The document outlines the development of a medication reminder app called Meminder. Initial research found that baby boomers take multiple medications daily and often forget doses. Existing apps were analyzed, finding features like medication input, reminders, and reporting basic. User interviews revealed forgetfulness during the day and a need for medication interaction alerts. An MVP would focus on medication reminders, autocomplete search, barcode scanning, and interaction alerts. Paper prototyping identified navigation issues. Further iterations added onboarding screens, refined icons and navigation, and improved input fields and conflict alerts based on user testing feedback.
2. MEMINDER 2
PROBLEM
STATEMENT
Users leading busy lives often need reminding
to take their medication, as missing medication
may lead to discomfort and risk of illness.
PROJECT GOAL
By creating a medication reminder application
for the busy user, we will achieve less missed
medications. Which will help to reduce
discomfort and chance of illness.
MEMINDER
4. MEMINDER 4
5.5 MILLION
BABY BOOMERS
40%Take over
FIVEmedication
60%Own a
Smartphone
TARGET AUDIENCE
People between the age of 52 and 70 or the “Baby
Boomers” who take multiple medications over a 24
hour period.
Medication
Baby Boomers enjoy better health than previous generations.
Growing older comes with greater chance of disability and
co-morbidity. In a survey of Australians aged over 50, 40% of
participants took five or more medications in a 24 hour period.
Older people experience a disproportionate number of medicine-
related adverse events, the rate of adverse events in older people
is about 10% more than expected. Reducing medicine-related
morbidity and mortality represents both a challenge and an
opportunity to achieve quality use of medicines and improve quality
of life in older people.
Technology
Baby Boomers have a positive outlook on technology and are willing
to embrace new technologies and learn new ways of doing things.
As of 2015, 60% of Boomers own a Smartphone
5. MEMINDER 5
USER INTERVIEWS
I was able to interview four people in the Baby
Boomer demographic. One of the major takeaways
from my interviews was that this cohort are not
adverse to using technology as is generally . Other
key points were;
Three out of the four interviewees own and use smartphone to
access information and apps.
Information of adverse reactions should be more readily available.
Forget medication usually during the day, medication is part of
their routine in the mornings.
Use work arounds such as to-do apps for reminders to take
medication.
Frustrations with some medication web pages and pdfs as the can
be purely for sales and promotion.
6. MEMINDER 6
COMPETITIVE
ANALYSIS
Medisafe
Keep yourself and loved ones
safe and never forget to take your
meds again with Medisafe, the
easy-to-use and FREE app ranked
#1 by pharmacists to help you
remember when to take your pills.
Pill Monitor
Pill Monitor is designed to manage
any of your pills/medications, take
pills on time with this app, don’t
miss taking pills again because
of so many things to do or bad
memory.
Med helper
Med Helper is designed by
people just like you for people
just like you.
Pill Reminder
by drugs.com
Brought to you by Drugs.
com, the Pill Reminder is an
incredibly flexible and easy-
to-use application.
7. 7MEMINDER
MEDISAFE PILL MONITOR MED HELPER
PILL REMINDER
BY DRUGS.COM
Features Medication input - Two step process
featuring as-you-type suggestions for
medication to fill in fields, turn on
reminders with days and frequency and
time. Reporting - Weekly adherence
reporting. Med Cabinet - Lists all
medication that has been input to the
app with an image of what the pill looks
like. Refill reminder - for when new script
needs to be collected from pharmacist
Food Instructions - Whether medication
is required with food or not. Notifications
- for contact when medication missed
Appointment Reminders - Add to calender
reminders for appointments with doctors.
Doctors - Add doctors and their contact
details. User profiles - Create a user profile
Medication input - All information added
manually. Route, Unit, Form, Side Effect,
Quantity, Pharmacy, Doctor. Reporting -
History needs to be recorded manually,
entering whether medication has been
taken or skipped. Notifications - For when
medication needs to be taken.
Medication input - Prescription needs
to be added manually. Prescription,
Number, Medication, Instructions, Reason,
Description, Side Effects, Reactions, Take
with. Reporting - Very basic reporting
available to be emailed to your inbox.
User Profile - Lists Name, Insurance,
Allergies, Conditions and notes. Doctors
- Add doctors and their contact details.
Pharmacy - Add pharmacy and contact
information. Appointments - Add doctor
appointments to a calender and set
reminders
Medication input - Add new medication
button on home screen with as you type
suggestions for medication. Prescription
needs to be added manually Form,
Strength, Notes, Person. Also has pill
reminder and refill reminder on same
form as drug input. Reminders - Takes user
to the medication input page. Refills - Also
takes the user to the medication input
page
Nice qualities Auto filling of dosage and appearance is
a very handy feature to avoid inputting
the incorrect data. Notifications to friends
or family is interesting, especially if the
adverse effects to missing medication are
dire. Branding is quiet strong and the pill
box interface is an interesting concept.
