Boston Consulting Group / New York / 2020
Empowering people living with Multiple Myeloma.
A digital therapeutic tool that empowers patients suffering from Multiple Myeloma to manage their disease progression and lead a better quality of life. This product went through clinical trials in the United States as a companion app.
About
A Patient-doctor portal to manage disease progression
MyHOPE is a digital therapeutic tool that empowers patients suffering from Multiple Myeloma to have better control of their disease by offering an iOS app where patients can track their disease progression better by inputting their symptoms, medications and appointments.
On the other side, through a web based care team portal app this patient-reported data provides the patient’s care team to not only get a complete view of their patient’s symptoms and medication adherence, but also to take actionable steps faster, as needed, allowing them to provide more personalized care.
Project overview
Get the platforms ready for clinical trials
Unlike most projects that I have worked on at BCG, when I joined this venture, the client already had an MVP patient app built that allowed users to review and track their medication and report common symptoms. My team and I were brought on to further push this product with a goal to:
Improve a user’s experience on the platform as well as make it more accessible for our target user.
Validate the need for the platform by conducing usability and user testing sessions with patients and doctors.
Push the platform to be ready to be tested for clinical trials which would make MyHOPE a clinically approved Digital Therapeutic.
Role
Design lead for patient app
The team consisted of experts from BCG and client side both that worked together on a daily basis to update and ship this product. We were a team on business consultants, medical experts, digital therapeutic experts, designers, engineers and product managers.
There were two different platforms for this product, and I was leading design on the patient-side app pod.
I was particularly responsible for:
Updating the UX and UI of the patient app to make it accessible for the target group.
Conducting monthly usability tests with patients as well as care nurse practitioners and synthesising all the learnings and creating actionable steps.
Guiding 2 junior designers to design and update smaller changes to features and providing them with feedback to help them grow as designers.
Presenting solutions to the client, including clients, on a weekly basis for alignment and buy-in.
Feature 1
Home
What we tested
When I joined the team, the homepage was looking like the screen below. We conducted a two week long usability test with multiple patients, caregivers, oncologists and nurses to understand how patients felt about the homepage as well as how they navigated through all the app and the role of homepage in that experience.
What we found
On synthesis, we found that people felt lost on the homepage. They were not sure what to select first and they did not have a clear path forward. They also needed more guidance and support to decide what to do on the app first.
Redesign goals and explorations
Revisit high value features and reorganize the homepage to reflect the most important features and in the right order.
Explore the concept of a to-do list or check list that guides patients through the app without overwhelming them.
Reduce drill in and drill out on the app by providing patients with more context.
Bring the options in the hamburger menu to life on the home screen, since more patients were not paying attention to that button.
Final concept
To achieve the redesign goals, we explored the concept of a checklist in different formats while keeping the defined design system in mind. The final design broke down the the main tasks they would perform on the app into 4 main sections.
Different states
On testing the new design, we learnt that the new design gave patients a clear path to manage and have better control over their disease progression. By breaking down to homepage to ‘tasks to be done’ for the day, and in the order of importance, they were able to keep up without getting overwhelmed.
Once we were sure of this direction, we worked with the engineering team to refine the experience and create all the different states needed.
Feature 2
Navigation
What we tested
In the same two week long usability test with multiple patients, caregivers, oncologists and nurses, we also tested the effectiveness of the navigation and users found it helpful.
What we found
On synthesis, we found that most people did not even go to the navigation and even if they did, they found the information to be redundant.
Redesign goals
Revisit app map and reorder navigation links to highlight options not found on the home screen.
Outcome
We created clear visual distinction between the two types of navigation options. With the new design, we observed that patients were finally using the navigation more often.
Feature 3
My data
What we tested
In one of the weekly user tests with a large group of patients, we tested out this feature. The goal was to observe how patients interacted with this feature and if they found value in this feature.
What we found
On synthesis, we found that people found this page to be confusing and cluttered. They did not see value in viewing their data by timeline and highlights. Along with that, since most patients are in the age range of 65 and older, they found the text hard to read.
Redesign goals
Revisit the design system and create patterns to make the elements more accessible for elderly users. Use larger text size and colors to differentiate between different data points.
Outcome
By doing an accessibility audit and reviewing the design system, we were able to make the app more accessible for our target users to improve their experience on the app.
Feature 4
My Library
What we tested
In one of the weekly user tests with a large group of patients, we tested out this feature. The goal was to how valuable user’s found this section.
What we found
On talking to the users, we found out that they had a very high interest in this feature and wanted more customised content based on their disease progression.
Redesign goals
Strategize future vision of My Library with the content team to evaluate different content types that can be added to this section.
Outcome
When we tested the new designs in the next user testing session, the patients expressed how much they loved the addition of meta data with the content as well as the ability to browse content by topics.
Outcome
FDA clinical trials ongoing
Currently, the product is under clinical trails to product is now undergoing clinical trials to become a FDA certified digital therapeutic.
Key Learnings
Work with communities to build scalable solutions
Through this experience I have learnt to navigate through complex systems, incorporate principles of accessibility, data privacy and security from the get go and most importantly, work with communities to build scalable solutions.
I also learnt how to find a balance between business, medical and legal needs to create to a high impact solution.