the condition. The doctor will also need access to the data for diagnosis.
    Advanced Flow Model
    We mapped the exchange of information between different users, care providers, and healthcare databases.

    Reframe

    Let's Take a Step Back

    After interviewing potential users, we had a broader understanding of the problem space and could define our goals.
    After studying challenges faced by people with chronic conditions, disabilities, or long term pain, we realized that their issues go beyond dealing with pain. A lot of problems we encountered were with communicating their symptoms to their doctors and receiving accurate medical information for their specific condition. We decided to pivot from a pain tracking app to a personal health management system and database.
    What if there was an app that let people track their symptoms and provided reliable information to assist users managing their pain?

    Ideate

    Exploring Potential Designs
    With n defined problem and goal to work towards, we started designing the layout with wireframes and storyboards.
    Sketched Wireframes
    With an understanding of the problems users face and what they want out of a health management app, we can start to design the tasks and subtasks within our system.
    Storyboarding
    While our app focused on the patient-side, we need to understand who else will engage with our system. Stakeholders include the user's family or caretaker if they're the ones tracking the condition. The doctor will also need access to the data for diagnosis.
    Digital Wireframes
    To further explore interaction possibilities and layout designs, we started creating low-fidelity mockups in Figma to test with users within our hypothesized work roles.

    Prototype

    Ideas into Reality: Introducing ComfortCheck
    The wireframe from last phase was where the project ended. I returned and developed the UX / UI based on feedback we recieved.
    Personal Growth
    • -Managed and lead a team of designers setting weekly benchmarks and long-term KPIs.
    • -Honed my UI skills while designing the final prototype.
    • -Applied a standard design thinking process from start to finish to create a tangible product based on user research.
    Goals for Next Time
    • -Delegate work more efficiently among team members where each person's tasks fit their capabilities.
    • -Do additional research after reframing our initial problem space to create stronger foundation of knowledge to support design decisions.
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