A Mess
Role: UX Designer | UX Researcher | Industrial Designer
A product designed to help teenagers with ADHD maintain medication adherence.
Context: ADHD affects approximately 5% of the global child population. Insights from the literature review and stakeholder interviews revealed that ADHD medication often loses its effectiveness about six months after switching treatments. The symptoms of ADHD contribute to challenges with medication adherence, highlighting the need for discreet solutions, particularly since the primary users are teenagers.
​
Action: Conducted literature review and stakeholder interviews (doctor, caregiver, patient) for exploratory research, followed by empathy maps and teen user journey mapping to identify needs. Market research revealed existing teen products. After brainstorming, 3 concepts were developed, with the final concept being a pen that detects symptoms, integrated with a voice assistant for daily reporting.
​
Result: The decreet looking product with integrated app was liked by the parent and the teen. The designers appreciated the look and feel of the pen.
​
Learning: ADHD is a hidden chronic disease. Designing for teens who are very sensitive about their public portrayal, shy about sharing their feelings and are moody is challenging.
Group Project | Team of 3 | Duration: 4 months | Completion: May2023 | Georgia Tech X Cognizant
ADHD is prevalent in 5% of children population worldwide. Hence, the awareness of ADHD is relatively less, and hence most people misunderstand the symptoms of ADHD like lack of attention and hyperactivity as disrespect than ADHD symptom.
Design Prompt by Cognizant
" What’s a phygital solution to encourage teenagers with chronic disease to be adherent with their medication and provide reassurance to their caregivers (parents/nurses/doctors) that they have taken their medication? "
The Major Chronic Disease in Teens
Diabetes Type 1
18% children have diabetes Type 1 world wide
Interview Insights: Symptoms lead to medicine adherence
Asthma
44.3% children have asthma world wide (2019)
Interview Insights: Symptoms lead to medicine adherence
ADHD
5% children have ADHD world wide
Interview Insights: Symptoms restrains from medicine adherence
Background Research
Attention Deficient/Hyperactivity Disorder is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder where people experience difficulty in focus and/or are hyperactivity. ADHD Affects 4% of adult population and 5% in children worldwide.
Market Research
DHI were designed to support treatment in eight domains
Key Observations
-
Current Digital Health Interventions (DHIs) do not primarily focus on medical non-adherence.
-
The main platform currently used to address medical non-adherence is the mobile platform.
-
Adolescents with ADHD are not the primary end users of current Digital Health Interventions (DHIs).
-
A significant challenge remains in translating technical research into commercial health products, balancing utility in promoting medical adherence with efficacy in treating ADHD.
Insights on Competitor Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Key Observations
-
The competition lacked any features designed for individuals who prefer not to use medication.
-
The competition did not include any elements specifically tailored for teenagers who require care from both parents and doctors.
User Research - Discovery
ADHD diagnosis requires active support from caregivers and care providers.
Care Receivers
ADHD Teens
Primary Care Givers
Parents and Gaurdians
Care Providers
Physicians
Conducting interviews with users and primary stakeholders to uncover key areas of opportunity.
Key Findings
ADHD teens’ symptoms are volatile and change frequently
-
Likes entertainment and animal themes and can concentrate.
-
Non-adherence of medicine gets better when she grows older.
ADHD doesn’t cooperate with parents and caregivers in many aspects
-
Tried many different alternative methods than medication but doesn't work.
-
Tried many ways to help her adhere instructions but doesn't work.
-
My daughter cannot adhere to instructions.
Caregivers record symptoms and collaborate with doctors to deal with symptom change.
-
I concern about the side effect of medicine.
-
My daughter's medicine regime changes a lot.
I need to provide feedback for doctors. -
I need to keep track of medicine and symptoms on a regular basis.
-
I need an easy and integrated way to keep daily record for communication.
Caregivers try very hard to ensure ADHD teens stick with medicine
-
Has trouble with school work.
-
Has trouble in personal connection.
-
Feels embarrassed of having ADHD.
-
Has tension with her siblings.
User Journey Map
The entire user journey would last from 3 to 6 month, starting from the point of diagnosis, getting used to the medicine, experiencing side effects, adjust to a optimal status for a while, and finally need to switch medicine again due to loss of effect or other side effects.
​
-
During these different stages, it was found that teenagers feel the worst when they are experiencing persistent side effects from after switching the medicine.
