I was the sole Product Designer hired to design a patient app and corresponding clinician dashboard MVP to measure the progression and guide treatment of Parkinson's, in partnership with the NHS.
Impact
Both Neu Health and I are very happy with the final results of this project. This was a challenging project that pushed my problem solving and design skills to new heights!
A year after it was launched, Neu Health had made the following impact:
• Increased clinician efficiency by 20%.
• 83% of users reported the app easy to use.
• Medication was more easily altered, optimising bone health by 60%.
• Medication efficiency information was obtained 67% quicker.
The Neu Health app is now available on Android and iOS. It is currently being used at the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) and is working on expanding access to other clinicians and patients.
About Neu Health
I was hired as the sole Designer by Neu Health, to design the MVP app and dashboard. Neu Health a London based company that specialises in making Parkinson's and dementia care accessible for all.
Neu Health enables clinicians, care givers, and patients to tackle this growing challenge with cutting-edge digital technologies designed to make the latest care accessible for all, improving outcomes today and accelerating future breakthroughs.
Problem
Patient App: How do I incentivise patients to complete daily or weekly exercises, over a long period of time, to ensure viable data?
Clinician Dashboard: How do I organise and display the patient data in a way that will make Clinician's lives easier and easy to adopt?
Project Goal
Create a patient app that collects patient's Parkinson's data through various exercises and ratings, and helps them better manage their condition and medication.
Create a corresponding clinician desktop dashboard that displays all the patient's app data to clinicians easily.
Solution
Patient app: Create rewards for users to earn as they complete their exercises, minimise the amount of screens and buttons, and break up exercises into smaller tasks in order to not overwhelm the user.
Clinician dashboard: Adopt existing Clinician systems to create a dashboard that primarily consists of easy to read cards and a tabbed card system, so data can be easily accessed.
Neu Health provided me with research that included transcripts from discovery interviews with clinicians and patients, challenges clinicians faced when caring for patients, and a list of what scientifically proven tests and exercises need to be incorporated into the app and how they work. From here, I researched accessibility in design, design standards for dashboards, tests, and surveys, and types of incentives to encourage compliance.
As I designed this app and dashboard, I continued to do research and work closely with our lead clinician. Our lead clinician provided examples of charts and graphs that they use in their daily work, allowing me to maintain design standards that clinicians are familiar with.
Research
Insight
Patients with Parkinson's can suffer from tremors and can have difficulty with mobility, thus accessibility is extremely important.
Clinicians prefer to have all information on one page. They don't want to be flipping through multiple pages or windows to keep track of information.
Personas
This project includes two products with two different markets.
Patient
Our patient is a 65-year-old person living in England who has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Despite facing mobility challenges, they remain active and values their independence. Our patient relies on a daily medication routine to manage their symptoms but does not want to be reminded heavily of their condition. They are not tech-savy but are open to using technology to help manage their condition.
Clinician
Our clinician specializing in Parkinson's disease faces the challenge of managing the care of their many patients and staying up to date with their condition. They lack up to date information on the effectiveness of their patients medications and treatments, and are not able to consistently see their patients in person. This creates a challenge in treating their patients effectively.
Branding and UI
Insight
UI needed to be friendly and unintimidating, without being infantilizing or lacking authority. I used bright colours, curves, and friendly illustrations.
I was provided with a branding guide that included the logo, font, and colour palette. I expanded these assets into a set of icons, colour palette, and a friendly UI that matched their logo and mission. Illustrations were required for this project but due to time and budget, I recoloured existing illustrations.
Information Architecture
Insight
The same "activities" path would need to diverge into different exercises based on the users needs and change over time.
The dashboard layout is determined by importance of information.
This is the first of 3 information architecture charts. As I designed and tested the prototypes, I had to revisit and reorganise how the app was structured.
Increasing Compliance
My biggest challenge was to ensure adequate compliance to create reliable and consistent data. Research and user testing showed that users were not always available when a test needed to be taken and did not like tests that were too long, but still wanted to actively contribute data to their clinician to improve their care. Screens that clearly showed what activities needed to be completed each day, with additional information, was one of the solutions to this challenge.
I designed and made 6 working prototypes on figma. The 4 rounds of user testings greatly impacted the design decisions made and the final app and dashboard.
Here are 3 examples of design choices I made and why I am made them:
Clear Instruction and Accessible Buttons
Users could have a wide variety of cognitive and or motor difficulties. It was vital that this app accommodate any difficulties the user may have. Large buttons with clear text were implemented. Some instructions required the user to hold their phone in a certain hand, a certain way, and in a certain setting. To ensure these requirements were met, so captured data was consistent and accurate, instructional videos were added to some tests.
Viewing and Comparing Data
Clinicians need to view the collected data in various time scales and ranges, so I designed a collection of charts, combining accordions and tabs, with drop down selections to change how the data is shown. The charts itself mimic existing medical charts, so they are familiar to clinicians. The accordion and tab system was designed to create a hub for the charts, allow easy comparisons, and prevent endless scrolling.
Design and Testing
Insight
Tests need to be completed at specific times during the days and after medication is taken. Users are not always available at the time these tests need to be taken. Therefore, time frames have been incorporated with an option to delay or pause testing. Testing has shown this increases overall testing compliance.
Hand Off
At the end of this project, I presented the entire design to my client and the engineer team. I was added to their Slack channel to answer any questions and provide design solutions for the last 3 weeks of my contract.