Overall the app is really easy to use and
icons help with identifying tasks.
Alerts for when medication need to be
taken. No internet connection needed.
Alerts can be synced with the apple watch.
Navigation is straight forward and all tasks
are presented in the home screen.
Interface is easy to use and self
explanatory. Branding is clean and simple
Could improve Medications input could be improved,
information needs to be entered manually.
Side effects only found in video about the
medication not easily available elsewhere
in app. American based requires RX
number, could be more applicable to
Australian user base.
Data input all manual. No information
provided for medications. No reminders
for refills. Picture of medication needs
to be uploaded from photo album on
phone. Little to no reporting feature
available. No user profile. Interface is
weak and unappealing. Navigation seems
unresponsive at times.
Adding medication not very intuitive.
Leaves plenty of room for error. User
profiles appear to be a bit useless. Very
little explanation on what each of the
screens are for.
If screen locks input is lost and sent back
to home screen when opening the app
again. No auto save function for input
of medication. App is pretty simple and
doesn’t record much other information.
Other notes Overall app seems quite easy to use, some
features are hidden behind a hamburger
that I feel could be included in the
navigation at the bottom of the screen.
Home screen is the “Pill Box” which
features a circle divided in to quarters for
Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night and
provides the user with a way to check off if
the medication has been taken or not.
Extended version available for $1.50 on
the app store. Ads in app. Made for an
American market. RX numbers not really
applicable for an Australian audience
Pro upgrade available for $6 in app. Only
feature advertised is the removal of
banner ads. App icon simple and a little
childish.
Companion for the drugs.com app. I feel
it would be much stronger if the two apps
were combined so that there was more
information or extra features for the
pill reminder app as it seems a bit of a
nuisance to close down one app just to
open up the other.
8. MEMINDER 8
RESEARCH
TAKEAWAYS
Based on my initial research it became clear that the fol-
lowing points needed to be addressed in the design of
this product.
Alerts for possible reactions with medications already being taken.
Helpful for the on-boarding of new medications and help organise
information.
Make entering information in to the app easy and reduce false
inputs.
Centralised location for information on medications being taken.
Tailor the experience towards an Australian audience.
10. MEMINDER 10
Age: 68
Job: Retired Civil Engineer
Location: Chelsea, VIC
Status: Married
RICK
TECH
CONFIDENCE
85%
MEDICATIONS
4
Bio
Rick is a retired civil engineer who lives with his wife in Chelsea. Rick
and his wife enjoy spending their time volunteering for local charities,
gardening and traveling to see the world. He and his wife both own
fitbits and love tracking their walks and seeing the recorded data and
the effect on the their health.
Goals
Rick aims to live a long and healthy life. Reduce discomfort that may
come occur due to missing medications. Maintain informative records
about his health
Behaviors & Habits
Rick takes multiple medications each day. He uses Google to gather any
information on medications he may be prescribed. Rick often forgets to
take his medication around midday and on holidays. Migraines occur if
he forgets his medication for two days and if he misses more he is at a
high risk of stroke.
Frustrations
The information about the medication he finds on Google is
promotional and not about side effects and medication interactions. He
is worried about how medications he is prescribed will react with his
current medications.
PERSONAS
11. MEMINDER 11
Bio
Jane is a part time teacher in Geelong. She has three grandchildren and
enjoys spending as much free time with them. She like to go out for
lunch with friends and tries to stay active by excersising when she can.
Goals
Jane would like to spend more time with the grand children. Needs to
stay on top of her health, so she can make the time spent quality time.
She would also like to retire soon and spend more time traveling
Behaviors & Habits
Jane has diabetes and takes multiple medications each day along side
her insulin. She will use google to find any information she can’t find
out from other. She doesn’t download many apps, but will do so if one
is recomended by friends or family. Jane is interested in where her
medication originates from.
Frustrations
Jane feels like an old lady when she has to lay out her medication at the
start of the week.
Age: 62
Job: Part Time Teacher
Location: Geelong, VIC
Status: Married
Jane
TECH
CONFIDENCE
63%
MEDICATIONS
5
PERSONAS
13. MEMINDER 13
MVP
Based on my research these features will be needed for
the MVP to be competitive in the market and to address
the users needs.
