Project Overview
My Role
UX Designer & Researcher
Scope
End to End Mobile app
Duration
2 weeks (80 hours)
Tools
Figma
Whimsical
Google Suites
Living with eczema or a skin disorder is like riding a forever rollercoaster. Flare ups are unpredictable, and most of the time, we’re not sure what may have triggered the skin. Sometimes there’s a reason, and sometimes the skin just wants to surprise you.
This is a passion project developed from my personal experience. Being someone who’s had eczema for most of my teen years, and now healing from a topical steroid addiction, I want to create a safe space where other skin warriors can document their skin journey.
The Challenge:
Documenting eczema flares has always been difficult. A few common ways for warriors to document their flares is through photos, notebooks, and notes.
Providing the Solution:
Designing an application for both men and women who have trouble tracking their eczema symptoms, medication, skincare, etc and for those who wish to understand more about skin health.
-
Save information in one place such as symptoms, medications, photo documentation, and skincare tracking.
-
Learn more about eczema health through articles and tips
-
Get motivational, positive reminders about eczema skin
-
Anonymous forum where users can share advice and answer/ask questions
RESEARCH
Let's get to research!
To gain a better understanding for this project, I research the current eczema mobile apps market and the lifestyles of eczema warriors and how eczema has affected them.
Research Goals
-
To understand users pain points and goals with eczema
-
To find solutions to user's current problems when tracking their eczema flares
-
To finalize what key features I can add after user interviews and research
Secondary Research
Market Research
About more than 31 million people in the United States have some form of eczema. The goal is to understand how the eczema market is, what they offer and the patients current behavior living with eczema and their day to day experiences. As the eczema community is growing rapidly, it is important to keep an eye for specific findings.
-
71% of people who have severe eczema say that their skin condition negatively impacts their mental health
-
Many patients keep journals to track their skin's reactions to various triggers, but keeping a notebook can be a hassle
-
Eczema warriors find hope in their favorite eczema communities on Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, etc
Competitive Analysis
There are not many mobile apps in the eczema market currently. However, doing a competitive analysis will offer valuable insights into the current existing features from these apps. Through this I'm able to understand what users enjoyed and pain points to come with a user survey.
USER INTERVIEW
What are users' goals and frustrations when having eczema?
After market research, I had a clearer idea of the eczema market and realized through communities that many eczema warriors do not know the existence of eczema tracker apps that are currently offered. Through research, I came up with questions for user interviews and through this process I'm able to learn in detail about the user's lifestyles, behaviors and how they are managing their eczema. I interviewed 5 participants from the ages of 19 to 25 who have a history of severe eczema and compiled my research findings below.
In the interview, I focused on asking open ended questions regarding their behaviors and user experience. I've also given them a task to walk me through their day and the last time they had a flare.
USER SURVEY
Research Findings
Conducted user surveys to gather additional insights after gathering feedback from User Interviews to find common goals and needs from a bigger population. I surveyed a total of 56 participants with a history of eczema. This was a voluntary sample, and a survey was posted in multiple eczema support groups and forums.
-
80% participants mentioned that having eczema have affected their mental health in negative ways
-
55.3% participants track their skin symptoms through mobile apps, websites, and notebooks
Pain Points:
-
Users did not know what products to try when it comes to skin care and wishes there were more recommendations and more information about skin health
-
Users find it hard to track their symptoms with a notebook and photos
-
All participants going through eczema flares have experienced anxiety, insecurity and lack of motivation
GOALS & NEEDS
How can we make managing eczema better?
After concluding the research findings, I have put together the goals and needs for the users.
-
Users are interested in learning more about eczema, skincare and ways to cope
-
Logging in journal entries are very important as that's an opportunity for users to speak freely about their skin
-
Motivation keeps the users encouraged and uplifted
-
Users want to be able to track their stress, sleep, diet, exercise, menstrual cycles, triggers, medication, and skincare
PERSONA
Meet our favorite eczema warrior!
From the gathered information, I was able to create and define a user persona to represent the user findings and have a better understanding of who I'm designing for.
FEATURED ROADMAP
Information Architecture
With so many features in mind, I decided to create a product roadmap by listing out the potential features that aligned with the user's needs and goals.
SITEMAP
Adding Structure to the App
After deciding what features to include for the MVP, I created a sitemap to get a clear understanding of the structure for the app. This gives the stakeholders a clear understanding of what each page has to offer and the navigation of the app.
01. EMPATHIZE
02. DEFINE
How might we create an app that makes eczema information accessible and personable while having a one stop system to document flares?
TASK FLOW
A walk through of our users interaction
To understand how Erika will be interacting with the app, I started to identify key tasks based on her goals.
03. DESIGN
UI Kit
The UI Kit includes typography, color palette, photos, graphics, and icons that I've used in the designs.
Low-Fi & Mid Wireframes
I sketched low-fidelity wireframes on paper to get an idea of how I wanted my screens to be laid out with the task flow in mind.
HIGH FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
Let's view the designs in detail!
High Fidelity Prototype
USABILITY TEST
Let's test our product!
For this part, I conducted a usability test on five participants from the ages of 17 to 37. All participants have a history or experience with eczema and were recruited through a network of friends, peers and eczema facebook groups.
Through my research findings, all the users were able to complete the four main tasks I asked.
View Usability Test Results
Four Main Tasks:
Task 1: Users want to document her daily journal entry for her eczema
Task 2: To search and find an article to read
Task 3: To upload a photo for documentation
Task 4: To log and rate symptoms
I also asked the participants about their first impressions of the website, and any feedback to improve the designs. I wanted to know how easy or difficult it was to navigate through the website and whether it felt like a smooth experience.
Priority Revisions
-
CTA Updated to better guide and highlight the current page for the users during the flow
-
Lowered the green capacity to balance the overall colors of the screens
-
To add an AM/PM option to symptoms as it confused the users of why it wasn't there
04. PROTOTYPE & TEST
HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
