eMBLD
Redesigning a data entry research app for Theranova’s new imaging technology
Role
In a team of 3, I worked on data synthesis, illustrations and led UX/UI design research.
Date
Sept. 2021 - Nov. 2021
Company Overview
Theranova is a biomedical device company that uses proprietary imaging software to quantify blood loss during menstruation.
Problem
Redesign eMBLD (electronic menstrual blood loss diary) - a product which aims to quantify blood loss through imaging technology for research purposes. The team will start phase 2 of research after securing $2 million in NIH funding.
Goals
Collect data including daily journal entries, PBLAC questionnaire and photos.
Encourage study compliance by tracking missed entries and promoting consistency.
Support user independence by giving users clear onboarding, access to FAQs and allowing for customizable reminders.
Project Scope
Abnormal menstrual bleeding is a medical condition that affects over 30% of menstruating adult women and accounts for 1/3 of all gynaecologist visits.
Currently, the only way to quantify blood loss requires patients to save used period products and have them analyzed in a lab. eMBLD is a product that aims to quantify blood loss by using imaging alone.
2014 Research App Design Audit
When the Theranova team did their initial research in 2014, V1 of the app was made for research participants to enter information about their period and upload photos. I did a wireflow analysis to understand the user flow and identified key aspects that we wanted to improve.
Comparative Analysis
The users will be research participants from an undefined geographical area and fall in a wide age range. It is also impossible to contact actual participants because of HIPAA restrictions. Instead of making assumptions about who the users are, we decided to analyze similar apps that already have certain features that we need to design for. We then tried to understand who these users are and why they use these features.
Who do we compare ourselves to?
We identified 3 areas that we wanted to look into - data entry, secure photo capture, and healthcare UI. I did pluses/delta to gather some quick insights.
Key Insights
User Interview
After understanding these apps which contain similar feature sets we need, we found users of these apps which fit the age range specific to this research study. We interviewed 6 people about apps that they habitually input data.
Key Insights
User Personas
The primary persona is a research participant and the secondary persona is the research clinician.
Sonya’s User Journey
To better understand our primary persona’s experience and uncover when specific pain points occur, we charted her actions and emotions from when she finds out about the study to when she completes the study.
Key Opportunity
UI Survey
Participating in a medical study can be tedious and tiresome. It was very important to make sure this app can be as delightful as possible so the road ahead feels easy and seamless. I put together a survey that contain inspirations that were pulled from research. In the end, we received 68 responses in our UI focused survey with some very clear results for the visual direction
Design & Ideation
The 2014 app had a very simple user flow which gained its high usability rating from the past participants. However, there were some problems: the app wasn’t flexible with user flows and didn’t track compliance.
Feature Prioritization
To capture all the requirements and ideas that came up from our client interview and research, we had to prioritize features to best serve our objective.
Adding Compliance Features
Our client had 2 major concerns: participant independence & compliance. Small details can disqualify a participant’s entry due to compliance rules and the V1 app didn’t have any features that addressed them. For the new app’s design, we introduced an onboarding flow and added features to track compliance.
