TerraPod
Medication Adherence for Patients with Diagnosed Depression
Role
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Skills
UX Design, Interaction Design
User Research
Location
HCI/d @ Indiana University
Team Members
Saeoul Park, Saish Lad, Dhyan Rajesh
Terrapod, a digital terrarium and smart pill dispenser, introduces a visual and interactive approach to medication management.
As patients adhere to their regimen, the virtual terrarium grows, visually representing their treatment progress in real-time.
This motivational tool, coupled with personalized voice memos and a smart pill dispenser, simplifies the treatment process, fostering a collaborative care approach and improving well-being and adherence rates in the realm of mental health.
This project was a group assignment for INFO-I541: Introduction to HCI/d, where the directions were to investigate, conduct research activities, iteratively sketch, design and prototype, and evaluate design solutions for issues related to UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
Members of my group included other IU HCI/d students - Saeoul Park, Saish Lad, Dhyan Rajesh, and were guided by Dr. Austin Toombs!
A class project from Indiana University's MS HCI/d program
Target Users
People with diagnosed depression who are relatively new to their medication regime, and who have support member(s) to alleviate their treatment journey
Is this a real problem?
In the United States, nearly 1 in 5 adults struggle with diagnosed depression
Only 25-50% of patients adhere to their prescribed regimens
Patients managing chronic depression frequently encounter difficulties in maintaining a consistent and accurate medication routine.
The struggle lies not only in remembering to take medications but also in comprehending the intricate nuances of their therapeutic effects.
The lack of a tangible connection between the patient and their medication often results in sub-optimal adherence, hindering the overall efficacy of the treatment - especially for newly diagnosed patients.
How might we...
cultivate collective emotional support for patients diagnosed with depression in order to improve their medication adherence?
Design Process
(not linear)
How did this secondary research help us?
- Insights established the severity of the issue and set the context for our work.
- Identified key stakeholders and their perspectives.
- Refined our focus by eliminating specific sub-domains.
- Guided the direction of our exploratory sketches and initial ideas.
Why do patients not take their medicines?
When do patients with depression need the most help with medication adherence?
What current solutions do they avail of for keeping track of their routine/meds?
How does the level of social support influence medication adherence in depressed patients?
We tried a non-linear design route with this project starting mainly from exploratory sketches straight after some basic secondary research.
We brainstormed with sketches related to smart pill dispensers, mobile app trackers, physical objects, and environment-driven solutions.
Sketching helped us discover essential questions that needed subsequent primary research through interviews. It also allowed us to discard less viable ideas early on, streamlining our focus and ensuring that our efforts are directed toward the most promising and practical solutions.
Primary Research
Interviews
Goal
To study more about why people do not adhere to their treatment, and how does support from loved ones (family & friends) influence their adherence to medicines
Protocol
3 participants
20-25 min
Transcribed non-verbatim as notes
All participants were provided a consent form to read & sign
Data
Anonymized, Secured privately in Drive, Deleted after use
It's not just taking pills
Insights
We found out the underlying factor of most of the factors is lack of motivation of treatment.
- Patients could not perceive immediate and drastic benefit from their new medication regime
- Emotional support & care from family/support members helped immensely in medication adherence
We mapped the questions found in secondary research and mapped the answers we discovered in primary research -
found underlying theme that denial, lack of perception of benefits of taking meds was caused by low motivation and underwhelming support from dear ones.
Through affinity mapping, we recognized some causes of non-adherence and how support/family members helped them.
We scoped down to communication issues because it consists of both adherence and support factors.
It's not just notifications and reminders, rather a human touch in their treatment journey.
Why plants?
We initially considered a virtual pet concept but discarded it due to concerns about the emotional investment for patients and challenges in designing instances for non-adherence. We pivoted to a more neutral terrarium concept, leveraging research showing that interaction with indoor plants has calming effects on the mind, relieving psychological and physiological stress.
A digital terrarium with a smart pill dispenser that motivates depressed patients to take their medication by growing holographic flora and fauna based on their adherence to antidepressants. If they don't take their medication, support members of a patient's choice are alerted to give them human feedback through a personalized voice memo to encourage them to take their medication.
Why not a mobile application?
A user would have to turn on the app to show the progress/benefit from it, and it won’t have an embodied experience.
Iteration 1
- Plant grows with medication adherence.
- Support members send voice memos for encouragement in case of non-adherence.
Iteration 2
- Introduced a preliminary chance for self-correction before support notifications.
- Displayed a withering tree as a negative consequence for non-adherence, escalating to support member interventions.
This iterative design process aimed to strike a balance between support and autonomy, creating a positive and empowering experience for users managing their mental health.
Iteration 3
- Acknowledged sensitivity of users with depression to negative feedback.
- Replaced the withering tree with an optimistic projection of the terrarium's growth with medication adherence.
User Testing
Paper Prototyping
We used paper prototyping as a form of user testing with five different individuals to gauge the feasibility and the efficacy of the interaction with our product. This was an attempt to find out any flaws in the interaction and get feedback about the user experience with our product.
Feedback
We found out the underlying factor of most of the factors is lack of motivation of treatment.
- Users expressed curiosity about the time gap in receiving voice memos after missing medication.
- Consensus favored depicting positive change over negative consequences, with a color change to green for growth.
- Users desired a portable option for adherence tracking when they are not home.
- Recommendations included incorporating additional sensory cues like Zen audio and making nudging optional.
- Certain participants expressed a desire for additional milestones to serve as evidence of their progress.
- Mobile Application / TerraPod clone
Patients can keep their progress when they are not at home - Patient-Doctor communication
SOS & Emergencies
Direct assistance in cases of severe side-effects - Two-way communication between patient and support members
- Customizing TerraPods
Choosing personalized set of plants/trees to suit their journey. For example, tropical rainforest (more moss and ferns) or temperate biome (fruit trees) - Achievements in form of collectables of different trees, plants or flowers
I learned that embracing ambiguity is essential in early stages of the project as it familiarizes you with the space and you could be more playful with the boundaries you define to scope down with your team.
Trying out a non-linear approach this time around, starting straight away from sketching 50 ideas, instead of the usual research-analyze-design path, made it easier to manage the chaos and was monumental in shaping a speculative product.
Finally, developing empathy in our design, especially within sensitive areas like mental health , was a key aspect of this project. This was a more evident realization when we iterated and tested our designs. Hearing how one minor design decision can influence a larger context always surprises me!
