MIO, the medical & healthcare app
The medical & healthcare app that improves physical and mental health of prostate cancer patients through tailored self-care activities.
Role
Co-founder, Project lead & Product Designer
Team
Dr. Inés Nuño de la Rosa as a co-founder
Collaboration with IVO (Instituto Valenciano de Oncología) & Mario Redondo Cancer Center
Timeline
01/22 - ongoing
Introduction
Faced with the limited time public healthcare doctors have to advise patients, Dr. Inés Nuño de la Rosa and I led this project to design an app offering tailored complementary therapies for prostate cancer patients.
The app, developed with Alhambra IT and experts from the IVO and Diego Redondo Cancer Exercise Center, enhances physical and mental well-being through exercise, nutrition, and meditation. Our work won the National Urology Association's First Prize for Research, funding a 2 years clinal study for validating its impact and potential.
Challenge
Men recently diagnosed with prostate cancer feel anxious about their future. They have questions and want to improve their health, but doctors lack time during consultation to explain ways to improve health and manage treatment effects.
Proposed Solution
A tool for newly diagnosed patients to actively engage in complementary therapies: healthy diet, exercise, pelvic floor strength, and mindfulness to preserve or improve their physical and mental health.
Success metrics
Task success rate: TSR > 90%
Average difficulty: μD < 3 (1-7)
Tools
Figma | Usability Hub | Google forms
Design process
Discover
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Discover ✳
Before starting the project, I conducted stakeholder interviews to understand business goals, constraints, and app requirements.
Competitive analysis
I conducted a SWOT analysis with potential MIO competitors. Currently, existing holistic cancer apps lack tailored complementary therapies for prostate cancer patients. To conduct a competitive analysis I chose Untire that offers a holistic approach but lacks personalization, Zest that is a nutritional platform for cancer patients and The Cancer Exercise App that provides exercises to reduce fatigue and improve quality of life.
Insights
Consider fatigue levels for customized exercise experiences
Onboarding questionnaire tailors menu proposals
Visualize daily/weekly plans for goal awareness
Provide explanatory exercise videos for user engagement
Simplify technical language for user understanding
Surveys
Goal
I wanted to know:
Which ailments and symptoms affect their daily life more
Nutrition and exercise habits
Mobile phone daily use
Tool
30 survey questions given on paper to 40 prostate cancer patients to be manually completed, results treated with Google forms.
Challenge
58% of the initial surveys were invalidated due to incomplete responses. For the subsequent 25 surveys, I provided in-person support and answered participants' questions.
Results
Interviews
Goal
I wanted to know:
Their relationship and their feelings about complementary therapies
Main pain points in their life as a cancer patient
Their current experience with technology
Tool
5 in-person interviews with patients under the age of 70, as based in survey results 90% of patients older than 70 either do not have a phone or only use it for making calls and sending messages.
Challenge
The interviews were conducted in one of the urology consultation rooms in the hospital. During the interviews, the participants mistakenly assumed that I was a doctor.
Results
Are scared and trust their doctors
Are uncomfortable using technology
Have many unanswered questions
Fatigue and urinary incontinence greatly impact their lives
Walking is their prefered exercise
Want to reduce anxiety
Are unsure about food choices
“I need to be told what to do, I am not a self motivated person.” - Vicente
“I need to be told what to do, I am not a self motivated person.” - Vicente
“I have to improve my incontinence because it has a huge negative effect in my life.” - Juan
“I have to improve my incontinence because it has a huge negative effect in my life.” - Juan
“I will do anything the doctors tell me to do to improve my health” - Jesús
“I will do anything the doctors tell me to do to improve my health” - Jesús
Problem Statement
Prostate cancer patients need a way to learn and practice complementary therapies for physical and mental health, reducing side effects of surgery and medication.
We will know this to be true when 50% of prostate cancer patients under the age of 70 years old in Elda’s Hospital actively use MIO on a daily basis and preserve or improve their physical and mental health.
Ideate
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Ideate ✳
Persona
User flows
User story #1
As a user, I want to be able to choose walking or home exercises each day
User story #2
As a user who is cooking the proposed recipes every day, I want to track if I am losing weight
User story #3
As a frustrated cancer patient with unanswered questions, I need an easy way to find relevant cancer information
Site Map
Design decisions
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Accessible design: repeated navigation paths, minimum font size 17 px, large buttons, simple interfaces, WCAG standards, no hidden buttons, avoid technical language
Clear visualization of achievements
Positive feedback after task completion for user motivation
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Walking is the main exercise, with home practise options
Each exercise must have an easiest options for those who have injuries or pain
Fatigue level must be taken into account every day to customize the exercise practise intensity
Each recipe should have some information of the benefits of its ingredients
Additional feature: articles on common questions
Ability to cancel practices in advance to keep their schedule on track
Pelvic floor exercises twice per day to improve incontinence
Stakeholders approval
During the discovery phase, it became evident that some user needs were overlooked in the initial project brief. While the initial idea centered around home exercises, patients showed a preference for walking. They expressed dissatisfaction having a lot of unanswered questions about cancer. To address this, I proposed a dedicated section with relevant information for cancer patients. These design decisions, along with others, were agreed with stakeholders to ensure a user-centered app design.
