An AI-powered remote wearable stethoscope (named the AeviceMD) to record and analyze heart and lung sounds to detect early signs of an exacerbation
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Skills:
Design Thinking
User Research
Comparable Research
UIUX Design
UX Writing
Usability Testing
Storytelling
Wireframing
Prototyping
Instructional Design
Packaging Design
Visual Design
Design System Maintenance
Role:
UIUX Design Intern
Timeline:
Aug 2022 - Dec 2022 (18 weeks)
Tools Used:
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Lightroom
Overview
During my internship journey as a UI/UX Designer in the Product Design Team at Aevice Health, I was privileged to immerse myself in the Design Thinking Process, work on UI/UX Design projects as well as several visual design projects such as an instructional guide for our Japanese partners and Packaging Design for our end users in the US. I will not be able to disclose the content of some projects due to the non-disclosure agreement with the company, nonetheless, feel free to contact me if you would like to know more!
The Problem
Aevice Health aims to meet the needs of two end users - Patients & Healthcare Professionals.
Patients: Patients with Asthma, and their caregivers, need to proactively manage their health condition and know what actions to take when they are having an exacerbation. The inability to notice and address exacerbations in time, as well as to recognize and articulate symptoms experienced accurately, results in feeling of worry and uncertainty while managing conditions. During a follow-up consultation, inaccurate information provided to HCPs may lead to an ineffective treatment plan prescribed.
Healthcare Professionals: Healthcare Professionals (HCPs), need to confirm a patient’s diagnosis, prescribe medication and adjust their treatment plan accordingly within a 1-3 months follow-up visits. However, due to patient’s recall bias, the lack of objective data as well as patient’s lack of adherence to medication, a long period of time is needed to make a definitive diagnosis and give a targeted treatment plan for patients. Patient with poorly controlled illness, may end up being readmitted to the hospital.
The Design Thinking Process
1. User Research
Analysis of Market Survey Findings
During my internship at Aevice Health, my team and I collected the needs and pain points of our end users – healthcare professionals and patients through online interviews.
Pain points experienced by Patients:
Difficulty in articulating their symptoms when asked by their doctor during monthly reviews (recall bias)
Not knowing how to address their symptoms when an attack arises, resulting in a number of patients visiting the ED when an attack occurs which can be extremely costly and weighs down on manpower
Pain points experienced by Healthcare Professionals:
As patients find it difficult to recall their asthma symptoms from a month ago when asked about their asthma condition via a verbalized Asthma Control Questionnaire, HCPs are unable to accurately diagnose their patients at the spot.
Lack of medication adherence among patients, making it more difficult for the HCPs to tell whether the given treatment helps the patients
User Persona & User Journey Maps
With the problem and users in mind, we crafted out user personas – a pediatric pulmonologist and a child with asthma. Subsequently, we created a user journey map for each end user – focusing on the end users’ actions, thoughts, feelings, and pain points.
User Journey Mapping before placing it into FigJam
2. How Might We's & Solution Brainstorm (confidential)
How Might we improve medications taking and tracking experience for patients & caregivers so that they are able to better adhere and provide true information to HCPs for an optimised treatment plan?
How Might we provide objective & insightful information about patient's response to treatment for healthcare professionals so that they can make more informed decisions with ease?
How Might we improve home monitoring experience for patients & caregivers so that they are able to self-manage their conditions at home with more confidence?
3. Analysis of User Flows from Competitor Applications
With solutions in voted and chosen, we began analyzing the features that similar applications already had. Some asthma apps I researched on were: Asthma Buddy, AsthmaMD, Biovitals Sentinel, mymhealth. Additionally, I studied the user interaction on Flo – Ovulation & Period Tracker & Reflectly since they had a feature we wanted to design for as well.
AsthmaMD - Asthma monitoring
Asthma Buddy - Monitoring and managing of asthma
Biovitals Sentinel - Monitoring of condition
mymhealth - Management of chronic illness
Flo - Ovulation & Period Tracker
Reflectly - Personal AI journal
Crazy 8s Design Jam
Afterwards, my team and I came together for a quick design jam to ideate on possible user flows for the features chosen – How to Log Symptoms etc.
4. Wireframing Sketches
**Sketches are all confidential, feel free to contact me if you would like to find out more!
Some wireframes were created with various UX flows for the new feature decided on.
Prototyping, Usability Testing... and more!
We will proceed to prototyping various designs based on our chosen solutions, reiterating these designs, and then conducting usability tests to evaluate the designs. Unfortunately, the design process requires time and during my 18 weeks at Aevice Health, I was unable to work on high-fidelity designs for the solutions proposed.
Aevice Health Mobile App (Patients)
The Aevice Health Mobile App is created and designed for patients to view their vital signs, perform a stethoscope recording, record medication intake and view their summary. The AeviceMD device also has the ability to detect wheeze which is then being sent to the patient and viewed on the app.
