UroCare
Physical Prototyping
Digital Prototyping
UX Research
Coding
UX Design
↑Dirshti Gopwani, Rita Moreira & Marcello Zanetta
This project was part of a 5 weeks long hands-on class taught by Serena Cangiano and Alice Mela.
This course was designed to teach us how to design experiences that use different types of interaction. The original assignment was to design a prototype that integrates a voice assistant, either through a physical object or as an Alexa skill or digital service.
The imposed brief was entitled "Intimate agents" and sought to answer the following questions:
How to learn about body conditions subject to taboos (such as Urinary Tract Infection Diseases) and their prevention, discovery & treatment ?
We were a team of 3 and roles were assigned based on our strongest skills: I was the CTO, so I took care of the code and electronics. Besides that role, I also helped in project management and was involved in every stage of the design process.
More concretely, I took responsibility for the following: Arduino code, user flow, app flow, analysis of the survey, creation of some insights, archetype & storyboard.
In this phase, we gathered knowledge and information through desk research, survey, informal interviews and we also looked for online reviews.
At the beginning of the project, we had an initial brief on antibiotic resistance and urinary tract infections (UTI). So we started our desk research open to both topics, but quickly noticed our unanimous tendency to gravitate towards the topic of urinary tract infections, especially chronic ones.
Here are the main findings relevant to our final solution :
We administered a survey to 32 individuals who have experienced a UTI at least once in their lifetime, with the goal of gathering insights and data.
The learning objectives of the survey were the following :
Our research findings showed that the female participants we surveyed did not view UTIs as a taboo. Among them, 78% experienced early signs of UTI. One-fourth of the participants reported that they stopped their UTI treatment once their symptoms disappeared, and 22% of those with chronic UTIs stopped their treatment even if they had not completed their prescribed course of medication.
It also revealed that 62% of the respondents do not currently own a smart wearable device. However, 70% of the participants indicated that they would be willing to wear a smart wearable if it could assist them with UTI-related issues. Among those who do not currently use wearables, the primary reason is skepticism, while only a minority of 18% expressed concerns about sharing their personal health data.
We also had informal interviews with a microbiologist as well as with two women who had experienced multiple UTIs. They had some interesting findings which gave light to the research we had made, it gave more of a human feel and how they deal with these topics and situations.
What we took away from our interviews was:
“A woman with chronic ITUs can usually tell 3-4 days before that she’ll get a cystitis” - Microbiologist
“For me, Urinary infections are no longer a taboo, it is a cleared topic. We women also go to the gynecologist more frequently, we have more direct contact with the experts.” - Mariella, 56
During our research we came across Amazon who sells these at-home testing kits. We asked in the survey if they knew about them, and for mostly their answer was no, so we decided to look into it. We found really good reviews about this product, so we decided to order it ourselves and try it.
In this making-sense phase of the process we came up with insights, an archetype defining our target user and a user journey of a test with an at-home testing kit.
The following insights allowed us to pinpoint areas of opportunity and identify pain points that required attention. This analysis helped us gain a deeper understanding of the issues at hand and provided a foundation for defining the direction of our project.
As we decided to target women living with chronic UTIs, we opted to make an archetype that is more general than a persona. Marta represents all active women, i.e. adult and not retired, who have chronic UTIs. Because of her condition, she knows the treatments and can feel an infection coming days in advance.
Seeing how these at-home strip tests were appreciated online but not among our participants, we decided to focus our research on these strip tests to better understand how they are used and what might be their biggest pain points.
After purchasing a at-home self-testing kit to test it on ourselves and reading the reviews of these kits online, we created a user journey map of this process.
Here are the biggest pain points we found out with the opportunity they bring:
Starting with the opportunities we found with our insights, we did a “How Might We” session that ended up with two main HMW questions :
These HMW focus on the prevention of infections and the follow-up after detecting one.
With these questions in mind and after reading the positive online reviews of these UTI testing kits, we thought there was something to be done with these strip tests. Especially since the majority of our respondents were either unaware of their existence or were not using them at all. This disinterest may be due to the fact that these kits have major pain points which we have highlighted in the previous user journey.
✳ Our objective is to solve the problems associated with the experience of taking these at-home self-testing kits in order to make them look more appealing and therefore more widely used. ✳
In the diverging phase to find a solution to our problem, we conducted a session of the Crazy’8s technique revisited in Crazy’4s to generate four solution sketches every 10 minutes. By doing so, we were able to categorize and group the most similar solutions together, and ultimately arrive at our final concept.