Medication reminders
Would be the key feature as several of the users interviewed stated they
would forget to take medication during the day on a regular basis. Some
of the participants said they used workarounds such as to-do apps as a
reminder for taking their medication. This was a great justification for the
need of this product.
As you type search suggestions
I believe the would be a must to reduce error when the user is adding
their medication.
Bar code scanner
A scanner of the medication bar code would also be useful to reduce
input error. None of the direct competition use this feature and it would
be an excellent point of difference.
Alerts for reactions between medications
During my user interviews many participants stated that interactions
between medication was a huge worry. This feature would address that
issue.
Meminder
15. 15MEMINDER
PAPER
PROTOTYPE
In the testing of my paper
prototype I realised
a need to make the
navigation clearer and
to make better choices in
icons.
The choice of icon became
confusing for users when adding
a new medication, with the bar
code scanner not being very
clear.
The navigation for the home
screen was a little unclear at the
time. This was later informed by
the card sort activity that I ran.
16. MEMINDER
I was able to conduct the card sorting
activity on six participants, I realised
the following during the testing.
The categories created by the participants were
as expected, except for one of the participants
who established action based categories for
their sort.
Apart from that one participant, the majority of
those studied created very similar categories
with slight variations in name and cards per
category.
Out of the six participants
Two sorted their cards into 3 categories
Two created 4 categories
Two created 5 categories
CARD SORT
16
17. 17MEMINDER
WIREFRAME
SKETCHES
Based upon my user
interviews and research
I decided to initialy
design my product for
the ios environment.
From the users I interviewed
two out of the three owned
an iphone.
18. MEMINDER 18
PROTOTYPE
USER FLOW
User opens app
and clicks on
medications
Then clicks on
add medication
Can choose to
scan medication
or start typing in
name
As you type search
suggestions helps
the user with
correct spelling
Dosage and units
input to remind
user to take
correct amount
Appearance
option to help
the user identify
the medication
taken
Reminder to take
medication would
be the key hook
and main reason
for continued
interaction with
the app
Script reminder
help user keep track
of medication and
alert when running
low
You have arrived home from
a visit to the doctors, you
have been prescribed Lyrica.
You need to set a reminder
to take this new medication
once a day.
An alert appears,
warning of a
possible reaction
with a current
medication
19. 19MEMINDER
PROTOTYPE
USER FLOW
You are feeling unwell and
are worried that you may be
having an adverse reaction
to your medication. Check
the side effects.
User opens app
and clicks on
medications
Clicks view
medications
Chooses
medication from
list of added
medications
Selects important
information
option
Clicks side
effects
Now able to
read all the
information
regarding side
effects
20. MEMINDER 20
USER TESTING
During my user testing I observed the following key
points
The appearance screen during the adding of a new medication
was a little unclear and based on feed back decided that it would
be best to remove it from the MVP.
Options in the medication conflict alert were unclear and I chose
to add a third button to give the user an option of setting the
reminder for a later time.
The icons need to be refined further, as discussed with the users
they created some confusion. They do not necessarily help to
define a clear message.
Typeface in the information section was a little small for some
users, I decided to increase the size in the next iteration
Scanning the bar code was used 50% of the time.
Axure was used for the initial prototype, I found the interactions
to be a slow and the users requested feedback from their
interactions with the interface. For this reason I chose to use
Adobe XD for the next round of iteration.
21. MEMINDER 21
PROTOTYPE
ITERATION
Meminder
Your medicine cabinet is empty
Would you like to add a new
prescription, to keep track of?
Add New Medication
Your medicine cabinet
Here are some of the medicines
you have in your cabinet
Lexapro
Lorazepam
Lyrica
Doctors
Appointments
Medications
Scripts
Add Medication
q w e r t y u i o p
a s d f g h j k l
z x c v b n m
123 space return
L
Lexapro
Lorazepam
Lyrica
Medication Alert
This medication may react with another
medication that you might be taking.
Ok, Thanks
Find Out More
Remind Me Later
Add Medication
q w e r t y u i o p
a s d f g h j k l
z x c v b n m
123 space return
Medication
Scan Medication
Receive alerts on medications
that will react with one another
Keep all your medical
information in the one place
Track & organise all your
medications
Ok, got it
Splash screen to help
orient the user
Brief onboarding
screen to reinforce the
task and benefits of the
app
Change to the home
screen to include an
empty state
Once medications are
added they display on
the home screen
Bottom navigation
removed to help
declutter screens. All
navigation off screen
Third option added to
conflict alert
Changes to inputs
and buttons to allow
clearer distinction
Some of the improvements
that were made in the last
iteration.