The Problem
The current waiting and loading process of performing a stethoscope recording is long as time is needed for the device to communicate with the mobile app to load a recording and show it on the screen. This prolonged loading process may cause users to think that their phone has hung. This issue could even result in the reduction of user retention rate.
How Might We improve the user experience during a stethoscope recording for patients so that they do not get frustrated by the loading time?
Solution: Dynamic Text Loading
Since we cannot change the actual loading time of a stethoscope recording as the time factor belongs to the R&D team, the use of dynamic text loading creates the illusion that the patient did not have to wait for a long time to complete a stethoscope recording. It also provides useful information that the user can take in before listening to his/her recording.
Design Jam on UX Microcopy
We first began ideating on the type of content – telling the user that the sensor was busy or recommendations for the user during the recording process or encouragements that s/he is almost there. With the type of content chosen, we then ideated on the copy, with the intention of communicating to the end user in a conversational tone.
Our finalized UX flow and UX microcopies were prototyped and handed off to the software design team.
Aevice Health WebApp (Healthcare Professionals)
The Aevice Health WebApp provides healthcare professionals with an overview of their patients' vital signs and medication adherence. Healthcare professionals also have the ability to listen to their patients' stethoscope recording.
The Problem
HCPs find it difficult to view an accurate representation of data from their patients from the 7-day, 30-day, and 90-day view. Abnormal data such as maximum and minimum values are not being represented in the current graphical view.
How Might We improve data visualization for healthcare professionals so that they can better understand their patients' data?
Brainstorming Solutions - Wireframing
**Sketches are all confidential, feel free to contact me if you would like to find out more!
Solution:
I began wireframing various designs - boxplot, apple health, as well as a shaded area design. With these wireframes that eventually were turned into high-fidelity prototypes on Figma, an evaluation of the usability of the designs was done.
Eventually, we decided to go with the shaded area design as it can easily interpreted. Moving forward, we need to discuss this design solution with the software and R&D team to understand whether implementation of such features is feasible within a given timeframe.
Visual Design Projects
Instructional Content Design for Japanese Partners
As the CEO & CTO of Aevice Health were going to showcase the AeviceMD to their Japanese partners, I was given the opportunity to create an instructional guide for the Japanese partners. To design an instructional guide that meets the needs of our end users, I did some research about our end users. With their age, demographic, and proficiency in English in mind, I worked alongside the business development and management team to decide on the content required in the guide.
Packaging Design
I was given the opportunity to design a packaging box for the AeviceMD that would be used by patients in the US. During this design journey, I worked alongside the business development team and the regulatory affairs team to produce purposeful and proper content on the packaging. I learnt the importance of working and communicating well with both the business development and regulatory affairs team, understanding their point of view and designing and crafting content that meets both business goals and FDA requirements.
CES Exhibition
Aevice Health was rewarded the Best of Innovation for Digital Health by CES in 2023. As such, I was privileged to be able to design the collateral used during the CES Exhibition!
💭 Takeaways
Takeaway #1: UX Writing for Localization
Since the end users we were designing for were in the US, we had to take note of the date and time format as well as measuring units used. Other than keeping in mind the voice and tone of the copies in the app, we also had to ensure that the copy used were understandable for our end users. An additional element when implementing a UX copy with a conversational tone can be using colloquialisms and a pro-tip to understand the culture and knowing the colloquialisms would be to watch shows or simply immerse yourself there!
Takeaway #2: Storytelling is extremely important!
During the multiple design reviews with both the business development team as well as the management team (CEO & CTO), as the main designer, it was important for me to be able to articulate reasons for my design decisions. For example, why a particular warning was placed at a particular position on the design. I had to listen to the needs of the management team, then produce an effective design, pitching and explaining why a certain design decision was made.
Reflection:
Overall, during my internship at Aevice Health, I was privileged to learn more about UX Writing, immerse myself in the Design Thinking Process, work on commercial design projects for worldwide audiences, as well as story tell my design decisions to various stakeholders. Furthermore, interning at a start-up provided me with a new set of experiences and taught me the importance of taking the initiative and taking ownership over the work that’s been given to you that will be used for commercial purposes. At the beginning of my internship, working on commercial projects with myself as a main designer seemed like it was a large set of responsibilities for an intern, but this exposure helped me to grow in confidence in articulating my design rationale and taught me the skill of storytelling to various stakeholders. This helped me to gain a deeper understanding of FDA regulations and requirements as well as how content can be used to meet the business needs. Moreover, in a start-up, time is a commodity. With limited time and resources, we need to prioritize the features that we want to design and implement. Design sprints and jams are also crucial and important in helping us to ideate on new microcopies or user flows. I have thoroughly enjoyed the multiple design sprints and jams, ideation sessions and grown in storytelling as well as skills relating to visual design.
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