Background
Mukki Gill, a Northeastern student and founder of ZOR, is developing a wearable device to predict epileptic seizures. As part of her goals, she assembled a team to create a mobile app to help people with epilepsy better understand and manage their seizures. She wanted an Beta version of the app, where users could log seizures, symptoms and patterns, and see how seizures might correlate to things like heart rate, appetite, and medications. The team of 7 consisted of developers, designers, and marketers. We met bi-weekly to brainstorm ideas, design and implement features, and gather feedback.
Project Overview
We worked together to define the core features for the app's Beta version based on her research with people living with epilepsy and talking to physicians and other experts in the epilepsy patient care space.
We came up with:
A logging system for tracking seizures, medications, lifestyle metrics, like sleep and stress, and other key symptoms
Reminders for appointments, medications, and other tasks
A calendar view for tracking seizure, medication, appointment, and lifestyle metrics history
A trends page for viewing visualizations and identifying patterns
The ability to export data for medical use
A profile with medication info and caregiver contacts
Extensive Research
User Research
Mukki attended the Epilepsy Therapies & Diagnostics Development (ETDD) Symposium and shared findings from patient and caregiver interviews about what they were looking for in an app.
Commonly requested features included:
Seizure tracking: The ability to log seizures, including information about the onset and kind.
Medication management: Reminders to take medication and information on potential side effects.
Lifestyle Trends: Tracking lifestyle metrics like heart beat and sleep quality and a way to identify trends.
Emergency support: Features for emergency contacts and a pre-planned seizure action plan.
Barriers to Use: Lack of awareness, user fatigue, privacy concern, complex app interfaces and limited integration with healthcare systems.
Competitor Research
We looked at existing epilepsy and wellness tracking apps, focusing on their approaches to data entry, visualization, and personalization. This research was crucial in understanding current user familiarity and identifying key opportunities for ZOR! to differentiate itself, introduce innovative features, and establish competitive advantages by addressing what other apps do well and where they fall short.
Inspired by Apple Health
A huge inspiration for us was Apple Health's display of information. We particularly noted its clean, intuitive Summary view, which lets users quickly understand key health metrics. The app's use of interactive charts and highlights to show trends over time, and the ability to pin favorite categories for quick access, was a valuable reference point for designing ZOR!'s data visualization and personalization features.
Considering Accessibility
We thoroughly read established guidelines like WCAG, focusing on factors such as color contrast and blindness, dynamic text sizing, intuitive navigation, and compatibility with assistive technologies. We also considered the impact of animations and visual patterns on individuals with photosensitive epilepsy, to prioritize safety and usability for all. This deep dive into accessibility ensures ZOR! can be used by a diverse range of users.
Building Information Architecture
Sitemap
We discussed what screens to include for the Beta version. Then, we mapped out how features would connect and support users in managing their epilepsy.
User Flows
We designed flows for each page and main functionalities, like creating an account, logging a seizure and daily survey, seeing trends, viewing the calendar, and updating information. The goal was to keep everything simple and intuitive.
