It's hard for kids to take their meds. Pediatric rates of adherence to medication is estimated at around 50%. Taking medication is unpleasant, not to mention the negative stigmas that some medications carry. In general, healthcare can be a very intimidating concept for young children.
How might we make healthcare more approachable to children? How might we help children form habits of taking their medications on schedule?
Inspired by applications such as Medisafe, Finch, and Roblox, PillPets is uniquely situated in the intersection of medication management, gamification & habit formation, and apps for children.
We aim to use gamification and empathetic design to foster a sense of accountability and responsibility in children that will motivate them to form healthy habits. Our app also reinforces trust between children and their parents by including parents in the app flow.
The Shop features a variety of items, such as food, clothing, and accessories, that help the child care for their Pill Pet.
.gif)
After a child claims to have taken their medication, a notification is sent to their parent's device. This notification system keeps the parent informed and prevents against "cheating."
.gif)
Reminders can be set for each medication.
.gif)
Having access to medication history can help with medication management.
.gif)
Given the theme of Healthcare for the Tufts Producthon competition, our team decided to solve the problem of low pediatric medication adherence. First, we looked at existing applications within three categories: medication management, gamification and habit formation, and apps for children.
Our user researcher conducted interviews with four children, ages 4-12, about their experiences taking medications. Here's what they had to say:
“I feel anxious going to the doctor because I don’t know what will happen. What will they do to me? I purposely forget to take my medicine. I don’t like it because it tastes bad. I won’t help remind my mom.”
“My mom and dad will remind me to take my medicine.”
“My mom helps comfort me during doctor appointments. She will hold my hand.”
From our research and interviews, we created two personae to represent our users.
I created this graphic to visualize our problem, specific challenges, and potential solutions.
We began our design process by mapping out potential user flows. Ideally, our app would have separate onboarding processes for children and parents, but with our time constraints, we focused on the flows with children as the users. For the onboarding process, we referenced MediSafe, one of the medication apps included in our market research.
We developed a bold, colorful style guide to appeal to children. We used Poppins, one of my favorite fonts!
We created many custom icons, using colors from our style guide. I designed the pencil, hat, and user icon. I also designed a trio of icons to convey medication statuses: taken, pending, and missed.
Our illustrator developed three friendly, approachable characters that children could connect with. If users feel a kinship with a character, they would be more inclined to care for their virtual animal, and thus care for themselves.
This was my first Producthon and it was a lot of fun! I learned so much from my teammates. Here are a few takeaways:
_%20Phase%201.png)
