HiPee App is a health and wellness application developed by Fruitech Ltd. of Tianjin, China. In combination with the urine test strips and portable analysis instrument, the HiPee application is designed to present personal health data, to notify on alarming health parameters, to provide health and wellness consultation, as well as to connect the users with specialized healthcare providers to save time waiting in clinics.
Presentation video
my ROLE
Product/UX Designer | Fruitech, Tianjin, China
Product Thinking, Interaction, Visual design, Prototyping & testing
Team: 4 UI/UX designers, 1 product manager, and 10+ developers
The Problem
Urine test is one of the widely used health examination methods, which is applied in the diagnosis of kidney disease, liver disease and diabetes. Chronic kidney disease, which is prevalent among 10.8% of adult Chinese population, is usually asymptotic, making urine test especially more critical for the early diagnosis and intervention. However, not everyone routinely go to the clinics just for the urine test, making a portable system to conduct self test at home desirable.
Initial functions
User Research
A 3-day workshop was conducted with the current users and potential users of HiPee, which are categorized into four age groups: those less than 30, between 30 and 50, between 50 and 70 as well as over 70. My research -
• Based on information registered during purchase, demographic statistics of each age group is generated.
• Observed and documented user preference and feedbackes for each group.
• Recorded the frequency of use for each group.
• Measured the ease of use using a standardized scoring system for each group.
Interviews
User research was quintessential. The demand of various users needs to be identified and prioritized in detail. In order to achieve that, I gathered as much as I could from the end users to understand the challenges they face and how they see the app making a difference in optimizing pain areas.
"I am gradually far-sighted, and it is gradually difficult for me to see the phone screen clearly. I need help from my kids every time I am conducting urinalysis. It would be fantastic to account for such difficulties for the seniors when designing such software."
- Ms. Wang, 69, Teacher Retiree
"From time to time I will self monitor using HiPee, which is convenient for myself. However in my professional capacity, I am often involved with help my patient with the very basic set-up and use of the instrument, which is not the best spend of my time during appointments. It would be great if the software is easier to use for people with minimum knowledge of technology."
- Dr. Li, 43, Physician of Tianjin No.1 Hospital
"I pay close attention to my health and wellness, and I routinely take urine tests. However the waiting time for an appointment is usually long, and I look forward to an application through which I am able to share my report to my G.P. for interpretation, with the added feature of reading publications no health and wellness blogs and articles."
- Mr. Zhang, 28, Post-Graduate Student of Nankai University.
Insights
After conducting multiple user interviews, contextual inquiry and analyzing the gathered data. I identified the following two streams of thoughts:
Communication
• It is more challenging for the senior population to learn how to use an app, thus it is desirable to increase the ease of use.
• I developed my communication skills to conduct interviews with participants of different age and professional background.
• I gained the basic medical background knowledge related to this project.
Efficient
• I also developed project management skills, which include time allocation as well as documenting interviewing results.
• Depending on the information gathered, maintain flexibility in research questions and adjust research hypothesis as necessary.
User Profiles
The research made it evident how different users would use the app differently. To cater to this, I categorized them into two user profiles based on their goals and requirements
User with high demand
Seniors and pregnant women
Commonly used urinalysis brands: HiPee, Accu-Chek, Siemens, Dirui, Urit...
Requirements:
• Conducting urinalysis at least daily and read reports frequently
• Having strong desire to communicate directly with specialized healthcare providers
• Keen to health and wellness knowledge
User with low demand
Those with asymptotic kidney diseases
Commonly used urinalysis brands: HiPee, Accu-Chek, Siemens, Dirui, Urit...
Requirements:
• Urinalysis and result presentation
• Being aware of kidney disease and accepting toward health and wellness notifications from the app
Sketch of main testing report interface
Conceptualization
I started creating the information architecture and low fidelity concepts for primary use cases. After having a go-ahead from the Product Manager, developers, and Stakeholders on the mockups, we began to conduct usability tests with the low-fidelity mockups. Once we had confidence in the design, we began digitalizing designs.
Mobile wireframe
Usability Testing
I tested the product at various stages of the project.
• Lo-fi prototypes were tested with the stakeholders weekly to get feedback on the functionality, content, and interactivity of the product.
• Unmoderated User testing - A few dummy groups were created for HiPee users to use the app. All participants were using the app to carry out hypothetical tasks.
• Beta Testing - Before releasing the app, we tested it with HiPee users from the First Central Hospital of Tianjin. The app was used by them to coordinate work for online diagnostic.
Project Learnings
Simplicity is strength
As a designer, we are often lured by attractive, trendy and out of the box designs. But, We must always remember the ‘why’. The primary goal is to understand the user, their problems and then come up with a design that solves it.
Prioritize
Create a strategic plan to launch an MVP (minimum viable product). This helps deal with out-of-scope requests that could potentially derail the project and helps deliver a quality product in time.
Seek out feedback early and continually
The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism. Keeping the stakeholders/users in loop and testing solutions in whatever form (paper, low-fi or hi-fi) as early as possible saves ample amount of time and re-work.
For the next steps...
HiPee will expand the realm of service. The design team is working with healthcare providers on the health management focused on the users with existing kidney conditions. The underlying reason is that for those users, their daily lifestyle is directly related to the on-going wellness, and the HiPee is developing toward integrating the full "closed-loop", from the instrument purchasing, daily monitoring to disease management.
