Disease Dictionary at your fingertips |
Pulse App is a medical disease dictionary app that provides latest medical information to medical students and healthcare professionals. Currently the app has been downloaded 630+ times. It took me 12 weeks total to create the app from Ideation to shipping. You can download the app here or watch the video here.
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My RoleStrategy & VisionI gathered all the necessary data and created strategy to produce a “Good-Fast-Cheap” product. I defined the vision of the product - “To create better information gathering experience for healthcare professionals”
Scoping & PlanningI defined the scope and planned the execution strategy according to budget and delivery schedule. I narrow down the scope to deliver the best good, fast and cheap product.
Team Building & ManagementI build and managed a team of 6 professionals in India. We successfully executed the project on time within the budget. I used the lean product management methodology for this project.
Design, Execution & ValidationI designed interactions, created design specs and assembled UI components for the project. I ran an A/B test for two designs with a handful of people. I coordinated and support development, Pre-launch and post launch activities to make the product available to user.
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The StoryOnce upon a time...I came home feeling sick, I did not want to visit a doctor so I pull up my phone and started browsing different apps. I felt unsatisfied with the entire experience of the app I used. I visited the app store and found out that all the other apps have the same bad UX. So I created a Hypothesis.
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HypothesisMedical information applications are poorly designed, and there is a tremendous scope for improvement. |
Information GatheringThe Overall Healthcare StatsI started my search by looking at the healthcare industry. I learned that according to Bureau of Labor Statistics the number of Health Care professionals will be increase by 19% by 2024. There will be 2.3 Millions new jobs in USA alone. The average age range of Americans today is 35-45 years old. This range is projected to increase in upcoming years. Considering all these growth factors, there is a tremendous scope for creating a meaningful product for healthcare professionals.
CompetitionI got excited about learning the scope of the overall healthcare industry. Then I started finding my biggest competitors and visited Android Play store to explore the competition. I searched the app store to find the biggest players in the same category. I came across following eight apps. I downloaded them all and started using them to understand the overall user experience.
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Customer FeedbackI wanted to validate my hypothesis so I visited Medscape's and Medical Dictionaries Play Store pages and checked all the 3 to 1 star reviews. These reviews validated my hypothesis, people found the same usability issues which I was experiencing.
I captured all the useful insights from the reviews and used them to create a better user experience. |
Problem I choose to solveBased on market research, customer feedback and app reviews, I decided to solve the following problem.
Make medical information access better & easier for people. |
Collecting Customer InsightsTo understand how my application will fit into the daily routine of a medical professional, I reached out to my network to connect with healthcare professionals. I got an opportunity to speak with a handful of medical professionals and of my friends who are studying medicine. I gathered enough information to move forward.
Empathy MapsAlong with understanding what they say. I observed how they feel and what they do. I created empathy maps based on my notes and created an empathy map.
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The PersonasBased on the information provided, I decided to create 3 personas. Medical students, Medical professionals and all the others. I captured their important goals and frustrations in those personas. For the first iteration, I am concentrating on the primary and secondary personas. As I will get more resources, I will expand the app's functionality to incorporate tertiary personas.
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Product ScopeAfter understanding for whom to design. I started brainstormed different ways to create an application. I came across eight different product ideas from which I narrowed down to two ideas based on their feasibility. This design thinking approach helped me to think broad and look into all possible product ideas.
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Execution StrategyFundsI reach out to my network for funds. My initial idea was to have an active partner with development expertise. But no one came onboard. One of my friend saw potential in my ideas and loaned me $1500. With that much money I outsourced the entire app work to India. I hired developers, medical professionals for development of this app.
API SearchBased on the information I gathered from medical professionals, I searched for CDC, MEDSCAPE, WEBMD and SNOMED APIs. I went through their developer documents and learned their API structures. Only CDC was available free of cost and had most upto date data.