UroCare is a smart product that integrates a digital voice assistant, urinary test analyzer, and app for active women who want to proactively manage chronic UTIs during their busy lives.
UroCare is a smart product composed of 2 main touchpoints : a vocal assistant being also a urinary test analyzer and an app.
The voice assistant, named Cora, is designed to help women with chronic UTIs perform at-home urinary tests to detect UTIs at an early stage. It is equipped with advanced technology and algorithms to provide users with personalized and accurate insights about their health based on the results of their urine.
The voice assistant is user-friendly, simple to use. The user simply provides a sample of their urine in the cup provided, and then inserts a test strip in the indicated slot. Once the urine and strip are present, Cora analyzes the results and provides a detailed report on the user's health status via UroCare, Cora's connected app.
The app provides information on a range of health metrics, including hydration levels, pH balance, protein levels, and more. Users can also ask Cora questions about their results or their health in general, and it will provide personalized advice and recommendations based on their individual needs.
Overall, a voice assistant for testing urine, is designed to make it easier and more convenient for users to monitor their health and take proactive steps to maintain their well-being.
With UroCare, the user flow is no longer solely on the user's side but shared with the voice assistant Cora (in yellow) and the app (in blue).
Compared to the test with the strips, in this flow, the user only has to follow the instructions of Cora, urinate and put the cup and a new strip in the device. After that, Cora will take care of the rest: manipulating the strip, timing the soaking and reading the results while the user is freed.
When Cora finishes the analysis, she informs Marta vocally but also sends the results to the application which sends a notification to Marta's phone. Marta is free to listen to the result or to look at the details of the result on the application. In the application she can also read treatment tips and set reminders to help her treat her infection. These reminders are customizable: she can set a reminder to drink water but also to take her antibiotics if prescribed.
In order to not make the voice assistant tedious and repetitive, especially since our target user is someone who has chronic UTIs and therefore will surely know the instructions through experience, we thought of letting the user skip the instructions. This skip function is also present when sharing the test result in case the user prefers to keep the results private.
The major interactions with UroCare can be synthesized as follows:
The following storyboard can further demonstrate the use of UroCare for our archetype Marta.
To build a complete product, the first step was to create a design system as a framework so that we could develop effective consistent communication.
Since the UTI phenomenon affects 90% of the female audience, we decided to set the visual identity more toward a feminine target audience. So the visual identity was built on the color magenta, as it depicts femininity, and expresses hope, well-being, creativity and innovation. The secondary colors are yellow and light blue, which in the color circle together with magenta make up a chromatic triad.
Also regarding the visual identity, the logo design takes inspiration from the shape of the standard stripes used to conduct at-home strip testing. These vertical strips are all very similar and feature the various tested metrics in a square shape with different colors. Starting from these patterns, the monogram was developed, which takes the shape of a diamond. Internally, the monogram consists of 13 squares; the colors are arranged to resemble the letter "U" of UroCare. The logotype, on the other hand, is the simple UroCare lettering in Rubik Regular.
The final logo therefore consists of the pictogram and the logotype.
In order to achieve a more coordinated communication, we also created a pattern based on the monogram, and an animation of the voice assistant Cora, which is visible in the on-boarding section when opening the app.
Regarding the name of our solution, we first thought of UroCare as it illustrates the link between urinary tests and self-care.
We then thought of having another name for the voice assistant inspired by other well-known companies that do the same: Amazon has Alexa, Apple has Siri; UroCare has Cora. This name is meant to be short, simple to pronounce in all languages and memorable.
For the mobile application, we started by defining which features were the most important for our prototype:
Based on that, we did a sketching session on paper to brainstorm layout ideas.
After that, we started prototyping on Figma, starting with lo-fi screens and ending with an interactive high-fidelity prototype:
The design of the voice assistant was the most challenging part since we started with many constraints: it must be able to collect the user's urine, fit a strip, integrate electronics and mechanisms such as lights and a speaker, all this while thinking about the affordance of the object and the hygiene of this procedure.
Having the requirements in mind, we started sketching solutions on paper. At the beginning, we remained very focused on the mechanism of the motor that would put the strip in the cup and remove it after the required time, which led us to think of a vertical solution with the cup at the bottom and the insertion of the strip on top.
