Transforming Eczema with Personalized Care
CURA: Transforming Eczema with Personalized Care
Eczema, a condition often underestimated, affects countless individuals across all age groups and geographies, bringing not only physical discomfort but also psychological distress and social stigma. CURA emerges as a transformative solution, offering a comprehensive app that allows users to meticulously track their symptoms, triggers, and daily routines. Through personalized analytics, CURA provides tailored care plans and actionable insights, greatly enhancing the management of eczema.
Problem - Why We Chose to Tackle Eczema
Eczema is a chronic skin condition affecting individuals worldwide, causing symptoms like intense itchiness, redness, and dry skin. It leads to significant physical discomfort and disrupts daily life. Beyond the physical symptoms, eczema also brings psychological distress and social stigma, affecting sufferers' mental health and social interactions. The condition's unpredictable nature makes it challenging to manage, complicating the identification of triggers and effective treatments.
Solution - What is "CURA"
CURA is an innovative solution designed to empower eczema sufferers by allowing them to meticulously track their symptoms, triggers, and daily routines. The app analyzes this data to provide personalized care plans and actionable insights, improving symptom management. It also enhances communication between patients and healthcare providers, ensuring more effective treatment. Additionally, CURA fosters a supportive community, helping users feel connected and understood.
Outcome - Runner up 2024 Student mHealth Competition
The outcome was CURA, a mobile app that revolutionizes eczema management by providing personalized tracking and care plans. We showcased our solution at the HFES 2024 Student mHealth App Competition in Chicago and emerged as the runner-up.
Role
UX Researcher
Product Design
Visual Design
Content Design
Project Duration
Sep 2023 - Mar 2024
Team Members
Samiha Essakhi
Nayanika Goje
Tools Used
Adobe Illustrator
Figma
Discover
Secondary Research - What do we know about Eczema?
From the very beginning, we knew that we wanted to design solutions for managing eczema because of our personal experiences. This decision was deeply personal to me, as I have been suffering from eczema for the past three years. My firsthand experience with the daily struggles, discomfort, and emotional toll of eczema fueled my passion to create a meaningful and impactful solution.
To achieve this, I first wanted to start by understanding eczema itself. I aimed to delve deep into the condition, uncovering the nuances and complexities that patients face daily. This resulted in an extensive literature review on the pathophysiology of eczema, its triggers, and the current landscape of treatments and management strategies.
What are the medical definitions and various classifications of eczema
Conducting an extensive literature review was instrumental in our design process. We gained a comprehensive understanding of eczema, including its causes, symptoms, and current treatments.
Primary Research - Understanding Eczema Experiences through Digital Ethnography
In the initial phase of our design process, we engaged in digital ethnography due to the lack of ethics approval for direct interactions. Through social listening, we focused on capturing the feelings and opinions of individuals with eczema in their everyday online environments. We utilized a variety of platforms which included Reddit threads focusing on eczema-related topics, as well as specialized blogs and websites dedicated to eczema.
Here's the link to the research document if you're interested!
A total of 80 Reddit Threads were analyzed and then coded to generate initial themes. For this purpose, we used specific keywords and queries, including: "Eczema Tracking," "Eczema Challenges," and "Eczema Journey" to find relevant discussions and experiences shared by individuals dealing with eczema. Here's what we found...
Users utilize a variety of methods to monitor their eczema, blending traditional note-taking with digital tools.
“I use another app called 'clue', which is mainly for tracking periods, but you can log a ton of other stuff like sleep, medication, mood, digestion, etc.”
The societal stigma surrounding eczema also presents a barrier, as users feel hesitant to discuss their condition openly.
“Stigma around eczema makes it harder for me to discuss my feelings or problems, fearing judgment from others.”
Documenting triggers and maintaining a historical record is crucial for managing the condition.
“To find out exactly what triggers your eczema symptoms, it is very important to keep a systematic detailed record of the triggers you are being exposed to.”
Based on these insights, we developed design guidelines for the envisioned experience —
Define
Meet Zoe - The Tech-Savvy Eczema Warrior
We crafted a persona to better understand and address the specific needs and challenges of our target users. This approach helped us design solutions that are truly effective and empathetic, ensuring they resonate with the real-life experiences of individuals like Zoe.
Personas to help us cater to two ends of the target demographic
Exploring Possibilities
For managing eczema, individuals employ a variety of tracking methods, blending old-school note-taking with modern digital apps. Recognizing the multifaceted challenges of eczema, we devised a journey map to develop comprehensive management strategies.
We started with a common scenario where a user integrates digital tools like an app to log daily health metrics—ranging from sleep and mood to diet and symptom triggers. Through our journey mapping, we explore various enhancements—from improving the app's interface to ensuring it accommodates extensive custom tagging and seamless integration with other health devices.
Each aspect was considered, from user interaction and data visualization to community support and educational resources, aiming to transform the challenging daily management of eczema into a more empowered and informed experience.
Here's the link to the whole journey map if you're interested!
How might we empower individuals with eczema to improve their condition’s daily management and healthcare communication?
Develop
Designing the App
After understanding the various challenges and needs associated with managing eczema effectively, it was time to design. I began by outlining the app, which users would employ to track their eczema symptoms and triggers. I designed the app's information architecture to be straightforward and streamlined.
Once signed up, the dashboard will be the central hub where users can log daily health metrics—from symptoms and triggers to medications and dietary habits. From this dashboard, they'll always have the option to navigate to more detailed sections like their historical data, community forums, or personalized settings to refine their tracking preferences and receive tailored insights.
As a result of this process, the ideas we have chosen to concentrate on and further develop into features are:
I then mapped out the intricate pathways of a user navigating the app through different stages of their eczema management journey. This essentially broke down into two key user flows — that is before profile setup and after profile setup.
