WeWa.life

Understanding the use cases of a digital health application

Problem

WeWa.life needed to understand how users viewed their platform. Before moving into development, the client wanted to identify existing issues with their prototype. Though they had an understanding of their audience, they needed to gauge user comprehension, user-friendliness, and insight on how the experience could be improved.

The client was participating in the AHQR Digital Solutions to Support Care Transitions Challenge with the hopes of gaining funding, so results were needed fast. To meet the timeline, user insights from the target audience needed to be gathered over 10-weeks to confirm usability and viability.

Results

Based on the audience research the client provided, a screener survey was created to identify participants. To save time, remote sessions were conducted with participants to learn more about the audience and usability test the existing prototype. After the research was conducted, the findings and recommendations were presented to the client.

The AHQR Digital Solutions to Support Care Transitions Challenge honored WeWa.life with First Runner Up as a result of both the caliber and research value of the submission.

The founder thanked my team for our contributions to the research in understanding use cases for the app.

THE PROCESS

Research Plan

To begin, a session was scheduled with the stakeholders to learn of the insights they already discovered about the target audience.

A research plan was created to guide the research sessions. This plan included the specifics of recruitment and how user testing would be incorporated into the sessions.

The research goal was to understand:

how the target audience currently managed their medications
uncover pains and goals experienced surrounding health management

evaluate whether the target audience found the application to be useful
learn about which features would be viable for the MVP
uncover additional opportunities for future versions

Participant Recruitment

Based on the conversation with the client, there were two user types who would use the application.

Caregivers
Patients

To qualify participants, two screener surveys were shared on social media, Reddit forums, and through personal networks to identify individuals for the two user groups.

This ensured that the recruited participants fit the user profile types to help collect the most accurate qualitative data.

User Research and Testing

Following recruitment, 10 participants, 5 from each user type, were scheduled for remote testing.

The qualitative user interviews and user testing sessions were combined to saved time. Each session lasted an hour. The Zoom sessions were recorded and transcribed using Otter.ai.

Each session was debriefed to identify noteworthy quotations and to disseminate the meaning behind the participant’s verbal and nonverbal behavior. User insights statements were completed for each participant.

Following testing, the results were organized in a digital format and externalized. The synthesized findings uncovered key insights from the two user types.

wewa.life-affinity-diagram.png — An affinity diagram was used to capture trends and insights discovered during the testing sessions.

Created in Mural

Presentation of Findings

A report captured the key takeaways discovered from the synthesized sessions. Actions steps based on the findings were also recommended.

To break down the complex ideas of the report into tangible, high-level takeaways, a slide deck was created to present to the client.

While the users found the application to be useful, user-friendly, some iterations were needed.

Suggestions were made to:

to improve visual hierarchy by adding subheadings, more color, and increase the size of the call to action buttons
emphasize the medical records and care team features, which were favored by the user types
take a holistic, macro approach to health management, rather than a micro view