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THE PROBLEM

Trying new psychiatric medications is often tedious. Patients must track their progress over several months since they require time to start working. In many cases patients need to try several medications before finding one that works well. Stigmatization has also led to a lot of misinformation about the usage of psychiatric medications, and many patients feel anxious about trying them.

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THE GOAL

Create an app that will allow patients to track their mood and side effects while trying new medications. Provide reliable access to key information about their medications such as drug interactions, common side effects, and dangerous symptoms to look out for.

TARGET PERSONA

Understanding the User

Kiara

Kiara's photo

Bio

Age: 23

Education: High School Degree

Hometown: Tampa

Family: Lives with her mom and 2 sisters

Occupation: Server

Kiara was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and has been recommended to a psychiatrist by her counselor. She is uncomfortable taking new medications and wants to research her options.

“I’m nervous about trying a new medication, but I don’t want to bring it up to my family and worry them or feel judged.”

Goals

  • Try medication for the first time
  • Feel informed about her prescription

Frustrations

  • Negative social perception of medication makes her nervous to try them
  • Hasn't had to take a medication long term before
  • Uncertain about how her prescription will make her feel

User Journey Map

Action
Appointment
Monitor
Follow Up Appointment
Tasks
  • Discuss her symptoms
  • Receive a prescription
  • Ask questions
  • Routinely take her medication
  • Take note of how she is feeling
  • Check if any symptoms are dangerous
  • Report symptoms and mood
Feelings/Symptoms
  • Nervous
  • Overwhelmed
  • Stressed
  • Brain Fog
  • Forgetful
  • Fatigued
Improvement Opportunities

Provide trustworthy resources to help her feel informed on what side effects she could expect

System to keep track of symptoms to easily report back to her psychiatrist. In case of emergency, have available contacts to help

A quick overview to help her know what is important to report to her psychiatrist

Creating the Design

IDEATION

Based on user interviews, the patients’ primary concerns were about tracking their side effects and understanding the severity of their side effects. Having a built in database to easily reference this information in one place would help streamline the process and filter out potential misinformation.

Low fidelity prototype

REVISIONS

The first round of wireframes were tested in a 15-30 minute moderated usability study with 5 users who had experienced taking psychiatric medications. The key findings were:

Edited low fidelity design of the daily entry screen.
Iconography Confusion

Navigational icons were not universally understood by all users, particularly the book icon intended to lead to past entries.

Side Effect Entry

Search bar was not understood as a method to add newly experienced side effects.

Edited low fidelity design of the drug information screen.
Patient Specific Information

Users assumed their information such as dose, notifications, and medication instructions would be on the same page as the side effects.

Warnings

Placement of the severe side effect warnings made it seem like all listed side effects were severe.

Daily journal entry screen
Daily Entry

Gather consistent data on how the patient is feeling, as well as if they took their medication that day.

  1. Check-ins based on real psychiatric evaluation questions
  2. Chips to quickly select previously experience side effects
Drug information screen
Drug Information

Easy to digest info about the patients personal details and an overview of the side effects and drug interactions of the medication.

  1. Editable pharmacy, reminder, and dose info
  2. Quickly search a side effect
  3. Organized based on severity of the symptom or interaction
Summary page of patients mood and symptoms
Mood Summary

Helps the patient be prepared and know what to bring up at the next appointment.

  1. Highlight most frequent side effects
  2. Average of patients anxiety and depression level since last appoitment.
Calendar page of patients history
Calendar View

View previous entries, medication history, and scheduled appointments

  1. Indicate if patient took their medication that day
  2. Highlight symptom chips for a quick overview
Medication tracker and information database app mockup.

CONCLUSION

While many medication tracker apps exist, psychiatric medications have a unique process that requires a long trial process. It’s important for patients to monitor their symptoms over time in order to accurately describe to their doctor how they are feeling.

In a culture that holds many negative or even false perceptions of psychiatric medication, I believe having better resources tailored specifically to these patients will benefit them greatly.