Masters Research Project
mHealth app for iron deficiency anemia tracking, management, and education.
Target audience
People with iron deficiency anemia
Supervisor
Prof. Nicholas Woolridge
Dr. Katerina Pavenski
Roles
UX designer
Content creation
Project management
Tools used
Figma
Adobe XD
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe AE
Goal
To design a mobile health app that helps those with iron deficiency anemia track their wellbeing, learn about their condition, and gamify their journey to recovery.
*Used for user testing
Introduction
Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a chronic disease that requires consistent long-term care in order to recover. Finding the right therapy can take time. Having a detailed health history can help patients identify patterns related to effectiveness of treatment, side effects of medication, and more. This tracking data can be valuable to clinicians as well by streamlining patient and health care professional information transfer.
Audience
The primary target audience are young adults (largely women) with iron deficiency anemia, since they are the largest demographic affected by IDA. This app was designed to accommodate for low tech literacy, uses gender neutral language, and can be used by members of any demographic.
Platform
This app is meant to function on mobile devices and tablets. The UI design contained in this app is more geared towards Android, because launching an app on the Play Store is comparatively easier.
Objectives
The goal of this Master’s research project is to explore the design of an IDA mHealth app. The overarching design objective is to make an app that is easy to use and helps the user accomplish their goals with the least amount of conscious effort on their part.
The main IDA symptoms such as brain fog and fatigue contribute to the added difficulty of keeping a chronological health history. Brain fog affects the patient's ability to recall past events clearly and fatigue affects their ability to start and finish tasks.
The IDA TracKit app aims to fulfill the needs of user with IDA by providing a platform on which they will be able to easily track various aspects of their journey, all the while being supported by an in-app guide and a patient education centre.
This app must help users to:
Log and track their health data into a chronological health history
Visualize their health history for ease of reading
Navigate their IDA journey by providing insights, suggestions, and support
Set reminders and alarms to keep on top of their treatment schedule
Learn about their condition through a patient education section
Please download the design document below to view the full project process:
Case study - App overview - Wireframes - Reflections - Appendix
*An updated and final version will be uploaded in early August.
Case study highlights
App overview and wireframe highlights
References
IDA and UX research
• Anderson, K., & Emmerton, L. M. (2016). Contribution of mobile health applications to self-management by consumers: Review of published evidence. Australian Health Review, 40(5), 591–597. https://doi.org/10.1071/AH15162
• Auerbach, M., & Adamson, J. W. (2016). How we diagnose and treat iron deficiency anemia. 91(1), 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajh.24201
• Birk, M. V., & Mandryk, R. L. (2018). Combating attrition in digital self-improvement programs using avatar customization. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, 2018-April, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174234
• Brule, S., McDiarmid, C., & McDonald, H. (2018, November 14). This is a Health Fact Sheet about diabetes among Canadians aged 12 and older. The results shown are based on data from the Canadian Community Health Survey. Diabetes, 2017. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-625-x/2018001/article/54982-eng.htm.
• Camaschella, C. (2017). New insights into iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia. Blood Reviews, 31(4), 225–233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.blre.2017.02.004
• Cooper, M., Greene-Finestone, L., Lowell, H., Levesque, J., & Robinson, S. (2012). Iron sufficiency of Canadians. Health Reports, 23(4), 3–10.
• Dawson, R. M., Felder, T. M., Donevant, S. B., McDonnell, K. K., Card, E. B., King, C. C., & Heiney, S. P. (2020a). What makes a good health ‘app’? Identifying the strengths and limitations of existing mobile application evaluation tools. Nursing Inquiry, 27(2), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12333
• De La Torre-Diez, I., Lopez-Coronado, M., De Abajo, B. S., Rodrigues, J. J. P. C., & Arambarri, J. (2016). Health apps in different mobile platforms: A review in commercial stores. Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, CISTI, 2016-July(September). https://doi.org/10.1109/CISTI.2016.7521517
• DeLoughery, T. G. (2019). Safety of Oral and Intravenous Iron. Acta Haematologica, 142(1), 8–12. https://doi.org/10.1159/000496966• Anderson, K., & Emmerton, L. M. (2016). Contribution of mobile health applications to self-management by consumers: Review of published evidence. Australian Health Review, 40(5), 591–597. https://doi.org/10.1071/AH15162
• Isaković, M., Sedlar, U., Volk, M., & Bešter, J. (2016). Usability pitfalls of diabetes mHealth apps for the elderly. Journal of Diabetes Research, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/1604609
•Jessen, S., Mirkovic, J., & Ruland, C. M. (2018). Creating gameful design in mhealth: A participatory co-design approach. JMIR MHealth and UHealth, 6(12). https://doi.org/10.2196/11579
• Mann, D., Hons, N., Riddell, L., Lim, K., Hons, N., Byrne, L. K., Rigo, M., Szymlek-gay, E. A., & Booth, A. O. (2015). Mobile Phone App Aimed at Improving Iron Intake and Bioavailability in Premenopausal Women : A Qualitative Evaluation Corresponding Author : 3. https://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.4300
• Marcolino, M. S., Oliveira, J. A. Q., D’Agostino, M., Ribeiro, A. L., Alkmim, M. B. M., & Novillo-Ortiz, D. (2018). The impact of mHealth interventions: Systematic review of systematic reviews. JMIR MHealth and UHealth, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.8873
• Molina-Recio, G., Molina-Luque, R., Jiménez-García, A. M., Ventura-Puertos, P. E., Hernández-Reyes, A., & Romero-Saldaña, M. (2020b). Proposal for the user-centered design approach for health apps based on successful experiences: Integrative review. In JMIR mHealth and uHealth (Vol. 8, Issue 4). JMIR Publications. https://doi.org/10.2196/14376
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Studies used to inform health input question formulation
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Pereira, D. I. A., Couto Irving, S. S., Lomer, M. C. E., & Powell, J. J. (2014). A rapid, simple questionnaire to assess gastrointestinal symptoms after oral ferrous sulphate supplementation. BMC Gastroenterology, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-230x-14-103
Strauss, W., & Auerbach, M. (2018). Health-related quality of life in patients with iron deficiency anemia: impact of treatment with intravenous iron. Patient Related Outcome Measures, Volume 9, 285–298. https://doi.org/10.2147/prom.s169653
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