Headache Helper

Headache Helper App

Role
UX/UI Designer

Scope
UX design, user research, task flows, prototyping, UI design

Client
CareerFoundry

Timeline
2024

Overview & Content

For my capstone CareerFoundry project, I designed a healthcare app that helps people track headaches and migraines over time. By logging symptoms, triggers, headache types, and frequency, users can identify patterns, gain meaningful insights into their condition, and make more informed decisions about managing their health.

User Interviews & Personas

1

Task Flows & Wireframes

2

Mid-Fidelity Mockups

3

User Testing

4

Style Guide

5

Final Product

6

Interviews

I interviewed three individuals representing potential users for the app. They all have varying levels of experience with migraines and headaches. The participants were women between the ages of 24-66 years old. These interviews helped inform the user personas I referenced for this project.

Methodology

Virtual Meeting

Session Duration

30 minutes

Shadé

24 years old, Graduate Student

“I think it does affect my life, but I’ve been just pushing through.”

Understanding headaches: “not at all.”

“I’m not sure if I have triggers. It’d be great to know because I could maybe stop them from happening.”

Meagan

35 years old, PR Manager

“I have a good understanding of my migraines because I’ve been trying to evaluate them most of my adult life.”

“When they happen, they affect my day a lot. It’s difficult to look at a screen and do my job.”

Wants to know how to treat migraine, what to avoid during certain times, how to avoid the pain, etc.

Denise

66 years old, Retired

“I think I have a very good understanding & awareness [of my migraines], and it took a while.”

Wanted to see if there was any way to predict when migraine might occur, what to expect, etc.

In the last 10 years, hasn’t sought out info: now is very familiar with patterns and symptoms.

User Personas

Persona 1

Julie: The new sufferer ready to learn

Julie has been out of college for a few years, and is working as a marketing assistant. Her work days are long with a lot of time spent on a computer and in meetings. She enjoys exploring new food and drink venues with her friends. Julie has started experiencing frequent headaches and migraines, and is navigating this new condition.

Goals & Tasks

Easy & quick way to record events

Relevant, useful data: corollary insights

Learning about and understanding new condition

Develop strategies on how to deal with migraines

Being able to communicate effectively with doctor.

Persona 2

Heather: The pro dealing with change

Heather leads a busy life with her husband, two kids, and part-time job. Throughout the day, she works from home and being involved in her children’s activities. Heather has dealt with migraines for over a decade, but has recently experienced a change in her migraine symptoms and patterns, and wants to investigate further.

Goals & Tasks

Understand what is happening and why

Quickly enter information about an episode

Use an app that is specific to her: no excess

Learn from others with similar experiences

Track new migraine patterns & identify what has changed

Adjust pain management strategies and make lifestyle adjustments as needed

Task Flows & Wireframes

Task 1: Log a New Episode

“As a person experiencing migraines for the first time, I want to start recording my episodes, so that I can eventually discover patterns, and better understand my new condition.”

Task 2: Find Migraine Articles

“As a person experiencing changes to migraine patterns and symptoms, I want to find information related to my experiences, so that I can research why these changes occurred and how to readjust my management strategies.”

Mid-Fidelity Mockups

Using the user tasks to inform my initial wireframe sketches, I moved on to mid-fidelity mockups. Applying these elements brought the app concepts into clearer focus, and provided a foundation for a consistent layout throughout the app.

Task 1: Log a New Episode

Home Page

Record Episode 1

Record Episode 2

Record Episode 3

Episode Summary

Task 2: Find Migraine Articles

Discover Page

Filters Pop up

Search Pop up

Search Results

Article Page

User Testing

User testing was conducted on the first round of high-fidelity mockups, to assess the learnability, efficiency, and errors new users may encounter with this app for the first time. I also hoped to observe and measure user’s understanding of the project, its value, and how to complete initial functions.

Task 1: Record Episode

You have experienced a migraine/headache, and now that you’re recovering, want to retroactively document the event and your experiences. Using this app, log your migraine.

Methodology

Virtual, Moderated Meeting

Session Details

30 minutes, 3 Tasks

Task 2: Discover Articles

You want to find information related to migraine and headache symptoms. Using the app, find a way to learn about this topic.

Task 3: Export Report

You’ve been recording your migraine episodes for a month, and would like to download and share the information you've gathered with your doctor. Using this app, find a way to share your collected records.

User Testing – Insights

User testing revealed some common themes. After receiving feedback, I organized recurring issues, identified the severity level, and came up with adjustments to resolve these problems.

Issue 1: Record vs. “+” Button

Severity
High

Evidence
Four participants commented on the buttons requiring some thought about whether they performed the same function, or if they took them to the same place.

Suggested Action
Adjust function of Record Episode to act as a start/stop timer, and + button to prompt Record Episode screens.

Issue 2: Reports vs. Log Tabs

Severity
Medium/High

Evidence
While they were successful in finding the “correct” page, many participants expressed the same distinction in their minds between Log and Reports, i.e. all episodes vs. summaries.

Suggested Action
Rework Log page to reflect expected content: collection of all episodes recorded.

Issue 3: Unclear Pain Scale

Severity
Low

Evidence
While most participants didn’t question the scale, one mentioned it was unclear what was selected, and another thought the scale imagery could be improved.

Suggested Action
Adjust UI of pain scale to make sure selected and unselected states are distinct.

Other Improvements

Improve Touch Targets

The most changes needed were to the touch target sizes. I increased icons, input fields, search bar, and other components for easier tap-ability.

Improve Typography

Only a few adjustments were needed on the articles page, so I increased the label and article font size. I also would allow users to increase the font size as needed, responding to their system-wide preferences, and supporting a zoom function.

Style Guide

Since users of this app might suffer from light sensitivity and other pain exacerbated by screen use, it was essential to reduce visual strain. The style guide I developed features a dark mode color scheme, with enough contrast between text and background that it is easy to read. I also took care to build substantial, legible, and tappable components to achieve increased usability.