Project Overview: A responsive health & well being portal for health conscious individuals
Role: Lead UX Designer, Head Researcher, Project Manager & Coordinator
Timeline: March-September 2023
Silver First is a digital healthcare management app for seniors (65+) to effectively and easily carry out daily routine medical tasks on the go. It's a tech friendly solution that helps older adults sustain control of their everyday healthcare needs unassisted. The interface is simple, low maintenance, and offers a variety of features and functions for age advanced demographics based on their crucial input and feedback during the course of development. Those include, but are not limited to, the following: a medicine cabinet for prescription and dose management, a dosage alarm for setting reminders, an appointment calendar, hydration tracker, sleep pattern recognition, glucose monitoring, step counting, exclusive fitness programming and nutrition planning.
Design Thinking: Empathizing
Despite the (baby) booming senior population currently being one of the biggest, if not THE biggest proponents of healthcare worldwide, there's scant evidence to support their impact within the healthcare marketplace. Self healthcare management apps aren't necessarily lacking in numbers, however, they're not particularly tech-friendly or feature friendly for seniors. This is a shame because, older adults are not just living longer, but also, living better. Plenty are active well into their late 70's & beyond, yet age disparity is actually shutting them out of the healthcare market, instead of reaching them on their level.
The BIG Idea
A digital healthcare manager exclusively for seniors that's simple by design, easy enough for them to navigate solo, and caters to their specific daily medical needs, as older adults.
User Research: User Interviews
1. Learn as much as possible about my target audience for a more nuanced assessment of their app wants/needs from firsthand respondents
2. Pinpoint actionable insights with regard to app structure features, functions, and general overall layout
3. Find common concerns among potential users to help narrow app focus and discover alternative solutions from prospective users
*Below: User Interviewee Details
User Research Analysis
Key Findings and Insights gathered from the user interviews with the above
1. Finding: Older adults oft feel alienated by a modernized, digitalized healthcare system. Several valid reasons were raised from their perspective, to include the following insights:
A. Their current struggle to find quality doctors, especially online
B. Their frustration with automated systems in that it's way harder than it should be to reach an actual person these days
C. Too many features, or in their words, "too gadgety", thus, too overwhelming for daily/regular usage.
2. Conclusion: As far as what seniors would need/want from a digital healthcare app of their own, ultimately, something simple, readily accessible, and easy to navigate.
*Below: Further Key Findings & Insights
User Personas:
Hello, Susan & Harold!
All About Susan
All About Harold
User Flows
Susan and Harold, both seniors, each with a personal healthcare objectives of their very own, have respectively, made their way to the app. As first time users, how do they successfully navigate their individual tasks to completion, and what does the path to success look like in each scenario. An absolute nail biter you don't want to miss, see below.
Task 1: Susan
Objective: As Susan, an older adult, I want to organize my medical contacts in a separate directory so I can quickly call up my Rheumatologist for a monthly appointment without having to search the entire contents of my phone/home to find his office number whenever I need it. Follow Susan's journey to completion as seen in her user flow diagram below.
Susan, Female, 72 y/o, Married, Lives in Providence, RI
Susan's Task User Flow
Task 2: Harold
Objective: As Harold, a senior, I want to find a flexible, low impact exercise program that allows me to ease back in to working out, one day at a time, so that, I can build back stamina in a healthy manner, as recently recommended by my Gerontologist. Follow Harold's journey to completion in his user flow diagram below.
Harold: Male, 70 y/o, Widower, Lives in St. Louis, MO
Harold's Task User Flow
Information Architecture (IA)
It's the end of the beginning. With User Interviews, Research Analysis, Personas, and User Flows firmly in the rear-view, thus concludes the info & insight gathering portion of the project. Armed with the intel from the above research processes, the core features, navigation infrastructure, and main page integration are then carefully fleshed out. From there, the sitemap is built, and the app foundation is laid.
*Below: Silver First Sitemap
Wireframes
The polished product seen at the end, is inextricably linked to the iterative design process that plays out in the 3 videos below. First, low-fidelity wireframes, a crude placement of the app's main functions & features. Mid-fidelity wireframes then begin filling in some of the finer details, and then finally, high-fidelity wireframes, the most detailed of the 3 renderings are laid out, later serving as the blueprint from which the app's final UI is directly derived.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
High-Fidelity Wireframes
Testing, Testing 1-2
In order to see how Silver First fares in the hands of its potential users, a handful of participants from of our target demo would need to be recruited to test the prototype first hand. The top Usability Test goal & objective are laid out below.
#1 Testing Goal
Assessing the learnability of Silver First's 3 core app features in the hands of our real life, target audience (seniors).
#1 Testing Objective
Identifying usability flaws within Silver First's 3 core app that prevent successful task completion by our target audience (seniors) during their usability testing session.
Full Usability Test Plan Available HERE
The Results Are In
Following 2 moderated, in-person usability test sessions, a few minor errors and 1 severe error popped up consistently among potential Silver First users. For a taste of the test results, the most severe error along with its subsequent fix are detailed below. For reference, the usability test sessions conducted were as follows:
Session 1: Six participants total, ages widely varying from 33-81
Session 2: Three participants total, ages befitting the target demo (65+)
Top Error
Fitness Center radio buttons not working properly, most likely configured incorrectly.
Why it matters: The Fitness Center is contingent upon user's being able to select their chosen plan from the three options listed. Being unable to make this decision uninhibited, defeats the purpose of being offered choice in the first place.
Evidence: Users were clearly unable to select the option they wanted unless their selection was in sequence order. Confusingly to participants, in order to select option 2, they had to first select option 1, and in order to select option 3, they had to first select options 1 & 2. It was increasingly apparent that the radio button group had been configure incorrectly, and was therefore a prototype component problem, not an aesthetic design flaw.
Error Fix
The component issue needs to be sorted in Figma and previewed within the prototype to assure the problem has been dealt with correctly before reintroducing it to potential users.
Full Usability Test Report Available HERE
Material Design
Up til now, usability and learnability have been the central focus, but alas, the time has come to shift gears, and focus more keenly on Silver First's aesthetics. As you'll see in the video below, grids & specs come into play, Material Design 3 guidelines are implemented, and all the imagery, icons, colors, typography etc., are updated to their current state.
Design Style Guide
Part record, part blueprint, design documentation holds the key to its origin and its future longevity. From Logo & Color Palette to Typography & Icons, glimpse Silver First's Design Style Guide below to see how the app will be maintained over time.
What's Next?
1. Consumer Growth Projections: If we maintain a thoughtful and tech friendly approach to digital healthcare management, our user base will continue to climb among large swathes of older adults, resulting in exponential growth between years 1-5.
2. Consumer Market Projections: The first 5 years need to be about engaging the already older adult population and then go from there. Once Gen X hits the age of the eldest Boomers, healthcare is going to be something totally else. If smart technology can consume the marketplace in a matter of 10 years after centuries of mostly transitional technology, it’s impossible to predict what the marketplace will look like in another 10-15-20 years. However, aging is a fact and healthcare is a necessity so, whatever it becomes, Silver First will be there.
Silver First Figma Prototype
The Final UI
Jazz hands up, the app is now complete. The screens below are mock-ups of the final, marketplace ready version. Get a good look at the polished UI, coming soon, to an app store near you!
Super Seniors Fitness
Medicine Cabinet 1
Medicine Cabinet 2