RoadblocksExtracting API data was one of the biggest roadblocks. I tried extracting data by calling API and by building a scrapper. Due to unstructured database schema these option was not feasible. Then I collaborated with CDC for data copyrights. As CDC is a government organization, they provide data copyrights for free without modifications.
MetricsTo diagnose overall app health. I decided to monitor my app's progress by keeping track of daily installs, daily active users, and by tracking total number of installs vs uninstalls.
Goal To AchieveThe main goal is to make medical information access better. To achieve this goal I decided to ask people and get their feedback, and I decided that if people leave positive feedback and give 4+ ratings, then I will think that our app has achieved its goal.
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The Final decisionSo the final decision was to create a disease dictionary app by copying the CDC's data into an XML file and use it in the app. |
Brainstorming different UI IdeasWhile brainstorming UI ideas, I explored 6 different possibilities of presenting information to the users. I collaborated with the developer and I discussed possibilities of different layouts. Based on the budget and time and the resources, we decided to use the list approach. That was the simplest and the most effective layout.
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User Flow DiagramWhile thinking about the flow, I was thinking of making it simple. I decided two flow approach. The primary flow is a three step approach to get to the information wanted. The secondary flow is a two step approach to share or rate the application.
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WireframesBased on the user flows. I quickly mocked up three screen wireframes. I did not waste much time on these screens and quickly moved to create the user Interface for the app.
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UI ComponentsInfluenced by Material DesignThe UI for Pulse app is influenced by material design. As we were just concentrating on Android users we wanted to use all the native components to create a faster app. So considering beauty and efficiency material design was the best choice.
GridThe grid of this application is almost as same as material design. There is a consistent 16dp padding on both sides a 265dp header windown and 32 dp space between two paragraphs.
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TypographyI used a simple three style ROBOTO font specified in material design in the application.
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UI DesignDesign AI quickly mocked up a 4 screen layout and gave it to create a mid-fi prototype. We presented it to multiple users. There was a mixed reaction for this design. I received feedback that the design looks like existing apps.
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Design BWhile brainstorming multiple ways to present the data another idea struck into my mind. I created a mockup and prototyped it using Invision.
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User Testing (Design A Vs B)I presented these two designs to a handful of users. I did a usability testing of both the designs and compared my findings. There were two suggestions that I have not implemented yet due to limited resources. These two suggestions are considered for future releases.
Discoverability Of SectionsStart of a letter elementSuggestions that were not implemented
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Prep & LaunchAfter we decided which design to implement and while the development was going on. I started preparing for the launch on the Play Store.
App Search OptimizationGetting featured on the Play store is difficult. There are millions of apps competing for Keywords and getting featured on the top 10 list. In order to get ahead of the game. I searched for 10 keywords and phrases and created the description using them.
App LocalizationTo maximise downloads in different countries where Android is the most popular app. I outsourced app localization in 11 different languages. I planned all the keywords in those languages, consulted with language experts and got all description translated.
Intro VideoI purchased a beautiful intro video and music from Envato marketplace. I used my Adobe After Effects and Premier chops to make it export quality. You can watch the video here.
Analytics - Google & App AnnieBased on the metrics and the decided goals I decided to use App Annie and use Google Analytics.
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ResultThe launch was a success, within 8 hours of submitting on the Play Store we got approved and Pulse App was online. Within first 3 weeks it was downloaded 230+ times and gor 150+ Facebook page likes. We presented the app to CDC and they loved our designed.
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Lessons LearnedDesign is one piece of the entire puzzleAs a designer we think of various creative ways to solve a problem. We come up with an amazing idea which is sometimes is shut down by the team. As a designer it is highly important to understand all the pieces of the project and create a solution that best fits the puzzle.
Launch is just the beginningAfter launching the first version. We received customer feedback related to further app improvements. We also realized a better way of developing the app with better resources. After launching our app we opened more and better future possibilities for ourselves.
Good design creates trustA good design is a proof of all the efforts put together in the project. It advocates care for their customers.
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