scripted is a mobile app and complementary website providing users an all-in-one service to keep track of their medications, receive automated reminders, and order refills. With recent studies estimating that up to half of all prescription drug users aren't taking their pills properly, scripted aims to help its users build better habits, while cutting down on the avoidable hospitalizations and deaths driven by poor medication adherence.
Given that scripted would have significant implications for personal and public health, making sure I understood who its users would be, and what current challenges they face, was more important than ever. Before putting pen to paper or building a single button, I asked users of prescription medications some key questions to form a clearer picture of their needs, including:
How many medications do you take, and how often?
How do you make sure you take your medications on time?
Do you find that approach to be helpful? Challenging?
What else do you find difficult about taking regular medications?
How do you make sure you remember to refill your meds?
Have you tried to use any digital tools or apps to track your meds?
Name: Geno Waller (Age: 39)
Hometown: Denver, CO
Occupation: Sr. Web Developer, Father
Geno is a working father with a son recovering from surgery, who needs a more efficient way to manage and keep track of his son’s various post-op medications, so that he can support his health and recovery.
Name: Rebecca Cole (Age: 68)
Hometown: Norwich, CT
Occupation: Retiree, Grandmother
Rebecca is a retiree with mobility limitations, who wants a more organized and flexible way to plan out her medication schedule, so that she can stay on top of her health while limiting unnecessary trips into town.
In building scripted, I sought to address three primary pain points facing prescription drug users:
Potential users feel they rely too much on making “mental notes” when it comes to taking their medications, often resulting in missed doses.
Ordering refills requires info potential users may not always have on hand. Even taking pills can be full of uncertainty, as products such as pill sorters don’t include labels or dosage notes.
Changes in medication can introduce stress and uncertainty, placing the burden on the user to overhaul their routine and assess how to dispose of unused pills.
After brainstorming through paper sketches, Figma was used to draft scripted's key screens. Since everyone’s health journey is unique, these drafts prioritized allowing users to quickly and conveniently create an account, add medications and providers, and set and remove reminders suited to their individual schedule.
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The goal of scripted is to ensure the service is helping users save time and hassle when keeping track of their medications, improving their ability to take doses on time. Before finalizing designs, I conducted a moderated usability study with users of different backgrounds, a process which yielded the following insights:
Users weren't sure how to report that they’d taken a dose ahead of the scheduled reminder time.
Users signaled an appetite to further control of their medication information, including writing custom notes.
Usability testing unveiled the need for caregivers to more easily separate their medications from others'.
Putting it all together, the user personas, usability study findings, and design iterations informed the final app mockups in Figma, which include a variety of features meant to empower users in their personal healthcare journey.
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While scripted is primarily pitched as a mobile app, I also constructed a complementary website to support users who wish to access the service across a variety of platforms. The scripted site also contains information promoting the product and explaining its features to potential users.
Building an app to support personal and public health presented a unique challenge, requiring me to be even more thorough in my research. I found myself looking deeply into the psychology behind medication adherence, the sensitivities of UX writing in the digital health space, and especially my potential user base. User research helped me appreciate just how broad my audience might be, from older users with multiple medications, to those with short-term needs after a surgery, or even just high schoolers who'd like reminders regarding when to replace their contact lenses.
During the design process, I forced myself to be extremely disciplined with component libraries, a part of the process I'd admittedly shirked in the past. scripted taught me just how powerful Figma can be, and how important a robust, carefully organized component library is for securing effective iteration and collaboration with others.
Finally, scripted challenged me to ensure I was paying increasingly careful attention to my users' accessibility needs. scripted promises to support users' personal health, something it can't do if it unwittingly excludes those with differential needs. Important accessibility features unveiled by my user and competitive research included speech-to-text, search with voice, sound and haptics customization for medication reminders, and potential interaction warnings for those with multiple drugs.