The Reminder feature is crucial to how Kinsa drives ongoing illness episode conversations with app users, and is valuable to busy caregivers who want or need to stay on schedule when providing care. The team discovered a high number of user-generated errors on Android not seen on iOS, which led me to conduct an evaluation and determine how to reduce errors and improve the Reminder UX.
The Reminder feature is crucial to how Kinsa drives ongoing illness episode conversations with app users, and is valuable to busy caregivers who want or need to stay on schedule when providing care. The team discovered a high number of user-generated errors on Android not seen on iOS, which led me to conduct an evaluation and determine how to reduce errors and improve the Reminder UX.
The Kinsa app pairs with Kinsa smart thermometers via Bluetooth, and offers health tracking and personalized medical guidance to empower families to respond appropriately to the first signs of contagious illness. Parents especially find the Reminder feature useful when managing fever and symptoms in young kids, which often involves medication dosing and monitoring on a regular schedule. The feature also contributes to greater retention among app users.
The Kinsa app pairs with Kinsa smart thermometers via Bluetooth, and offers health tracking and personalized medical guidance to empower families to respond appropriately to the first signs of contagious illness. Parents especially find the Reminder feature useful when managing fever and symptoms in young kids, which often involves medication dosing and monitoring on a regular schedule. The feature also contributes to greater retention among app users.
My Roles: UX Researcher & Product Designer
Team: Product Managers, Mobile & Backend Engineers
Tools: UserTesting, Mixpanel, Sketch, InVision, Zeplin
Platform: Mobile
Duration: 2 months (Spring 2021)
Before thinking of ways to improve Reminders, we needed to clearly understand which aspects of the current design worked well, and which caused friction and frustration. I conducted a formative evaluation on the existing Reminder feature on Android. This entailed remote, unmoderated usability studies in which participants completed tasks requiring them to use the Reminder feature directly or indirectly.
Before thinking of ways to improve Reminders, we needed to clearly understand which aspects of the current design worked well, and which caused friction and frustration. I conducted a formative evaluation on the existing Reminder feature on Android. This entailed remote, unmoderated usability studies in which participants completed tasks requiring them to use the Reminder feature directly or indirectly.
User Story: "As a caregiver, I want to set a reminder so that I can remember to administer medication at a specific time.”
Target Audience: Adults (aged 25-65+) in the US (n=5)
Target Audience: Adults (aged 25-65+) in the US (n=5)
Main Task: From the home feed of the app, set a reminder to give your family member medication in a couple hours.
Main Task: From the home feed of the app, set a reminder to give your family member medication in a couple hours.
Key Results:
Key Insights:
User Story: "As a parent, I need to know when to check my child's temperature so that I can adjust care for them accordingly.”
Target Audience: Adults (aged 25-65+) in the US who are parents or guardians of a child 2-12 years of age (n=5)
Main Tasks: Imagining your child has a fever and cough, complete the triage flow to get age-specific illness guidance. From the Reminder card, set a reminder to take your child’s temperature in a couple hours.
Key Results:
Key Insights:
After documenting and sharing insights from my formative evaluation with the Product Managers (PMs), I compiled a list of recommendations aimed at reducing errors and addressing the pain points I observed, including:
After documenting and sharing insights from my formative evaluation with the Product Managers (PMs), I compiled a list of recommendations aimed at reducing errors and addressing the pain points I observed, including:
The PMs and I prioritized the recommendations to determine next steps, focusing primarily on lower cost, higher impact ideas.
The PMs and I prioritized these to determine next steps, focusing primarily on lower cost, higher impact ideas.
EASY WINS TO IMPLEMENT FIRST:
IDEAS TO EXPLORE NEXT:
I designed the next iteration of the Reminder card that gets triggered during an illness episode. The button options (1h, 4h, Custom) were informed by analytics data gathered over a 30-day period.
I designed the next iteration of the Reminder card that gets triggered during an illness episode. The button options (1h, 4h, Custom) were informed by analytics data gathered over a 30-day period.
I also hosted a cross-functional team brainstorm to gather ideas around redesigning the bottom sheet, focusing on time and date selection. This led me to a exploration and redesigned bottom sheet following several rounds of input from the PMs and Engineers.
I also hosted a cross-functional team brainstorm to gather ideas around redesigning the bottom sheet, focusing on time and date selection. This led me to a exploration and redesigned bottom sheet following several rounds of input from the PMs and Engineers.
WHAT SHIPPED:
WHAT DIDN'T:
Updating the error message led to a 95% reduction in errors on Android. Hooray! Now both mobile platforms had minimal errors.
Reducing the bottom sheet sensitivity improved usability across all bottom sheets, not only for Reminders, but also for those used to save Temperature, Symptoms, and Medication.
The updated Reminder card doubled the number of reminders set this way, meaning one less worry for parents caring for their sick kids.
Updating the error message led to a 95% reduction in errors on Android. Hooray! Now both mobile platforms had minimal errors.
Reducing the bottom sheet sensitivity improved usability across all bottom sheets, not only for Reminders, but also for those used to save Temperature, Symptoms, and Medication.
The updated Reminder card doubled the number of reminders set this way, meaning one less worry for parents caring for their sick kids.
During the formative evaluation, I witnessed firsthand how different the app can look depending on a user's accessibility settings. It was a great reminder that when designing for mobile, the ideal UI is not necessarily going to be what the end user sees, so it’s crucial to consider how accessibility settings might impact the UX/UI.
I would have liked to ship the redesign and monitored its influence over key metrics, but the reality of working at a fast-paced startup is that not every project will ship. I still learned a lot in the process and wrote documentation for handoff should there be an opportunity in the future.
During the formative evaluation, I witnessed firsthand how different the app can look depending on a user's accessibility settings. It was a great reminder that when designing for mobile, the ideal UI is not necessarily going to be what the end user sees, so it’s crucial to consider how accessibility settings might impact the UX/UI.
I would have liked to ship the redesign and monitored its influence over key metrics, but the reality of working at a fast-paced startup is that not every project will ship. I still learned a lot in the process and wrote documentation for handoff should there be an opportunity in the future.
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© 2022 yumi morii
© 2022 yumi morii