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OneLink Case Study

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OneLink

Type 1 Diabetes Independent Management App

Research, strategise, and design an app that helps young Type 1 diabetics transition towards complete independence in diabetes management.

OneLink empowers young type 1 diabetics to autonomously manage their condition while fostering a harmonious relationship with their parents

Project Summary

This was a collabrative project involving 3 other students. We came together over the course of 12 weeks to design and develop a concept that would help type 1 diabetics transition towards complete independence in diabetes management.

Participation

University - Collaborative
Expertise

Product Design
Duration

12 weeks
Deliverables

User Research, User Journeys, High-fidelity prototype

Solution Preview

A personalised dashboard for all users

A unified view of patient information, with daily updates facilitating data-driven analysis for informed decision making.

Streamlining diabetes management

OneLink reduces family conflicts by synchronising everyone's schedules seamlessly. By integrating school timetables and family meal calendars and auto-generating testing and injection times, the app ensures the family is on the same page.

Introduction of gamified elements

In-app gamified elements such as XP, badges and streaks are used to motivate and measure a child's progress. Parents are encouraged to discuss other incentive types with the children and use the gamified structure to set them goals.

Divergent & Convergent Thinking

We used the double diamond design approach following phases of divergent and convergent thinking.

This project discusses the divergence of rapid ideation and background research into the field of diabetes and healthcare, where we identified real world everyday problems for children with diabetes and the care-givers. It also discusses how we converged these ideas into targeted interviews with key user groups and the creation of a high fidelity prototype to test and solve these problems.

Exploring Opportunities

Market Research

No ways to prevent T1D

T1 Diabetic diagnoses are increasing by around 4% each year. There are currently no known ways to prevent it, so we must ensure that the condition is managed as effectively as possible to control blood sugar levels and prevent complications down the line such as blindness, strokes or early deaths.

Refining Ideas

Parent - Child Relationship Dynamics

We narrowed our focus to explore the parent-child dynamic in more depth. Recent field studies suggest that current T1D management apps do not adequately address the strains that the condition can have on family life. We found that existing leading products' primary focus is on numerical tracking and can lead to parents developing an unhealthy fixation on numbers. This, in turn, can cause heightened anxiety and over-controlling behaviours to develop, ultimately leading to breakdowns in communication between parent and child.

Example Findings

User Research

User Groups

We identified our users as children with diabetes and their primary caregivers. Additionally, we identified an opportunity to extend our app's reach to healthcare professionals and teachers. Providing each of them with login access creates a holistic, centralised care package, fostering collaboration, communication, and strong relationships.

Interviews & Survey Insights

From our surveys, we found that parents lack advice and support and use social platforms and groups to feel more at ease, while children also feel lack in emotional support, primarily from their parents. Teenagers often don’t fully comprehend their condition, leading some to rebel or hide from their diabetes.

Aggregrating Results

We began affinity mapping the results to analyse the data gathered and to start building a better idea picture of the problem space.

This analysis identified some key themes:

• Motivation & Education
• Emotional Support
• Synchronisation

Identifying HMW Statements

With our key themes identified, we highlighted three ‘How Might We’ statements to facilitate clear parent-child communication, strengthened relationships and streamlined family schedules.

Design Challenge

Competitor Analysis

Competitors lack a holistic approach to treatment

A feature inventory of competitors was conducted to understand what products on the market may be meeting one or more of the user needs we’ve identified by summarising user needs into 8 high-level categories:

Improving parent - child communication

The most complete experiences currently are DigiBete and DangKids but even these lack more holistic features. We decided on building extra levels of support by improving communication channels in the management of a child’s T1D with the aim of moving a child towards greater independence

Design Sprint

Rapidly ideating solutions

In a group call we moved through some design tasks to start fleshing out some possible features. We focussed on getting some consensus on what the primary user journeys would be for each user profile. Once we had some preliminary flows we began sketching out some rough screen variations.