Test
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Test ✳
Usability test
I conducted 10 in-person moderated usability test to cancer patients aged 61 to 69 years old, who have been diagnosed with the disease between 3 months and 3 years ago. The goal was to assess usability and learnability, validate accessibility and evaluate user satisfaction.
Input was classified as observations, negative and positive quotes and errors on a Rainbow Spreadsheet. The errors were rated according to Jakob Nielsen’s 5 Components of Usability. The top 5 issues are taken as the starting point of the next iteration.
Further improvements are needed to achieve success metrics
Refine
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Refine ✳
A/B Test
The clients expressed a strong desire for a vibrant and colorful app, and I suggested employing a warm color palette to evoke positive emotions during app usage. My focus was on conveying the optimistic results of engaging in complementary therapies rather than highlighting the aspect of cancer. Additionally, I advised against incorporating the color blue due to potential challenges in color perception among the elderly, particularly with the blue hue. Despite this, they remained resolute in their preference for blue as the primary color. To ensure users maintain focus and avoid visual overwhelm, I strategically reserved the use of bold colors for feedback screens, promoting seamless navigation and minimal distractions throughout various user flows.
The team had a preference for a striking blue background color. To validate the suitability of this bold blue choice, I conducted an A/B test involving 25 participants aged 46 to 67. The test revealed that 67% of participants favored the lighter blue option, citing improved content readability as the primary reason. Armed with these findings, I successfully persuaded the team to opt for the lighter blue shade, enhancing overall accessibility.
Style guides
Test
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Test ✳
Usability test
Only 20% successfully recorded their body weight on the first usability test. During the test I observed that 60% of users attempted to access their body weight information from My Profile, prompting me to add this functionality to the prototype. After testing this with 5 patients (age 57-67) in an in-person, moderated usability test, I saw a significant improvement.
Final result
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Final result ✳
The iteration process was based in users feedback, visual design standards, Gestalt principles, Human Interface guidelines and WCAG helping to improve the usability and accessibility of the product.
The home screen provides users with a comprehensive overview of their weekly and daily progress, showcasing their goals for each complementary therapy and highlighting their accomplishments.
Take a look at the complete workflow for complementary therapies, where each one is customized daily based on the user's questionnaire feedback.
There are two different ways to cancel a practice in order to satisfy any type of user.
If the user feels very or excessively fatigued, the app will suggest that they focus solely on their strengths or skip the exercise altogether and instead engage in relaxation practice, ensuring a tailored experience.
Tailored exercise practise
Users who are not fatigued or are only slightly fatigued have the option to either engage in home exercises or go for a walk. Opting for the latter choice, they can personalize their workout by adjusting the intensity and utilizing the app to track their steps, providing updates on goal achievement.
Tailored exercise practise
Tailored exercise practise
For individuals who prefer exercising at home, providing an easiest option on each exercise is essential, particularly for those with injuries or pain. Augmenting the experience with audible content featuring concise instructions on the proper execution of each exercise would greatly enhance usability.
Record body weight
By transforming usability test insights into actionable steps, users now have the ability to record their body weight from both the diet principal screen and their My Profile section.
Key takeaways
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Key takeaways ✳
The MIO prototype received highly positive feedback during usability tests from urologists, doctors, and prostate cancer patients. All testers expressed a strong desire to download and use it. Our project was presented at the LXXXVI National Urology Conference in Granada in May 2023.
Additionally, we were awarded the Rafael Mollá y Rodrigo Clinical Research Grant by the Spanish Urology Association and the Foundation for Urology Research.
Doctor Nuño de la Rosa presenting MIO at the National Urology Conference
The grant will fund a two-year clinical study comparing the quality of life between patients using our app and those who don't. This study not only has the potential to validate our design and work but also offers a significant contribution to prostate cancer research.
Lessons learned as a designer
I underestimated users' tech experience in my first prototype for MIO, I had to overcome my own bias
Usability test showed I gave excessive navigation instructions were unnecessary
I had to improvised on the usability test as users were too focus on app content
Conducting interviews in urology consultation room led to patient misconceptions
Validating ideas with stakeholders avoided rework
Effective communication with stakeholders led to user-centered prototype surpassing initial expectations
Future product iterations
Further research is needed to identify the best approach for the "Nutrition" section
In 67% of cases partner cooks at home, they should have access to the recipes from their phones
Conducting a card sorting exercise could have improved usability testing, as users tend to categorize weight recording under 'My Profile' instead of 'Diet'
Considering a responsive web app instead of a native mobile app is recommended, as users may prefer using a tablet for MIO activities