MedBox
Without anything holding them accountable, people struggle to adhere to their medication guidelines. The risk of future health implications is not a strong enough motivator to keep people taking their prescriptions on time.
“A National Library of Medicine’s public health report estimated that approximately 125,000 deaths per year in the United States are due to medication non-adherence”
Time Frame:
January - May 2023
Team:
Jared Abrahamian, Juliana Badeaux, Yusuf Khan, Teddy Koutsoftas, Amanda Valencia, Carolyn Yuan
Role:
User Research, Physical Prototyping, UX/UI Design
Skills/ Tools:
3D Printing, Arduino, Fusion 360, Figma
Understanding the Problem
We defined our user group by trying to understand where the gap in the current market is. While children can rely on their parents or school nurses to administer their medication and older adults can use bulkier devices that aren’t portable, there are few medication reminder solutions that target young adults in the 20s and 30s.
The initial research consisted of over 30 extensive in-person interviews and more than 50 survey responses. From this research we were able to pinpoint why our target group missed their medications, what their current solutions are, what types of medication they are taking, and how often they are taking medication.
We found that people taking medication who were put at moderate risk when missing experienced the most stress.
Design Goals
Hardware
In our physical product we wanted to address portability, privacy, and simplification of loading
With a scaled-up, interactive prototype we tested with users the effectiveness of light reminders and the pill reloading system.
The final version is based on all of our feedback from the prototype and focused on making it small enough so that people could take it on the go, but just big enough so it would fit up to a weeks worth of pills.
Final Design
Software
In the software application, implementing notification reminders, medication tracking, and positive reinforcement were the main focuses of the design.
Notifications
The central idea of the MedBox app is to remind users to take their medications. On the lock screen, users would receive a reminder notification when it is time to take their pill which would bring them to the home screen of the app.
Home Screen
From the home page users can quickly see when their upcoming pills are along with what pills are currently in the MedBox, their “streak” of days in a row taking a pill, and what compartment the pills are in. Another feature accessed from the home page is tracking when you eat meals throughout the day. For users who take medication based on when they eat, this feature allows the app to precisely notify them when to take their medication.
More Information
Users can early access any additional information about any of their pills by clicking on them from the home screen. In this section, users view the information presented on the home page with more details, a calendar of when they’ve taken and missed the pill, and the next steps that should be taken if the pill is missed.
Alerts
In specific scenarios, the app can address issues found among users like missing a pill or adapting your pill schedule to a new time zone. In cases like this, the app would notify the user and walk them through the specific steps that should be taken.