User Journey Mapping

Connecting user profiles

Before jumping into sketching screens, we mapped out a number of user journeys for individual profiles. Our weekly check-in feature illustrates how we are aiming to connect the journeys of our user groups. The weekly check-in flow is a good example of how we intend on combining these experiences.

Wireframes

Towards the end of our design sprint, we began wireframing, building off of the foundation of our sketches by mapping out potential flows. For this part we aimed to keep the interactions short and sweet as we merely needed to highlight solutions to our problems where we can then utilise the frames for user feedback.

Sharing concepts with target users

At this point we had developed enough of each feature to be ready to gather some early feedback. Due to this being a product focussed on T1D treatment, it was crucial to actively involve input from people that fit the background of our target user profiles. I presented some more refined iterations of early wireframes to each of our users.

Main take-aways

• Meal time entries & glucose readings can be scanned to speed up the flow

• Weekly check-in questions for the child could be simplified and all flows should include text-boxes so questions can be expanded upon.

• Rewards should be listed in the profile so that children know what they’re aiming towards

• Exercise & Meal Times should be highlighted on clinician graphs to get a better understanding of the highs & lows

Creating & Refining User Journeys

After gaining feedback from our feature inventory, we began pulling these features together into one product. This process meant editing and refining as a group to make it one cohesive experience. Changes had to be made, taking into consideration how our users will navigate the product.

Project Outcomes

primary features

Weekly Check-in

This feature aims to adapt to the changing age range and emotional needs of children as they progress through adolescence. It asks surface-level emotional questions where the overview reports back to the parent and clinician to provide relationship transparency between parents & children, as well as to allow clinicians with a better view of parent-child dynamics.

Forum Advice & Support

Our app's 'Forum' feature allows teenagers and parents can educate themselves while receiving emotional support from others facing similar circumstances. Clinicians endorse the universal 'blue tick' validation for critical advice, ensuring a trusted and supportive environment for all.

Dexie, AI Helper

Dexie, is our AI chatbot designed to be a trusted friend and partner in managing a child’s diabetes journey. Dexie responds to queries offering accurate and personalised information reducing unnecessary GP appointments, alleviating anxieties and providing emotional support for both children and their parents.

Incentvising Behaviour Change

our in-app gamified elements such as XP, badges and streaks are used to motivate and measure a child's progress and incentivise them to manage their condition effectively

Diabetes Dose Dash

Our research showed that some children struggle to self manage their diabetes due to a lack of maths skills, therefore we designed a maths game - Diabetes Dose Dash. An interactive, engaging learning experience equipping children with essential skills to independently manage their diabetes

Glucose Monitoring

OneLink supports children in transitioning towards independence with the step-by-step glucose monitoring walkthrough. For teenagers, the easy scan feature makes glucose measurement inputs hassle-free.

Communication Channels

We’ve opened up communication channels so that schedule changes made by a parent or child will automatically send a notification to both parties, opening up a conversation to negotiate the change. We have developed controls for muting notifications to empower adolescents to make some changes without parental oversight.

Syncing Schedules

Our app's 'schedule' feature integrates school timetables and family meal calendars and auto-generating testing and injection times, ensuring the entire family is on the same page.
Clinicians can access the child's schedule, gaining deeper insight into the child's daily activities, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of factors, aiding in more personalised treatment recommendation.

Sync Reporting

Our reporting feature provides clinicians and teachers with daily updates from patients facilitating data-driven analysis. Teachers can easily input behaviour items correlating with a student’s blood glucose levels, helping them identify diabetic factors affecting behaviour.

Both dashboards include relevant educational resources for continuous professional development ensuring optimal performance in their roles.

Value Proposition

We aim to strike a balance between tracking data, education, and helping Type 1 diabetics and their caregivers improve communication and maintain healthy relationships. Our concept stands out from competitors due to its feature set, which includes live clinician reporting and a heightened focus on education and emotional support

Open to work

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