�Mobile App
User Interview Report
08/2023
Junzhu Zhang
Goal For This Research:
To delve deeper into understanding our users' needs.
In-clinic
Visit Office
Video Call
1
3
1
Overall Impression
Measurement
Contact Care Team
Medication
Food Dairy
Web App
Key Takeaways
Our Patients are satisfied with the UC program, they usually only use the app when they need to measure their vitals.
Some patients face challenges with
Patients join the program for different reasons, such as
“I mean, it's not, oh yeah, I'm gonna lose weight. No, you gotta stick for the rest of your life.”
—RI, Age 58, BP
Patients adopt diverse methods for managing medication, such as utilizing pillboxes and modifying dosages based on measurement outcomes. They may seek doctor's advice beyond relying solely on an app.
“if you're young, maybe you could look up that medication online to see, but if you're an older person, not going to do that. They'll just take the medicine the way the doctor told them. ”
—DL, Age 72, BP
Patients display varied app preferences with half favoring a web app for
while others prioritize the portability of a phone app.
Patients have varying measurement frequencies based on stability and concern levels. Following the interview, a patient notably raised his measurement frequency to 5 times per week, up from the previous week's 2 times.
In-clinic interview
Patients have varying levels of interest in educational content, especially
Some patients were unaware of the education page before the interview, potentially due to limited tech proficiency leading to reduced awareness of available educational resources.
The reward pop-up is bothersome, needs constant dismissal.
Patients have mixed feelings about the reward system, with concerns about the number of points required and suggestions for more engaging rewards.
Patients generally have nutritional awareness, showing differing levels of enthusiasm for reading labels and monitoring ingredients. Many tend to check nutrition labels when
However, some patients find food diary uploads troublesome.
Recommendations
“（血糖）每个月都在高，我就会自己很难过，它（月度总结）弄得很好。”
“(My BG vital) They’re high every month, I feel down on my own, but the monthly report did well.”
—RL, Age 88, BG
“When users had problems, older users often blamed themselves.”
—UX Design for Senior Citizens (Ages 65 and Older), NN/g
“We would say that almost 100% of the blame should fall on the websites or apps and their designers, because most problems could have been avoided with better attention to the usability guidelines for designing for seniors.”
—UX Design for Senior Citizens (Ages 65 and Older), NN/g
“The aging process impacts how people use digital products in many ways, but we have observed substantial impacts of the aging process on vision, dexterity and memory.”
—UX Design for Senior Citizens (Ages 65 and Older), NN/g
�“I think for some elderly they might have larger font sizes. It would just be the blood pressure in the start, you know, like that would be bigger.”
—DL, Age 72, BP
“When navigation does not match a user’s understanding of how content should be organized, users may struggle to find the information that they need. Seniors are less confident than other demographics online, and they may be discouraged by unclear navigation structures and categories.”
—UX Design for Senior Citizens (Ages 65 and Older), NN/g
�“(Export function) I just couldn't find the damn thing. ”
—MR, Age 72, BG & BP
“I think I'm a healthcare professional so it's okay for me to (regulate medication myself), I know, but other people they wouldn't know that, you know.
I think that would be a challenge for some people to (regulate medication themselves), and I don't think the doctor would want them to manipulate their medication without consulting them first, you know. ”
—DL, Age 72, BP
“I prefer my computer just because I'm used to how do I get to print? How do I get to save, I can run it on files, I can bring things in. Those things are more comfortable for me.”
—MR, Age 72, BG & BP
�“I mean in the morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is turn on my computer, see if there are email messages from the night before or whatever. So it would just be part of the routine, okay, now check my blood pressure.”
—DL, Age 72, BP
“Content that was clearly personalized to their interests and preferences caught seniors’ attention and helped them feel engaged.”
—UX Design for Senior Citizens (Ages 65 and Older), NN/g
�“Because they(escalated BP vital) didn't feel -- because the normal to me wasn't -- it was very low, you know?”
—JF, Age 76, BP & Weight
“49% Americans over the age of 65 have been diagnosed with arthritis. Issues with manual dexterity were common among the seniors who participated in our studies.”
—UX Design for Senior Citizens (Ages 65 and Older), NN/g
�“(Reward Pop-up) I just go past it. I just exit out of it (every time).”
—JF, Age 76, BP & Weight
Ref: Interview Notes
Uses Computer to manage medication - pillbox troublesome
Take medication based on measurement results
Prefer computer(web app), concern: not portable
Usually use app when he needs to measure vitals, and follows the daily goal
Stabbing fingers is a big pain.
Like the indicators tells how many measurements are taken and how many to go.
Go to Care Team : Tech Issues & need to be resupplied & need information
prefer 1-on-1 or face-to-face visits.
Hard to see - Bigger App interface (Tablet or Computer)
Print/export recent results - hard to find
Reward pop-up annoying
Ignores some notifications. Checks chat messages.
Others cook for him (Care about nutritions), need to check food only if he need to eat for low blood sugar, would like to know the total amount of certain food he can eat per day.
Dislike the food dairy upload - hard to describe meals
Cares more about Monthly Report
Take medication at the same time, updates medication with care team
Web or mobile, Can’t tell which one is better : no experience with apps before
Prefer reading educational content on website
Blood pressure is stable so don’t want to measure a lot.
Feels pressure for measurement - “might cause blood pressure go up.”
Go to Care Team : need to be resupplied & need information
Dislike follow-up visit, don’t want to be told how to do
Like notifications about visit, dismiss some other notifications (e.g. education)
Cares about nutrition contents, but basically just avoid junk food.
Eat same food everyday, “diet is part of your life”
Doesn’t take medications, no need to manage that
Prefer phone app : portable
Joined our program to monitor blood pressure.
Exercise and diet to keep healthy life, worries about blood pressure getting high
Go to Care Team : Blood Pressure got high
Okay with any type of follow up visit
Would like to learn more about nutrition and other education contents, but before interview she didn’t know there’s education articles to read.
Interested topic: Nutrition, Hypertension, general wellness, mental health
Cares about nutrition contents, try to read nutrition labels.
Okay with daily notifications about education content
*had cancer during the pandemic
Take all medication at once, use pillbox to manage medications
Prefer phone app : PC is old
Join our program to lose some weight
BP scale after measurement is confusing, “elevated” is actually “good” in her scenario
Weight graph could be improved
Reward pop-up is bothersome
Need too many point to redeem rewards, “It might take a few years.”
Would like something more fun & iHealth product
Only read messages from Care Team
Enjoy face-to-face at the beginning, but later on video call is fine
Care more about nutrition, but also checks ingredients when she want to compare products
Nutrition labels could be tricky
Attention turn to cancer so she didn’t use app that much
Have hard time reading so video or audio would help
*Nurse, health care professional
Regulate his own medication based on measurement results
For unprofessionals, might be better to follow what doctors said, or label
Prefer web app : on computer more than phone, could be part of daily routine
Motivation: stabilize blood pressure, keep lifestyle (other patient: not get yelled at by doctor)
Have trouble with “Chat with us” button, hard to tell if there’s new message or not
(Device) Cuff not tight enough sometimes, charging issues
Ignores reward pop-up , Won’t check video rewards
Need bigger font without glasses
Good to have reminders for measurement
Go to Care Team : no need, can take care of himself
Prefer phone call : sufficient
Interested topics: Nutrition, weight loss(exercise), all things that could lead to elevated BP
Care about nutrients and calories, especially for new produce he want to purchase, feel challenge while traveling, but don’t want to be bothered on vacation
Family support would be ideal for a lot of patients.