Flourish

Empowering chronic illness patients to take control of their health and stay focused on the bright side.

Project type

UX/UI design Student work

Timeline

5 months (2019-2020)

Team

Me (designer) Carson Levine (designer) Mira Ram (designer) Sia Peng (designer)

Skills

User research Wireframing & rapid iteration User testing Figma prototyping

Project background

Flourish was my capstone project for the Senior Design Challenge, a course that offers Dartmouth seniors the chance to tackle real-world problems with a community partner. Our community partner presented my team with a challenge: design a solution for patients with multi-symptom chronic illnesses to better track and visualize their symptoms, triggers, and treatments.

Design process

We interviewed 46 patients and providers as initial primary research, created 80+ Figma screens and a full clickable prototype, and conducted 19 hours of user testing and four rounds of iteration. After our final presentation, the DALI Lab volunteered to take Flourish on as a pro-bono project.

Symptom and trigger tracking

Based on interviews we knew that symptoms can fluctuate during the day, while triggers were typically one-time occurrences (a meal, humidity, etc.). I created different tracking mechanisms suited to each data type. Since every illness is different, the factors that users choose to track are completely customizable.

Viewing, understanding and sharing data

I designed a dashboard that would let users compare both fluctuating symptoms and binary triggers at the same time, as well as a web portal to identify trends and share their data with doctors.

Adding an element of delight with optional goal tracking

Tracking health can often feel burdensome and discouraging, so we aimed to make it more enjoyable. Users felt overwhelmed by features like streaks or social sharing, but one idea stood out to testers: a flower garden. This garden grows as users complete self-directed goals, fostering a sense of accomplishment and positivity.