T1-Pal: Case Study

T1 PAL: Case Study

Role:

UX Design | Research

Team:

The Design Lab

Client:

T1 Pal

Overview:

People with diabetes are actively engaged in online communities to share their experience through data. However, there are not enough resources or tools to support the online community in facilitating positive discussion amongst peers. The goal of this project was to identify key issues and design tools for T1 Pal, a company that hosts real time diabetes information for its clients.

How Might We:

Develop tools that empower people with diabetes to share their experience with their peers?

Primary Research Analysis:

To first figure out our approach, we reviewed posts from the diabetes community to identify common themes. Through this, we created our questionnaire to interview our stakeholders.

Common Themes:

Relatable Content
Concrete Advice
Emotional Support

User Research:

After conducting 10+ hours of interviews with the diabetes community, we figured out our problem, need, and opportunity.

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1. Problem: People with diabetes lack empathy and understanding from those they share their data with.

2. Need: A way to encourage peer to peer support when sharing data.

3. Opportunity: An annotation feature within T1 Pal that would allow users to be in control of how they portray their data.

So, who are we designing for?

Target user #1:

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Needs an empathetic community that understands her.

Target user #2:

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Needs a feature that allows tagging the data easily.

Our Solution?

An annotation feature within T1 Pal that would allow users to mark up and be in control of how they want to portray their data.

Why?

It would create a space for PWD’s to express themselves to provide the community with a clear understanding, so that helpful feedback, support, and discussion can be facilitated.

User Flow:

Prototype:

Features:

Future Steps:

During our project, our team identified many possible opportunities for T1 Pal to further explore after our 10 week sprint.

Data Filtering:

Many clients expressed wanting to cover up certain data points and be able to specify what they wanted to share.

Sticker Palette:

A sticker palette catered to the diabetes community would allow them to express themselves more.

Folders:

Many expressed the want to save their screenshots in different folders within T1Pal to navigate back and learn from their data.

Key Takeaways:

Pause and Listen:

Although this is something that we all know how to do, I really learned the importance of just sitting down and listening, even through the awkward silences. During the 10+ hours of interviews, I discovered the key issues of T1Pal during these silent moments, where clients were processing what to say.

Ask, Ask, Ask!

Don’t be afraid to ask. Coming in to this project, I had no prior knowledge on diabetes or what I would be faced with. Although I had a lot to learn right on the spot, over-asking questions to clients and team-members helped me confidently take the correct next step.

Be Empathetic

I realized the importance of knowing how to feel like a friend to the client. Instead of “interviewing” them, having a casual conversation allowed them to really open up about their struggles which opened up so many new opportunities for change within T1Pal.