Project Brief-
Designing an intuitive and accessible mental health app with a focus on-
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Cost-effectiveness
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AI-assisted diagnosis and personalized recommendations
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User-friendly interaction
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Real-time family health monitoring
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Duration: 20 weeks
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Project Type: IOS Mobile App, AI Mental Health App, Capstone Project
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Tools: Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop, Maze (Usability Testing), Tableau, JavaScript, Zoom (interviews), Slack, Google Slides, Google Form
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Key Focus: User Experience (UX), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and Accessibility
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HealQuest- Enhancing Mental Health with AI & HCI
Here's bird's eye view of my Research process
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Research
Discover
Define
Design
Deliver
Research
Why does this matter? ​​
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Global health challenges
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Physicians unavailable 24/7
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Lack of immediate support
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Worsening conditions
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Urgent cases prioritized
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Potential fatal outcomes
Current Usage Scenario
Understanding User Needs
How?
We conducted interviews with users facing mental health challenges to understand their pain points and daily struggles with current health apps
Why?
To build an app that meets real-world needs and addresses the shortcomings of existing solutions like intrusive notifications and lack of emergency support.
Discover
What
Users
Want?
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Cost Sensitive Product
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24/7 and Immediate availability
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Low manual intervention
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Comprehensive results & analysis
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Only provide curated/necessary reminders
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Avoid booking appts for minor inconveniences
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Ability to track family health
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Finding community with similar issues
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Recommendation and solutions like real doctors
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Building trust and transparency with AI functionalities
During interviews, many participants expressed discomfort with relying on AI for health advice, preferring real doctors. This feedback led me to research how an app could bridge this trust gap and coexist with traditional medical care in the future.
Findings!
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Increased Trust in AI: Users have grown more trusting of AI for health advice since the introduction of ChatGPT.
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Accuracy Recognition: Participants recognized healthcare responses from ChatGPT correctly 65.5% of the time, similar to human providers (65.1%).
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AI’s Potential in Healthcare: Chatbots can improve patient-provider communication, particularly in administrative tasks and chronic disease management.
Define
Benefits to the society
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Immediate support
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Alleviation of Discomfort
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Time Saving
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Cost Saving
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Reduced hospital visits
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Critical for patients in urgent need of medical attention.
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Knowledge of Medical terms
Strenght of this application
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Instant Solutions
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24/7 availability
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Accessibility
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Health Monitoring
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Check AI accuracy
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Medicine Reminder
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Urgency Highlight
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Recommendation and Solutions
Design
Wireframes
Final Design
Overall App usage benefit
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No/Low Cost
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No scheduling doc visits
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24/7 Availability
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360 Mental health monitoring platform
Track Personal Health
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Sleep Cycle
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Body Temperature
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Steps taken
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Upcoming Pills
Home Page​
Provide Necessary Reminders
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Daily medicine intake and reminders
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Confirmation check
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Whole medicine course
Low Manual Intervention
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AR Technology (Face Expression)
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Scan a document
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Result
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Remedies
Comprehensive Results & Analysis
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Any report results
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Mood track result
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Anxiety Result
AI Doctor Consultancy
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Voice Chat
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Text Chat
Ability to Track Family Health
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Keep a track of whole family
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Family medicines
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Body Temperature
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Steps
Proper Health Suggestions like real doctors
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Problem
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Remedies
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Medicines
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Emergency Contacts
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Reference like videos
Trust and Transparency AI Functionality
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Accuracy button after every AI answers
Finding Community with Similar Issues
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Easily connect with other people who are going through same condition
Other apps
Why It Stands Out?
My app
Result
Online usability tests were conducted with the same participants who were interviewed earlier. The tests focused on key metrics such as accessibility, navigation satisfaction, task success, and efficiency. These metrics were measured using an online platform called MAZE (https://t.maze.co/199786294). Participants completed specific tasks, and their success or
failure was recorded to assess effectiveness.
Participants
Usability Testing Record
The users shared positive feedback about the mobile application, highlighting its efficiency, ease of learning, user-friendly navigation, appealing interface, and engaging content. They found it educationally beneficial due to the useful tools and content.
Some users had specific expectations that were not met during the tasks. Understanding their needs and aligning the application to meet these expectations is crucial for a more satisfying user experience.
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Discussion
Surprising moments, like confusion about certain features such as the 'check accuracy' button, emphasize the necessity for clearer explanations to improve user comprehension and value of functionalities. Additionally, considerations for better accessibility regarding text and icon sizes for older users emerged as an essential area for design improvement
Future Implication
The most challenging aspect of evaluating a prototype is meeting the diverse expectations of all participants. User feedback often varies, making it difficult to satisfy everyone's needs entirely. For instance, some participants expressed a desire for the app to offer clearer guidance on navigation, rather than relying on users to figure it out independently. There were also high expectations from AI to provide different results, indicating varying needs and preferences.
In future system design projects, I intend to modify my approach to prototype evaluation based on the insights gained from this experience. Specifically:
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I plan to engage with users at the early stages of the design process to understand their expectations and requirements. Involving users from the outset will allow me to gather valuable insights and incorporate them into the design efficiently, ultimately saving time.
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I aim to conduct user testing involving a more extensive and diverse pool of participants. Engaging a wider range of users will help identify a broader spectrum of issues and considerations.
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Ensuring that features' functions and buttons are clearly explained to users will be a priority. I also intend to focus on enhancing accessibility, such as adjusting text size and improving icon visibility, to ensure the app is user-friendly for all users.