Project Type: Concept App, UX, UX Research, UI
Overview
BackAid is a 3 part system to manage chiropractic health
Studies show that 10-15% of the adult population suffer from back pain. Currently, getting access to relevant back health information, posture management tools, and orthopedic diagnoses is difficult, time consuming, and costly.
BackAid is a three-part system consisting of a smart wearable vest, a mobile application, and a smartwatch application created to help people manage their chiropractic health. The wearable vest is embedded with sensors that wirelessly communicate with the mobile and smartwatch applications.
Together, the BackAid system is a tool to manage posture, access personalized exercise/stretch programs based on individual lifestyles, and comprehensively track chiropractic health. I designed the BackAid system alongside a team of three graduate HCI students after being challenged to prototype a multi-channel prototype.
Project Scope
The project was created over the course of 5 weeks in four phases: Research, Design, Testing, and Design Iteration 2
Roles
Research
Ideation
Information Architecture
User Interface Design
User Testing
Prototyping
Tools
Adobe Illustrator
Axure
Atlas.Ti
Zoom (Remote Testing)
Project Goals
The solution will have three channels; a mobile, smartwatch application, and smart wearable vest
Offer inexpensive back pain treatment
Offer personalized back pain treatment options
Problem Statement
How can we create a technology to help people manage their chiropractic health?
Phase 1: Research
User Interviews
We used secondary research findings to create a brief interview asking people about how back pain has affected their lives and what tools they currently use to manage back pain. We used a convenience sampling method to interview three users who either currently suffer from back pain or has experienced back pain in the recent past. From the interviews, we found that:
1. Many work-related user behaviors like poor posture and lifting leads to back pain.
Both white collar and blue collar employees experienced similar levels of back pain, although blue collar employees reported experiencing chronic back pain more from strenuous lifting.
2. Users have tried various things for pain relief, but relief is usually temporary.
Temporary pain relief solutions varied including:
Yoga poses (child pose, downward dog, cobra and back bends)
Professional medical specialists (chiropractors, physical therapists and massage sessions)
Orthopedic pillows
Different sleeping positions
Competitive Analysis
As the third step of our research, we did a competitive analysis of other digital back pain management tools currently available to consumers. Overall, we found many competitor apps targeting back pain management. We also found that:
Users do not strongly prefer any competitor apps
No competitor apps target the entire back
Competitor apps mostly offer exercise as treatment
Competitor apps rely on user self-reports for data collection
Competitor apps limit treatment customization
Table: Competitive Analysis
Personas
Before starting the visual design phase, we combined our research to create two personas. Based on research, we decided our primary persona would be a blue-collar, older man with chronic back pain. Our secondary persona would be a younger, white-collar woman with temporary back pain.
Creating these personas grounded our solution in real user needs and reiterated that our solution would need to be useful to both longterm and casual users.
Image: Primary Persona
Phase 2: Design
Lo-Fi Prototype
After we had a common understanding of the solution’s purpose, we began by individually sketching out lo-fi prototypes. Collaborative sketching was incredibly useful for building a better team understanding of our goals and sparking debate over which features to include as the prototype evolved.
Mobile Sketches
Wearable Vest Sketches
Mid-Fi Prototype
After group discussion, we refined the lo-fi sketches and agreed on specific features and pages our solution should have in the mobile application and the smart-watch channels, listed below.
Analyze Page
(Mobile only) This feature will work only when the user is wearing the smart vest and can only be accessed through the mobile application. This feature has its own page and calculates the user’s spine alignment by taking the location of the sensors embedded in the smart vest in relation to each other.
Home Page
(Mobile and Smartwatch) This page contains all of the personalized recommended exercises and stretches. The personalized recommended content will appear after a user has used the analyze feature.
Progress Page
(Mobile and Smartwatch) This page allows users to track their long term progress with reports and charts of back pain levels, activity levels, and sleep levels.
Log Pain Page
(Mobile only) This page will be accessed through the Progress Page and allows the user to log their back pain levels so they continue to track their back pain progress.
Talk to an Expert Page
(Mobile only) This page will allow users to ask back-healthcare experts questions related to their back pain by connecting them though messages and phone calls.
Mobile Mid-Fi Prototype
Smart Watch Mid-Fi Prototype
Phase 3: Testing
We conducted usability tests of the mid-fi prototype to test the navigation and flow of both the mobile and smartwatch screens. We used a convenience sampling method to recruit four potential users, all from different age groups and with varying levels back pain.
Omni-Channel Findings
Confusion about the Analyze feature
During a pandemic, remote testing a wearable prototype was impossible. This disconnect between the vest, mobile, and watch apps seriously confused users. In the future we’d need to reimagine testing protocol.
Unclear iconography
Users did not understand and overlooked icons in the app. Moving forward, we decided to make menus more visually prominent. We also looked for other well-vetted icons to increase recognition.
Unclear navigation
Users were not sure where to find personalized stretch/exercise recommendations. While searching, users also missed the instructions to analyze back alignment to see personalized stretch/exercises. Future iterations would need to make the instructions more prominent.
Table: We prioritized all of the error fixes according to severity and frequency
Mobile Channel Findings
Confusing Log Pain feature
Users were not sure how to complete this feature and missed icons and instructions explaining the feature. Users also had difficultly reading data illustrations. To remedy this, we decided it was better to implicitly show users how to use features instead of reading instructions.
Smartwatch Channel Findings
Inaccurate interface
The smartwatch prototype did not match user expectations of smartwatch UI at all. Only one user was familiar with smartwatches, but all users were confused navigating through the smartwatch prototype. As a group, we decided to streamline smartwatch functionality to better fit device capabilities. I took on the complete redesign of the smartwatch prototype and looked to the iOS style guide to ensure accuracy.
Phase 4: Design
Hi-Fi Prototype
In the hi-fi prototype, we addressed all of the issues we uncovered in mid-fi usability testing, updated the color palette and simplified the interfaces for both mobile and smartwatch screens.
Mobile Prototype
Smart Watch Prototype
Lessons Learned
Personas can be lost in the design process if not careful
We were able to create two personas, but I realized that they were forgotten about as the prototype moved forward. In the UX industry, there has been a lot of recent debate about the value of personas. I have always considered fully fleshed out personas valuable. However, in this project I noticed that if personas are not properly integrated into the design process, and backed by valid data they do not add much value. Especially when working with a large and diverse team where communication is already a challenge. It’s best to cut through the noise and focus design efforts efficiently. Unfortunately, in this project, we created personas rather quickly, based on limited secondary research and informal interviews. This is a mistake I think, but we were tied to the course schedule.
Remote user testing wearable prototypes is challenging
The BackAid mobile and smartwatch prototypes both are meant to communicate with a wearable smart vest. During our user testing, we could not have users wear a smart vest prototype while interacting with the mobile and smartwatch prototypes because everything was remote during the pandemic. Without the smart vest, users were missing key interactions and feedback which led to confusion and error. We learned that incorporating imaginary wearable feedback into scenarios help users understand the system better, but ultimately it’s always best to have a physical vest prototype for user testing.