Capstone Project
Freestyle Libre
Reducing Cognitive Load for Diabetes Patients with a CGM Companion App
Role Solo UX Designer
Timeframe 5 weeks
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a disease that occurs when your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high. Blood glucose is your primary energy source and comes from your food. Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, helps glucose from food get into your cells for energy.
What is a CGM?
Continuous glucose monitoring is wearable technology that makes it easier to track your blood sugar (blood glucose) levels over time, 24 hours a day.
Did you know? People living with diabetes have an extra 180 health related decisions a day?
What is the problem?
A person with diabetes has so much that they need to think about regarding their health and lifestyle, and using multiple apps to keep track of all this information causes more stress for the person.
How can we improve the Freestyle Libre app to provide people with actionable and meaningful data while incentivizing patient engagement in diabetes management and overall health in one app?
Research
Virtual user interviews were conducted to identify usage trends of CGM devices and/or health-management applications, users’ motivations, frustrations, and goals.
My initial research included reading literature reviews and reviewing forums and app reviews.
Who are the competitors?
Dexcom and Freestyle Libre are CGM companion apps. OneDrop and Sugarmate are diabetes management apps that were commonly mentioned in forums.
Key Opportunities for the FreeStyle Libre app
Ability to set goals
Customizable home page
Nutritional database
Positive encouragement
Doctor appointment reminders
Motivating challenges
More modern UI
User interviews’ takeaways
Approached interviews with the overarching questions ...
How does diabetes impact the user’s daily life and routines?
How do CGM or other health-management applications add value to their lives?
Needs
Glanceable data
Positive reinforcement
Understanding how different health factors impact their blood glucose
Having constant thoughts about everything impacting their blood glucose
CGM companion apps not being customizable features
Generally feeling overwhelmed
Frustrations
Define
Who are the users?
Britney Clark was identified as the primary user. She is a Type I diabetic and wants a solution that helps her manage her diet, exercise, carb counting, appointments, and glucose all in one.
The secondary users are Trent Jones, an architect that has Type II diabetes, and Sarah Bart, a PR Manager who is health conscious.
A strong foundation is a must
After researching and prioritizing features, I designed the informational architecture so that the application could grow with additional functionality in the future. Key focus being on the homepage and food logging.
What is the user flow?
I created multiple user flow but the inital focus was on the profile setup. After receiving feedback the flow was updated to allow users to skip profile setup because users want to first see what the app has to offer.
What are the features?
The feature list was grouped by must-have, nice to have, can come later, and surprising/delightful.
Features were prioritized as must-haves based on existing functionality from competitors and user research.
Design
My goal for the overall tone of the UI was for it to be playful with the orange and purple color palette and use emojis but also not overwhelming with tons of information.
Test
Next, I created a simple prototype using Figma and conducted user testing to test clarity, completion and comprehension. I conducted a small usability study with five individuals. Three individuals had diabetes and two individuals were non-diabetic. Ages 23-63. Two individuals had experience with CGMs.
The users were tasked with the following:
Adding a food item
Ease of going through profile setup
To provide their overall thoughts on the app
How was the usability?
Testers were 100% successful in adding a food item
2 of the testers mentioned that the overall UI was fun and playful
2 testers mentioned they were happy they could skip the initial setup and could come back later
GAINS
PAINS
Testers mentioned that it would be helpful to have an overall score on their health performance
One tester mentioned they wished they could see the food information page
What are the design features?
Lessons Learned
We are not the users
I needed to embrace the fact that we are not the users. I must push my assumptions aside to understand the user's needs, frustrations, motivations, and goals.
You can’t (& don’t need to) research everything
It is best to start with a decently informed, educated assumption of what will be impactful for customers. I should spend my time researching those things that, if I am wrong about, would cause the project to fail.
Time is ticking
As a solo designer, I am constantly fighting against time. There is always more I could do, but I try to remind myself I am working on an MVP.