MVP validation and build
Lead Designer
Etch Group
My role was to collaborate with Hailie product and tech teams with the goal of building an app that lets asthma & COPD sufferers forget (within reason) about their condition. This would enable them to carry on on with their lives, unhindered by a chronic illness.
Hailie had successfully proven their product to help with chronic illnesses in clinical trials in NZ markets. This led them to see an opportunity to go direct to consumers in the US market. In order to do so, they needed a new strategy and approach.
We split a twelve week project into two phases.
Testing the inhaler
Personas and building the prototype
Out main goal in the second phase was to understand the motivations that led to certain behaviours. Once we understood why someone might, or might not take their inhaler, we could design effective interventions to develop more positive habits. This research phase consisted of 15 1:1 interviews and a 1,500 person survey.
By the end of this research we were able to turn an extrinsically motivated behaviour (I want to regularly use my inhaler to prevent asthma attacks) into an intrinsically motivated one (I want to prevent and forget about any symptoms of asthma; to enjoy life).
The app experience would as someone to set a goal using a natural language form and then enter a data gathering phase where it would track inhaler usage to identify potential triggers. Once it has enough data, it could get ahead of any potential triggers like exercise, pollen or weather conditions and nudge the person using it to either remind them to ‘take a puff’ on their inhaler or to take it with them, depending on their medication.
Once they had launched the product into the US market, I was brought back to conduct a UX audit of the app experience that had recently been redesigned by New Deal Design (they designed fitbit).
I produced an 80 page document comprised of a review and recommendation summary of a app experience. The redesign was based largely on the initial work I had conducted, which was nice.
The review had a few findings, though it predominately showed on a main theme: Nailing the basics first. The team had to ensure all of the basics were in place and ensure best practice for the apps next release. With a signature moment or two of course to ad that polish.
As part of this we also started to build out the basics of a design system that could be fleshed out to keep the experience consistent as well as help accelerate teams in their build times.
