Client
EpiReminder
Role
UX Designer
TImeline
4 weeks
tools
Figma
Summary
This project originated at the 2021 Live Design Session by Capital Creative Alliance in Sacramento, California. In a 2-hour workshop, UX designers collaborated with EpiReminder's CEO, Liz Tang, addressing business challenges through design thinking.
EpiReminder's app and chip enable those with life-threatening food allergies to monitor temperature and location of their EpiPens, ensuring constant-access to crucial medication in case of emergencies. Because most people only have a sense of urgency when an emergency actually happens, EpiReminder struggled with growth.
During the session, we collectively created a value-effort matrix for solution brainstorming and then presented our individual design solutions for growth. My proposal for a new Community feature with a function to add caregivers to Communities leveraged the app for growth via trusted mini community hubs.
After receiving feedback from Liz and session facilitators, I took the initiative of advancing my low fidelity sketches into a working prototype in Figma.
EpiReminder Launch Screen Animation
Opportunity
We started off the workshop by interviewing EpiReminder's co-founder and CEO about her story as well as and overview of her business, who the users are, pain points, goals, and other considerations.
the app & The Chip
EpiReminder is a software and hardware solution that addresses critical challenges for those with severe food allergies.
The hardware component is a chip that attaches to users' EpiPens that tracks location and temperature of their medication. The chip them reports this data to the EpiReminder app, which is the software component.
The app supports seamless EpiPen handoffs, establishes secure medication zones, and allows users to send SOS alerts to nearby EpiReminder app users during emergencies.
EpiReminder chip attached to EpiPens
EpiReminder app screenshot
user stories
We learned about the user stories that encompass the motivations of the three main user segments of EpiReminder's target audience.
Target audience user stories
The pain point
Because most people lack a sense of urgency regarding their medication and only understand the severity of the risk when an emergency actually happens, EpiReminder struggled with growth.
Goals
Get more users on the app.
Get those users to spread the word to others they know that carry life-saving medications.
Actions
Explore solutions
We began with a group ideation activity to explore possible areas of the of focus and discuss strategy. First, we took a brief moment to jot down "How Might We" statements on sticky notes and put them on the value-effort matrix, which we then grouped into categories. Next, we all voted to move forward with developing solutions for the community category. Lastly, we engaged in a discussion about concepts and features that would foster community before transitioning to individual design work.
Value-Effort Matrix
Find inspiration
Before I moved onto sketching, I looked for apps that were experts at creating communities. In my search for inspiration, I was drawn to Apple’s Find My app, Snapchat, and Nextdoor.
Find My
Snapchat
Nextdoor
I appreciated the simplicity of Find My's overall interface and page designs. I also wanted to emulate the functions in Snapchat's Snap Map feature. I was also inspired by Nextdoor's ability to instill trust and safety in the app’s user communities as well as communicate its value to its users.
sketch solutions
In the final part of the workshop, I finalized my design solution ideas and began sketching the UI. In the end, I presented my design solutions and sketches to the co-founder:
My sketches from the Design Session
Create mini local communities - Community Map is a map where users can connect and interact with each other. This feature will offer a powerful visual representation of a network of individuals sharing similar life experiences. Furthermore, it will foster closeness, enabling mutual support and reliance within the community, which will be a valuable addition to the lives of EpiReminder users.
Highlight and positively reinforce growth - The app can notify and update users as their community grows. The aim of this feature is to instill a stronger sense of safety and confidence among users. As EpiReminder's user base expands, the SOS feature gains more outreach, increasing the likelihood of survival during emergencies. This incentive can contribute greatly to user acquisition and retention.
Redesign app pages - The addition of the Community Map feature will require a rework of the app pages a far as the information architecture and UI design. The redesigned pages will require users to simply scan the screen in order to more quickly understand the information that is most important to them.
Final Solutions
Home page
In the new Home page, users can access the primary features quickly. A quick scan of the page gives users get a high level understanding of the most important information.
Check the status of a device in your account.
Device map
The Device Map allows parents and primary caregivers to quickly locate all the devices registered to their account. This new feature can further reduce cognitive load for users because it relies on visual more than text.
Check the location of a device in your account.
Community page
I added a Community page to the navigation bar EpiReminder's secondary feature. This feature visually represents the growth in adoption of the app, giving users confidence in its effectiveness as well as a sense of community support. Users can post custom messages and add Community members as trusted Caregivers for handoff.
Add a member in your Community as a Caregiver.
Community tiers
As part of the Community feature, I also added tiers that rank Communities based on size. Members are rewarded when their Community grows and also given points to maintain the tier. The higher the tier of the Community, the bigger rewards for all members, giving the whole group an incentive to keep growing.
Learn about the policies for the different Communities.
Rewards program
Users can redeem the points they get from the Community feature for various rewards, giving users personal incentive to continue growing their communities. Reward programs like this one is widely used by many businesses to yield high customer retention.
Redeem points for a reward item.
Impact
During the Live Design Session, the EpiReminder CEO and co-founder was able to bring my ideas back to her team to strategize for the growth of her business.
From having worked on this project, I gained new, valuable, and eye-opening knowledge about people who are affected by life-threatening food allergies. I also got a peek into the business of medical device distribution.