Here's the link to all the Flows, in a FigJam document.
Implement
Medium Fidelity Wireframes
Our design process began with developing medium-fidelity wireframes to evaluate the interactions and flows with subject matter experts. Below are some examples of these screens.
As a result of this process, the ideas we have chosen to concentrate on and further develop into features are:
Consultation with a Dermatologist
For our expert feedback session, we met with a dermatologist based in India. During a 45-minute Zoom call, we presented to her an overview of our research, design guidelines, and features. We focused on understanding specific expectations doctors and patients have regarding symptom-reporting sessions during clinical visits.
Here's what we found...
- Age is crucial in eczema treatment, emphasizing tailored symptom tracking and communication strategies.
- The expert highlighted stress and menstrual cycles as significant triggers for eczema among females.
- Family history, including asthma, allergies, rhinitis, eczema, and dry skin, is crucial for understanding and managing eczema.
Revised Design Guidelines
Based on the expert’s insights, we worked on a revised set of design guidelines informed by the feedback from the dermatologist. These updated guidelines emphasize several key areas:
These comprehensive guidelines aim to create a user-centric, intuitive, and effective tool for managing eczema, ensuring that users can easily track their symptoms, understand their triggers, and communicate effectively with healthcare providers.
Integration of Human Factor Ergonomics
The integration of Human Factors Ergonomics (HFE) principles lies at the core of our product design, ensuring a user-centric and intuitive health tracking experience
Here's how we integrated HFE principles into our design...
As a result of this process, the ideas we have chosen to concentrate on and further develop into features are:
Iterations
Expert interview with the Dermatologist ( Iteration 1 )
The first iteration of this phase was shaped by the expert feedback we received from dermatologist. This specialist insight was pivotal in guiding our refinements, ensuring that our solution not only meets the practical needs of users but also addresses the complexities of eczema management from a medical standpoint.
Before
There was no option to track metrics like sleep, activity, heart rate, vitals, body measurements, and menstrual cycles, as noted by the dermatologist.
After
Enhanced onboarding now includes the option to sync with wearables and track vital health metrics for personalized eczema management.
Before
The app did not collect age or family history information missing crucial data for personalizing the user experience and understanding hereditary patterns.
After
Based on dermatologist feedback, we made changes in design to collect age and family history for personalized user experience and enhanced analytics.
Heuristic Evaluation (Iteration 2)
The second iteration focused on identifying initial usability issues. We conducted a heuristic evaluation based on Nielsen’s 10 heuristics to systematically uncover problems and improve the user experience. This approach allowed us to make necessary adjustments early in the design process, ensuring our app adhered to key usability principles and provided an intuitive, effective user experience.
As a result of this process, the ideas we have chosen to concentrate on and further develop into features are:
Before
Previous design used complex sliders with qualitative descriptors to rate symptom severity.
After
We've simplified the symptom severity rating from complex sliders with qualitative descriptors to a straightforward numerical scale.
Before
The 'Front' and 'Back' buttons could be misinterpreted as 'Next' and 'Previous,' causing user confusion.
After
The 'Front' and 'Back' buttons were replaced with 'Cancel' and 'Done' and added tabbed buttons at the top for clearer navigation.
We’ve noticed that Nielsen’s heuristics are vague and have no subcategories that help guide the analysis. They also do not touch on accessibility issues and the use of assistive technology to cater to different users. To overcome these limitations, we employed triangulation, enhancing our methodology by sharing the revised prototypes, with two experts.
Expert feedback sessions
After addressing issues uncovered by the heuristics analysis, we have shared our prototypes with two experts. The first one being an industry professional, Professor Christopher Ferguson, an expert with extensive experience in design in the healthcare field, and the second one was conducted with the assigned Research Coach, Alexandra Watral PhD, remotely using Zoom platform.
Here's what we found...
- For personalization, the feedback highlighted the necessity of accommodating diverse body types. The current "muscular type" model does not represent the entire population.
- One of the experts also raised concerns about the system's reliance on personal insights. While personalized data is valuable, there's a need to aggregate information within the framework of clinical guidelines.
- To further align our system with professional standards, the expert suggested consulting more doctors.
- Another element that was highlighted by one of the experts is including the purpose behind tracking data during the onboarding stage and in the symptoms log screen.
Final Concept
Meet Cura
Effortlessly log symptoms, triggers, daily routines, and more with just a few taps. Gain valuable insights into your health patterns and make informed decisions for better management and improved well-being.
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CURA identifies condition patterns and triggers, sends alerts if your condition worsens, and lets you share easy-to-understand reports with your doctor for better consultations.
Receive a personalized care plan from CURA that is specifically tailored to your unique needs, symptoms, and lifestyle. By analyzing your daily routines, triggers, and health data, CURA adapts the care plan to provide actionable insights and recommendations that evolve with your condition.
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Phase 7: Takeaways
Learnings and Takeaways
Working on this project was my first experience collaborating with healthcare professionals and learning about Human Factors Ergonomics (HFE) principles. I was fortunate to have an amazing team and the scope to apply expert collaboration and HFE principles.
Expert Collaboration
- Collaborating with dermatologists provided critical insights, ensuring the app met eczema patients' needs. I learned the importance of early expert integration for effective, user-centric solutions.
- Expert feedback ensured medical accuracy and relevance, improving user trust. This experience taught me the value of professional validation for credible health products.
Human Factors Ergonomics (HFE)
- Ensuring appropriate font sizes and touch-friendly buttons improved accessibility. I learned small design choices significantly impact the usability of digital health tools.
