Mentos 💊

OVERVIEW

Mentos is a mobile application that provides users a friendly interactive application that encourages medication adherence by synchronizing with pet feeding times, suggests daily walks for emotional and physical support, and provides digestible information to empower patients with knowledge.

MY ROLE

I was a designer for this project, and I was in charge of:

  • Conducting user research interviews

  • Creating wireframes for the main features of application

  • Designing logo and setting visual guidelines

  • Building low to high fidelity prototypes

TEAM

Worked with two other Georgia Tech students and my role was:

  • User Experience Designer

  • InteractionDesigner

  • User Interface Designer

  • Visual Designer

DESIGN TOOLS

Figma, Miro, Photoshop, Illustrator

DURATION 

4 months

 

PROBLEM

Incidence and prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) continues to increase. For patients, achieving good glycemic control is the key factor in reducing worsening conditions, hospitalization and mortality. This control is achieved with implementing lifestyle changes and most importantly - adherence to anti-diabetic medication.

However, medication adherence for T2DM patients remains one of the lowest of all chronic conditions at 31% of medication adherence rate.

Medication adherence for patients with Type 2 Diabetes is prevalent in America, particularly for those in low socioeconomic class. Among the causes for nonadherence, there is much opportunity to address low health literacy and lack of social support.

 
 
 

SOLUTION

 

Medication Reminder

  • Remind users to take the medication on specific time

  • Connected with the pet’s feeding time for higher engagement/responsibility

  • Scan and check if the pill is correct medication for patients to take

 
 

Walk Reminder

  • Remind users to go on a walk everyday

  • The application's haptic feedback will detect the user's movement

  • Provide a Photo Booth for users to have a close interaction with their pet

 
 
 
 

Take Quiz - Knowledge

  • Provide patients with better diabetes knowledge

  • Offer daily quizzes that users can take to learn about type 2 diabetes and other important health-related information

 

RESEARCH ⚙️

 

BACKGROUND RESEARCH

Recent studies based on large claim databases have identified key demographic factors, but it may be of greater importance to identify those critical factors that are potentially modifiable. The major determinants of non-adherence to treatment among patients with T2DM are broken down into 5 types:

 
 
 
 

USER JOURNEY RESEARCH

To best understand the patient’s context we explored the patient's journey from diagnosis at the physician's office to the patient’s home. We identified relationships our patient may have that impacts the patients’ medication adherence and attitudes and beliefs on their healthcare journey. Potential stakeholders in this journey are caregivers, nurses, physicians, social workers, healthcare specialists, pharmacists, nutritionists, payors, friends, support groups, and physical trainers.

Identifying the causes for medication adherence in our target population, we organized adherence causes and how they can be addressed at each touchpoint in the patients’ journey from the physicians office to their home.

 
 
 
 

RESEARCH INSIGHTS

In our research, we explored the medication adherence landscape and figured out most patients need knowledge and emotional support throughout their diabetes journey.

With help from the industry advisor and more targeted research, we narrowed down our scope further to tackle a smaller target group. We chose to focus on Americans 65 years and up who live alone as they struggle with motivation and support to proactively pursue better health outcomes.

Narrowing down our target group also helps identify and more specifically define our design objectives.

 

DESIGN ⚙️

 

IDEATION

Our team kicked off our first brainstorming session to generate, share and organize ideas. After a few hours of brainstorming and documenting, we categorized our ideas by knowledge and emotional support to make sure they meet our design goals from our problem statement. Then, we categorized by the digital or physical solution to measure feasibility.

We narrowed it down to three ideas based on the number of votes each team member assigned by how they could meet our design goals. Three that meet most of the design goals that we push forward with further research and idea exploration are the Community Chat Application, Rx Management Dashboard, and Virtual Pet.

 
 

CONCEPT 1 - Diabetes Community Chat Application

A social platform specifically designed for diabetes patients that focuses on emotional support and having questions answered by medical professionals.

Strength ✅

  • Sharing knowledge

  • Community support and empathy

  • Chat - frequent updates

  • Most up-to-date information on the bottom

  • Informed answers by healthcare providers

Weakness ❌

  • May not necessarily lead to adherence

  • Sharing negative experiences

  • Information can get buried in the chat

  • Receive false information

 
 

CONCEPT 2 - Rx Management Dashboard

The RX Management Dashboard for Diabetic patients provides a daily overview of personal health status and reminds patients to take their medications.

