I collaborated with Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center in Seattle to research, conceptualize, and design the Inspire app, a tool focused on improving care plan adherence and overall wellbeing for cancer survivors post-hospital discharge. By applying behavioral change principles and game theory, working closely with doctors and caregivers, and running a pilot that allowed feedback loops, we built an app that saves lives.
Effective healthcare extends beyond the hospital setting and into the daily lives of patients. The Inspire app was designed to facilitate this transition for cancer survivors, providing ongoing support and guidance to help them manage their health and wellbeing at home. The goal was to save lives.
Our design process was deeply collaborative. We worked closely with doctors and careers from Fred Hutch institute in Seattle to understand the needs of the patients and families.
A key focus of the app is to promote adherence to care plans. We applied behavioral change techniques and elements of game theory to create an engaging and motivating experience. This included features that encourage tracking medication, monitoring test results, and adopting healthy habits.
We focus in building the minimun viable product to run the first pilot with real patients, and used product analytics and feedback loops to continuously refine the app. This allowed us to identify areas for improvement, optimise the user experience, and ensure that the app adoption and adherence to the program from the participants.
The app allows users to view their progress towards goals and filter content related to heart health, cancer care, and mental wellbeing.
A prioritized and aggregated feed presents users with a daily overview of important tasks and recommendations across the three health areas.
A prominent "plus" button provides quick and easy access to features for adding information, such as test results, mood updates, weight/BMI, and food logs.
The app offers intuitive navigation, providing easy access to the Today feed, a calendar view, progress tracking tools, and a planner.
Making health care easier
The app aims to simplify the process of managing health outside of the hospital environment.
The goal is to save lives
The app's primary objective is to improve treatment success and overall wellbeing for cancer survivors.
Creating health habits
The app incorporates strategies to help users build and maintain healthy habits.
User research and collaboration
The design process involved close collaboration with doctors, patients, and families.
To maximize user engagement and promote adherence to care plans, we integrated principles of behavioral change and game theory into the Inspire app's design. This involved empowering users to set personalized health goals and track their progress, incorporating rewards and recognition elements to reinforce positive behaviors, exploring opportunities for social support to foster a sense of community, and implementing timely reminders and prompts to encourage consistent engagement with the app's features, ultimately aiming to create a motivating and effective tool for behavior change.
Recognising the difficulty of establishing new habits and how critical that was to improve the survival chance for the cancer patiants, we designed the Inspire app with the main focus of support users in building sustainable healthy behaviors. For that, we encouraged the creation of a consistent routine of healthy actions, visualizing progress to maintain motivation, focusing on prioritising key habits for each day to avoid overwhelming users, and strategically using triggers and positive feedback to reinforce good habits and celebrate achievements.
