Google Aria
TYPE
Android App using Material Design
OBJECTIVE
New Logo & Android app that helps users manage asthma that is also in line with Material Design & other Google apps.
TIME
80 Hours
VIEW PROTOTYPE
Google Aria is a combination of a wearable patch and mobile app that helps people monitor and manage their asthma.
The app will be developed first for Android, adhering to Material Design and Google’s guidelines.
Research goals included:
To understand the demographics and current research for asthmatics
To understand how users currently track and manage their asthma
To figure out what data/vitals would be valuable for asthma sufferers or their caretakers to help them manage and/or improve their condition
Asthma is a common chronic disorder of the airways characterized by periods of reversible airflow obstruction known as asthma episodes or attacks.
5 Common symptoms during an asthma attack include wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness or pain.
An estimated 39.5 million people (12.9%), including 10.5 million (14.0%) children in the United States had been diagnosed with asthma in their lifetimes.
In most cases, the cause(s) of asthma is unknown. Multiple host and environmental factors may be involved in the development of asthma and exacerbation of asthma symptoms.
Avoiding known triggers in the environment, routine doctor visitors, and taking medications will prevent asthma flare ups.
Emergency department visits and urgent care visits may be indicators of poorly controlled asthma.
According to WebMD, one of the best ways to keep your asthma under control is to carefully track your symptoms. Using a Peak Flow Meter to help you understand if your medications work. Drops in peak flow can predict an asthma flare-up 2 to 3 days before it happens.
I started by exploring other asthma apps. I wanted to get a better understanding of each competitor’s features as well as strengths & weaknesses.
I spent some time looking at the Material Design website and pulled some UI elements that I was looking to incorporate through the app. This initial exploration helped me to organize these elements to ensure that my future design was in line with Material Design and the Google family.
I interviewed 5 individuals between the ages of 31 and 65 years old who had experience with asthma. 2 users currently had asthma and 3 users cared for or currently care for children who has/had asthma.
Participants mentioned that asthma is more of a condition that they manage for themselves or for their child.
Asthma sufferers had more difficulty when they were in specific conditions that triggered their asthma and they weren’t on top of taking their medication.
Parents also mentioned that they worry about remembering to administer medication and worry about their children’s condition when they are not monitoring them.
Quotes:
“For me its more reactive than preventive. If there was something that would alert me beforehand that would be helpful“
“I think I have a good understanding of the triggers but for a while we didn’t have it under control. It would be nice to have an app to understand the triggers and know the conditions.”
“Its hard to get a handle on it because they don’t vocalize it and you are trying to find a pattern.”
“Sometimes its hard to tell if its symptom of something else or his asthma. It seems like hes wheezing but it would be nice to be able to determine if its his asthma or something more serious”
Based on my research, I have highlighted the top priorities for asthmatics or caretakers to “stay on top of” or better manage asthma:
Trigger alerts: A deeper understanding of how to prevent asthma attacks by feedback through the app to see if triggers are active
Tracking Asthma attacks: If triggers are not really known, it would be important to record asthma attacks and track patterns with environmental conditions
Oxygen tracking and alerts: A way of tracking your asthma health through a peak flow meter and/or oxygen tracking to understand when attack is coming on
Alerts for asthma medications: Asthmatics mentioned that they were not on top of taking or administering medications
My persona Linda main priority is to help her son Mason with his asthma conditions.
Her goal is help prevent his asthma attacks by better understanding his triggers and avoiding conditions that may cause asthma.
Trigger Recognition
HIGHEST IMPORTANCE
Trigger Alerts: If triggers are known, app would alert user if those triggers are present such as allergies, elevated heart rate, weather
Trigger Discovery: If triggers are not really known, it would be important to record asthma attacks and track patterns with environmental conditions
Ability to connect Peak flow meter and/or oxygen tracking to look at baseline and track data from before and after an attack so that users can be alerted of a potential attack
Medications Page
HIGH IMPORTANCE
Ability to add medications and push notification alerts to take or administer medication
Based on research and product features, I focused on 3 major flows within the app:
1) Discovering a new trigger based on breathing conditions
2) Adding a new trigger & alert
3) Adding a new medication & alert
Please click on image to see details
By looking through the Material Design elements, I started sketching out the flows based on specific UI elements and data necessary to complete the actions of the user flows
Please click on image to see details
After a few rounds of sketches and explorative iterations, I wanted to incorporate the visualization of a quick breath of air needed for a peak flow meter reading as well as a lung.
I also wanted the app to look like it was a part of the google product line.
Using the updated branding and style kit, I created the high-fidelity wireframes in Sketch.
Please click on image to see details
I created a high fidelity prototype through Invision.
I conducted usability testing with 5 people on May 10th. All participants were between the ages of 28 and 43. All sessions took between 5 and 9 minutes to complete.
Information Cards: 5 out of 5 participants understood
Alert Notification: 5 out of 5 participants understood
Journal: 5 out of 5 participants understood
Triggers: 5 out of 5 participants understood
Medications: 5 out of 5 participants understood
Tasks
Task #1: Discover new trigger: 4/5 users completed successfully and a few were caught up on toggle and button.
Task #2: Add new trigger: 5/5 users completed successfully
Task #3: Add new medication:5/5 users completed successfully
Opportunities to Improve
Alert on homepage: Opportunity to make that alert to stand out more
Alert Toggle: Opportunity to change the wording (simplify) of the toggle name
Add to Triggers (discovery) button: Opportunity to remove “+” in the button name or change the name
Add to Triggers & Add to Medication button: Opportunity to change the button to “Save”
Screen after pop up: opportunity to highlight the new item in green to show it has been recently added.
Build out additional mobile screens
After priority revisions are made, I would like to build out the other task flows like the initial set up process, journal page, adding a peak flow reading, and more.