Strength ✅

  • Visual display of medications

  • Monitors drug side effects/personalization

  • Scheduling for health management

  • Syncs with pharmacy software instantly

Weakness ❌

  • Can get tired / desensitized to the displayed information

  • Only for at-home use

  • Does not account for all side effects

 
 

CONCEPT 3 - Virtual Pet

Virtual Pet is an application that uses a friendly interactive virtual pet application that encourages medication adherence by synchronizing with pet feeding times, suggests daily walks for emotional and physical support, and provides digestible information to empower patients with knowledge.

Strength ✅

  • Learning opportunity

  • Encourages physical activity

  • UI components are small and inaccessible for elderly patients

Weakness ❌

  • May require too much attention

  • Sense of guilt associated with taking care of the virtual pet

 
 

FINAL CONCEPT

To decide the design direction of our final solution, we presented our solution to our peers, advisor, and professor. Virtual Pet seemed to have the most positive feedback because of its novel idea.

By the nature of a pet being a part of an owner’s everyday life, we felt our Virtual Pet idea could address medication adherence holistically. We saw many opportunities to provide features that would meet our outlined design objectives.

 
 

IDENTIFYING KEY FEATURES

We brainstormed our key features by referencing our initial design objectives. We listed the narrowed-down ideas using paper and pencil and created a storyboard to align ideas and present them for concept validation.

The key features we ultimately decided on were:

1. Physical Exercise

2. Medication Reminders

3. Mood Tracking

 

EVALUATE ⚙️

 

USABILITY TESTING

Our primary testing goals were to make sure the app user flow worked as intended and confirm that it was easy to use.

Methods

We recruited 5 testers from target population demographics. 4/5 testers had type 2 diabetes, and 1/5 of testers were not diabetic but took chronic medications.

We tested 5 key flows. 

Logging in → Medication setup → Taking medication → Checking mood → Going for a walk

We used 5 points Likert scale to gather quantitative data on users’ ease of use for each user flow. We also gathered qualitative data by asking open-ended questions to learn what part was memorable, noticeable, and delightful. 

Participants Analysis

By collecting our notes from our open-ended discussions with our testers, we were able to gather commonalities.

 
 

CHANGES AFTER TESTING

After conducting usability testing with all five potential users, we asked them to elaborate more on the challenges, and we were able to identify room for improvement.

Proper Visual Feedback After Selecting a Pet

 
 

Providing AM/PM Options to Meet Existing Expectations of UI

 
 

Increasing Visibility for Points Store

 
 
 
 

BRANDING

Logo

We chose circular shapes as they draw viewers' eyes to the logo. We chose pawprints to be inscribed in the circle as it best communicates with the pet, which is our core product.

Colors

Studies show that the elderly prefer colors like red, green, blue, and purple. We chose purple since purple is warmer than blue, which is a commonly used color in healthcare branding that gives a more sterile, and professional feel.

Shapes

To continue with the friendly and discoverable shapes we chose large shapes with rounded edges that are friendly, inviting, and easy to click.

 

FINAL DESIGN

  • LOG IN & REGISTRATION

    The login feature will require the user to register to the application and set up an account. To fully set up, the application would ask permission to access the camera, microphone, and location since those are going to be used in the later features.

  • SETTING UP MEDICATION

    Since the main focus of the application is medication adherence, users must first set up medication. Instead of going through the long and tedious process of typing all information in, users can easily scan their pill boxes and pills to save the data. The application will have a medication database from Drugs.com where it has various medication information including photos of the medication.

  • RECORDING MOOD AND TRACKING

    One of the main functions of Mentos is to examine how users feel every day. The virtual pet would ask users how they feel every morning and come up with activities based on their moods.

  • MEDICATION REMINDER

    Once the medication is set, the user will receive reminders based on when the user must take the medication. The time that users have to take medication is connected with pet’s feeding time. Users can easily scan their pill, and the application will tell you if it is the correct medication.

  • WALK REMINDER

    Once the user decides to take a walk, the application's haptic feedback will resume, where it detects the user's movement. Once the user stops, the virtual pet stops and turns around to ask or update the user's status. Also, in order for users to have a close interaction with their pet, Mentos provide a Photo Booth, so once users stop, they can easily open the camera. Once the timer for the end of the walking session goes off, the user can end the walk or walk more.

  • QUIZ

    To provide patients with better diabetes knowledge, Mentos offers daily quizzes that users can take to learn about type 2 diabetes and other important health-related information.

  • SCOREBOARD

    To keep users engaged with the app, Mentos will have a scoreboard where users can view the scores they have collected through medication adherence, walking, and taking quizzes. Using the points they collect, they can buy toys or clothing for their virtual pet. We think the points system is a good incentive for users to engage in various features, not only to compete with others using the app, but also to buy different things for their virtual pets. re

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