BAYER PHARMACEUTICALS

Product accelerator

JULY 2016 - AUGUST 2016
ROLE: UX ARCHITECT
CLIENT: BAYER PHARMACEUTICALS
AGENCY: HEAD LONDON

Introducing Vision Coach.

This project was a fast, lean product accelerator using a fail fast mentality in which we ideated and prototyped a responsive WebApp for DME sufferers in 6 weeks.

VISION COACH

Vision Coach is a prototype designed for patients suffering from Diabetic Macular Edema (DME).

The app enabled patients to:

  • Book appointments and track treatment
  • Enter results
  • Monitor progress

Background

There is a serious condition that some Diabetics can suffer from called Diabetic Macular Edema (DME), which causes degenerative eyesight in one or both eyes. Bayer pharmaceuticals had a drug and treatment course for DME and were providing it to many patients. However, there was an issue that needed to be resolved around the adherence to the treatment.

The treatment for DME was an injection into the patient's eye that needed to be administered every month. This treatment process was uncomfortable, stressful and therefore meant that some patients would not carry on with the full treatment for the 12 month course. 

Bayer pharmaceuticals came to Head with the intention of developing a digital solution to overcome the problem of patients not adhering to their treatment.

We ran this project as a 6 week product accelerator, using a lean startup methodology:

  • Sprint 0 (1 week) - Fail fast - discovery, ideation and insights workshop
  • Sprint 1 - 4 (4 weeks) - Product prototyping
  • Sprint 5 (1 week) - Prototype hardening

Product prototyping

We worked in 1 week sprints using a rapid workflow to sketch, design and build each user story according to the product backlog defined in the immersion sprint.

I was responsible for leading the product team in keeping in-line with the project vision and taking into account insights that had been discovered through immersion, as well as applying behaviour change principles and defining the UI and flows of the product through sketching, user flows and storyboards. I led sprint reviews and was the main point of contact with the product owner in discussing the rationale behind design decisions and ongoing product strategy. 

Behaviour change

When trying to fundamentally change a user's behaviour through the product experience, we have to apply researched psychological principles to enable us to design a persuasive experience that will form habits.

On this project we used MINDSPACE, a set of psychological principles that we could apply to enable effective behaviour change in patients, therefore increasing their adherence to the treatment course. 

At certain points within the journey we would introduce certain salient features that would have an impact in changing the behaviour of the patients, whether that be bringing them back into the app, or increasing motivation using a loss aversion exercise.

Loss aversion exercise to create an emotional investment in the app

The outputs

  • We produced a prototype within 4, week-long development sprints, in which Bayer pharmaceuticals had been involved with along the way
  • In-market validation testing is taking place in Asia and Europe in December 2016
  • We managed to carry out the process without many pharmaceutical regulatory blockages
  • The app is currently not released and designs and flows can be shown upon request