Aria

Google's Next Asthma Management App

Research

Research Goals

The goal is to find out the following:

• What asthma sufferers experience and need

• What helps asthma sufferers prepare for and deal with asthma

• What are opportunities during the day where the app can be helpful

Research Methodologies

• Secondary Research & Competitive Analysis – to see industry standards, trends, inspiration

• Interviews – to gather qualitative data; to discover their wants, needs and experiences

Secondary Research Summary

I picked 2 asthma management apps and 2 habit/health tracking apps currently on the market to study as Aria's competitors.

Kiss My Asthma was successful in capturing the needs of an asthma sufferer, with logbooks, trackers, reminders, a fun UI and unique motivators such as the My Goals tab. Out of the two asthma management apps, I liked it more mainly because it engaged the user better.

Lifesum had beautiful minimalistic UI and organization. I noticed that it sent notifications more sporadically as well, compared to other apps that might send notifications too frequently and annoy users. Its suggested meal plans based on a test that asked for your personal needs and preferences, made the app very appealing to use and keep around.

I kept these strengths and weaknesses in mind as I started my user research and ideation for the app.

Empathize

USER RESEARCH: INTERVIEWs

Participants: Individuals with asthma

Main Insights:

What is the hardest part about managing asthma?

"Avoiding dust because it's pretty much everywhere."

"You have to always know whether or not you should bring your inhaler to places... You need to know where there will be allergies or intense physical activity. You can't just spontaneously be like 'I'm gonna go play sports now.'"

What are you doing to make managing asthma easier?

"Take the medication that doctor prescribed (inhaler), preventative inhaler two puffs once in the morning and night, to keep it under control."

"Inhaler, puff once a day in the morning. I need to keep it consistent for it to be effective. I sometimes forget. I take rescue inhaler for a quick relief."

What are the times and opportunities an asthma management app can be useful?

"If the home screen of the app tells you [in the morning] something like, the air quality is good."

"More helpful if you are traveling - kind of like a weather app - if you could check before going to a park, you could check 'I am going to this park. Is this a park known to have high pollen count?' It would help if you know you're in an area that's more like to trigger your allergies, you are less likely to do physical activity... you would know to abstain or hold back more."

User Research Findings

Wants:

• An app that tells you air quality in the area

• Price updates for similar medicines

• Intuitive and organized app with engaging UI

• General helpful information on asthma

Needs:

• Reminders for medication and refills

• Symptom log to keep track for future doctor visits

• Ability to check for triggers when one travels, to avoid them or prepare for them

Pain Points: 

• Forgetting to take or bring medicine (inhaler) to places

• Not knowing air quality in an area

• Increasing cost of buying medicine

Define

Persona

Business and User Goals

Feature Roadmap

User Task Flow

Ideate

With the user pain points and needs in mind, I designed the app based on the following solutions:

• A complete dashboard showing multiple options (Air Quality, Log Symptoms, Check for Triggers, Reminders, History, Meds, etc.)

• Focus on medication: reminders to bring/refill/take; price comparisons; ability to save similar medicines

• Stimulating and engaging UI

Design

Wireframes

Style Tile

Test

Affinity Map

Final Designs

Next Steps

The app Aria would function to help users track their symptoms, see the current air quality and allergen levels in an area, check for triggers before traveling and exercising, compare medicine prices, set reminders for taking and bringing medication, and so on. As I've iterated my design once based on the users' feedback and suggestions, I will test and iterate my designs again the second time to better meet the needs and desires of asthma sufferers. 

From this project, I've learned a lot about designing mobile apps, following Google Material Design guidelines (plus, breaking them for my own design innovation), and user researching for managing chronic medical condition, as these were all new to me. It inspired me to empathize with asthma sufferers and keep iterating to make Aria an ideal app for this specific kind of audience.