Diabetes management app

During my time at mySugr, I contributed to solving several problems. Here is one example to demonstrate the process:

Helping users identify insulin pens in the app

Correct pen differentiation reduces the risk of incorrect therapy decisions.

Problem Statement:

During formative testing, users found the insulin brand and proposed color to be helpful indicators for selecting a pen. However, all users reported that the Serial Number was not useful for recognizing the pen.

This is a significant issue because, on iOS, users can connect multiple pens and must be able to differentiate between them without compromising their health. Otherwise, they risk disconnecting the wrong pen or making incorrect therapy decisions based on misidentification.

Context: Formative Study

• As described in the problem statement, the issue originated from an in-house formative study conducted at mySugr.

• During the study, 4 out of 5 users were unable to recognize their insulin pen when presented with multiple options.

• We discovered that the insulin brand and pen color were effective identifiers and partially mitigated the risk. (Additionally, outside of the study, I found that NovoPen uses color as a key differentiator for its insulin pens, ensuring that no two insulin products share the same color. This serves as a built-in risk mitigation strategy for users managing multiple insulin pens.)

• During the study, users were unfamiliar with the Serial Number on their NovoPen, despite its prominence in the tested UI design. Locating the Serial Number required disassembling the device, which some patients expressed discomfort with.

Research | Desk Research

1. Connected Risks - During the next stages of the design process, I conducted a round of check-ins with various roles, including Human Factors Engineers and Medical experts, collected available evidence and connected risks.

2. Existing in-app solutions - Investigated existing solutions within the product and those developed during past ideation sessions.

3. Competitor analysis - Conducted desk research on competitor solutions.

4. NovoPen guidelines - Reviewed it and it’s recommendations.

01 | Connected Risks

Triggering reason: User error - disconnecting wrong device

Risk problem description:
1. User has connected multiple SmartPen devices
2. User wants to disconnect Smart Pen device
3. User disconnect incorrect Smart Pen Devices
4. Insulin data is lost, not imported from the pen

Hazard: Incorrect therapy decision
The final probablity of occurence was rated as moderate (3).

02| Existing in-app solutions

Convergent thinking

Using the collected information and data, I began drafting maps to categorize the types of information needed to recognize insulin pens. I then created the first low-fidelity sketches to validate as soon as possible whole flows.

Finalizing design

Through an initial feedback session with a designer from the Android team, I arrived at a finalized design. This design was then presented in ideation sessions, where Developers, Human Factors Engineers, and Medical experts provided additional feedback.

Through these sessions, I refined the wording and functionality to ensure timely development while also making it testable in the upcoming formative study for NovoPen integration in the mySugr app.

Finalized flow below.