myGlu
Mobile app that allows diabetics to have better control over their blood sugar levels
by visualizing their activity stats over their food intake and offering recommendations
ROLE
solo project
TOOLS
Adobe Xd, Illustrator, Photoshop, InVision
TIMELINE
2 weeks
2017
METHODS
wireframing, persona creation, visual design, paper prototyping, user interviews, affinity diagramming
Background
Diabetics need to keep track of their daily activity and food intake to effectively manage their diabetes, but there is no way for diabetics to correlate all of their disparate data points in order to keep their blood sugar steady.
Currently, they use a wide variety of standalone apps, but none of them connect with each other - there is currently no single solution. This lack of understands leaves diabetics feeling like they have no power over their disease, they are at the mercy of their body.
Solution
myGlu provides diabetics with the knowledge to take control over their disease - by providing a simple dashboard to see status for activities, in relation to blood sugar level, on a single chart - with recommendations and notifications.
The user can easily see how their activities throughout the day impact their blood sugar levels in order to make personal insights. Using myGlu's recommendations, the user can make instant, informed decisions about how to control their day.
myGlu allows users to maintain a steady level of blood sugar throughout their day by showing them insights and recommendations created from the combined data of their tracker apps
Interactive Prototype
Click through the prototype below.
Research
Market Analysis
Tech solutions are being introduced, and patients are eager to adopt them. However the apps are still fairly simplistic and only have basic functionality. There is no ability to sync data across multiple apps.
Diabetes is more common than we think, affecting almost 30 million people in the United States alone.
Patients have to rely on intuition and knowing their body to manage their blood sugar and estimate how much insulin to take. Diabetics' blood sugar levels are interdependent with their food intake and activity levels, but there is no way to measure correlation for an individual.
Testing Assumptions with User Research
Although there are many different types of diabetics, they all have converging needs and goals. Diabetic patient interviews and surveys (for type-1, type-2, and gestational diabetics) as well as secondary research uncovered the following insights:
Causes of blood sugar spikes are not always clear
Participants were having to do a lot of mental gymnastics to understand how their body responds to daily activities and certain foods.
Thinking about diabetes less is time back in life
The less thought that needs to be allocated to doing regular activities, the less diabetics dwell on their disease and move on with the rest of their lives
Not everyone is private about diabetes
Contrary to assumptions, diabetics are open and willing to talk about their disease, especially when loved ones are worrying about how they are doing.
Want to take info to their doctor but don't know how
Although there are chart and hand written diaries that doctor's provide, participants don't find these to be useful or conducive to their lifestyles.
Ultimate goal is to have stable blood sugar
Overall, the marker of success for diabetics is to maintain a stable level of blood sugar (within their pre-defined range) throughout the day.
Building Personas
Based on the primary and secondary research, I created robust ethnographic personas with quotes and stories pulled directly from conversations with diabetics.
The target audience for the MVP of the solution are type-1 diabetics that are already using several different apps to track their daily activity and food intake, but are still struggling to really understand exactly how to control their glucose levels.
The secondary user is someone who is recently diagnosed with diabetes and is learning more about how food and activity affects their blood sugar. While they are trying to manage on their own, they also want to maintain a close relationship with their doctor to learn how to keep long-term health effects at bay.
User Flow
Building a simplified user flow allowed me to understand where an intervention would be most effective.
At least three different steps are mandated before all of the info can be viewed, and there is no way to send data to the doctor other than just handwriting it all out in a diary or note sheet.
Design & Prototyping
Initial Concept
Although there are many potential solutions to this problem, an app would be the most cohesive and simple to use given the target user's environment.
Initial ideations included putting out a single consolidated number that could be gamified. If the user is hitting their goals and keeping their goal steady, then the number would improve, allowing for multi-day streaks.
Low Fidelity Screens
Working in lo-fi allowed me to test the concept quickly and further validate user needs.
Initial attempts at gamifying this experience fell flat with users. This was not the right forum as they are still trying to figure out their body's reaction. This could be a roadmap feature, but not ideal for an MVP.
Medium Fidelity Wireframes
Moving into higher fidelity allowed for a heuristic analysis and an information architecture audit.
These revealed a lack of controls for timeline, redundant options, and too strong of a focus on the profile.
Screen Map
Indentifying the core screens for an MVP
Final Screens
Translating Insights to Features
Insight
Disparate sources of information cause confusion and inaccurate takeaways for diabetics
Insight
Overwhelming amounts of information leaves users doing mental math to figure out what to do next
Insight
Users seek to understand what causes spiked in their blood sugar level
Insight
Connecting with their doctor is crucial to their long-term health, but there's no easy way for them to share data
Feature: App Integration
Syncing activity and food tracker apps allows a rich set of data from which to create recommendations
Feature: Dashboard
Displaying all relevant information in a glanceable dashboard and adding a deeper dive for more info
Feature: Recommendations
Showing recommendations, notifications, and suggestions based on the correlated data
Feature: Sharing Status
Allowing the user to send their historical data to their doctor for more productive treatment
Next Steps