-
Besides from physical reaction, they also face difficulties of communicating with doctors about the doses due to both their lack of voice and communication gaps from policy (e.g. parents can only reach out to doctors at certain times). This user journey empowerment during stakeholder communication.
Define
Problem Statement
"The ADHD medical treatment for teens is a changeable and ongoing process. During each medicine transition period, teens will experience a lot of struggles that prevents them from adhering with medicine. How to design a product that support them by empowering them with more voice in stakeholder collaboration?"
Design Objectives
-
To design to voice teen’s opinion in the medication process.
-
To make teenagers independent in the medication.
-
To create a platform where all stakeholders including teen, parent and doctors could share information.
-
To create awareness about medication in teenager about medication.
Ideate
Brainstorming
100 + Ideas | 6+ Features | 3 Concepts
Initial Concepts
​It was found during the interview with teen, that they liked playing with dogs, and it was astonishing to see that ADHD is also found in dogs. As per research, there are few dogs that showcase ADHD characteristics, like Germán Shepard, Border Collies as well as several breeds of terrier, including Russell Terriers and Cairn Terriers.
Concept 1
The pill dispenser is integrated with a phone app, allowing the teen to provide daily check-ins and their schedule to monitor their health. When the teen scans the dog-house-shaped pill dispenser with the app, an AR dog appears. This virtual pet can be pampered and interacted with through the app. The AR dog reflects the ADHD teen's health: if the teen is unhealthy, the dog will also appear unhealthy.
Concept 2
Parents input their child's ADHD information into the system from their end. Children can ask questions and provide voice inputs based on their own experiences. The system tracks the child's ADHD symptoms for parents and offers children insights from AI, encouraging them to develop their own thoughts.
Concept 3
This concept integrates a virtual assistant to help teens manage their medication intake during the transition period. Key features include regular reminders, daily symptom checks to monitor side effects, and a final report to help teens understand their symptoms better and communicate more effectively with their doctors.
After discussing our final direction with mentor Cody and other experts from Cognizant, we identified key pain points: medication adherence during transitions and fostering children's independence during medication.
We decided to proceed with concept 3, a platform featuring a virtual assistant to support teens through the medication transition period with personalized guidance, effective reminders, and daily symptom checks.
Capturing objective data from people with ADHD related to e.g., sleep, stress and mental wellbeing, could provide new insights into how these are related.
Support individuals with ADHD in reflecting on and gaining insight into their own conditions – an approach that has been popularized in HCI as personal informatics.
Background Research
Attention Deficient/Hyperactivity Disorder is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder where people experience difficulty in focus and/or are hyperactivity. ADHD Affects 4% of adult population and 5% in children worldwide.
How do we detect and track ADHD symptoms?
The literature review identified hyperactivity, insomnia, headaches, and mood swings as common symptoms. Hyperactivity often involves fidgeting and leg shaking. The study suggests that insomnia could be detected through heart rate monitoring.
Recognizing the teenager as the primary stakeholder, it became clear that the solution needed to integrate seamlessly into their daily routine. Thus, a handheld object like a pen, used frequently for assignments, was deemed most suitable.
Interface Design for ADHD
Visual hierarchy guides users to tasks and information in the correct order. All users benefit from proper contrast, color, animation, scale, and progressive disclosure, but these are especially helpful for ADHD users. Key items should be clear even when squinting at the screen.
We studied design strategies to make our design inclusive for ADHD teens, focusing on methods to capture their attention due to their tendency to lose focus quickly.
Provide a high-reinforcement environment – reward good behavior and completion of all tasks that are asked of the children, using positive language.
Provide a ‘calm’ environment, with soothing colors. No decorations or distractions.
Design materials so the layout is neat and uncluttered.
Prototype
Designing + User Testing + refinement a pen for ADHD Teens
Prototype
Designing the Voice Assistant Character
Dr. Messy represents ADHD teens. The mess they are going through in their life, due to hyperfocus and hyperactivity, is represented in Dr. Messy. Dr. Messy was created by scribbling in round shape and evolved it to mess in a neat doctor’s coat.
Prototype
Final Concept Design
Usability Testing
Testing the App
Learnings
-
Integration of user research into product design to support design decision with evidence
-
Learned how to design for teenagers to balance accessibility and inclusivity with gamified avatar
-
Conducted more user testing directly with stakeholders
-
Integration with all stakeholders with the product.