From this vertical design, we continued to sketch and refine the design of Cora. In total, 3 iterations of product design were performed before obtaining the current result. Here is a summary for each iteration (Please note: the first 2 designs are really bad in terms of ux and to be honest we had to take a step back to realize it ^^):
The hygienic aspect and the concern of being able to include electronics led us to a system of cup in the shape of a "drawer" that would slide in the middle of the assistant. The square design was intended to repeat our logo made of strip’s squares. Obviously, this solution offered a poor affordance since the interaction with a drawer is not associated with the mental model of a person urinating in a cup. This shape was also inconvenient and could have caused urine spills.
We designed a shape inspired by a coffee machine as we were trying to bring more affordance to the object. We also realized that people with chronic urinary tract infections would not use Cora on a daily basis, making this sizable object almost too much in the bathroom. So we thought of integrating a "modular" part in order to give Cora a secondary utility that would be customizable according to the user's needs: a tissue box, make-up storage and soap dispenser.
For the current version, we have merged the qualities of the first two iterations: the “square” concept of the first one which recalls the identity of UroCare and the affordance of the second one. We also kept the idea of having a modular part in the back as a second-use of Cora. This solution is much smaller and therefore more suitable for a bathroom.
The current version of Cora has a base that will contain the feedback light. This base also serves as a base for placing the cup. Instead of inserting the entire cup into the assistant, which would complicate the manipulation, we opted for a partial insertion.
The square shape of the assistant allows to cut the functionalities of Cora in 2 triangles: the analyzer and the modular part (tissue box, etc.).
For the color we chose white to blend the object in a bathroom. The 2 elements that require actions from the user are voluntarily highlighted in another color to improve the affordance.
Finally, Cora's personality was also carefully considered so that it would be perceived as supportive and non-judgmental. Her voice is intended to have a positive tone so as not to add more stress to the user.
This prototype involved the use of an Arduino board combined with the MaInD PCB. The light is possible thanks to a Neopixel 24 Led Ring. Cora's responses are mp3 recordings that are stored in an SD module and played through the DFPlayer Mini.The detection of the cup is done with a light sensor, as the cup blocks the light when it is placed.
The voice recognition is implemented with PicoVoice AI voice models and Cora's voice is created with ElevenLabs.
The conversation between Cora and the user is realized with a state machine pattern. Every answers from the user triggers a new state, which plays Cora’s answer and starts a new light animation.
Cora was designed in Fusion 360. The body and cup was 3D printed while the base was made of laser-cut transparent and opale plexiglasses.
This project was instructive because of the challenges related to the constraints we were facing and the time allocated for its realization (5 weeks). We believe that the solution we bring with an automated urinary tester at home can be a real asset in the rapid detection but also tracking of urinary tract infections. It can democratize the execution of preventive urinary tests allowing people to have a better knowledge of their health status even before being in a critical state.
We realize that integrating a voice assistant may not seem relevant to the overall solution. That's why, at some point in the interaction flow, we allow the user to ignore Cora's voice response. However, we feel that adding the voice assistant may be a way to reach more people in the future, such as the elderly, disabled, or teenagers who are heavy users of voice assistants.
The hygiene and maintenance of Cora is one of the biggest challenges because if it is not possible to clean the analyzer, the risk of contamination increases and our solution becomes meaningless. We tried during this project to think about these aspects by proposing to make the parts that come in contact with urine removable and washable. It would be necessary to collaborate with engineers and doctors to determine which materials would be the most suitable for these parts.
The engineering aspect was also a challenge in this project because we were focused on how to prototype the analysis and therefore we were careful to keep room inside Cora to include this engineering. But we had to admit and realize that we didn't have the knowledge of the existing techniques to do this kind of analysis and after discussion with our mentor we realized that it was not necessary to design Cora keeping room for this and that it was something we could define later with real engineers and chemists.
Initially, our product was intended for individuals with chronic UTI. However, during the design process, we discovered that it could be utilized by a broader range of people to test for various urinary problems and to monitor their overall health. Furthermore, we recognized the potential for incorporating a feature that would enable Cora to recognize different users, which could be especially useful for households with multiple users.
Finally collaborating with healthcare providers, including urologists and primary care physicians, will be crucial to the success of any product designed for chronic UTI patients. Working with healthcare providers can help ensure that the product is accurate and reliable, and that patients receive the appropriate medical advice and follow-up care they need.
Overall, this prototype needs to be further tested with end users and designed with the help of healthcare professionals.
If you are interested in working together or have a question about my work, leave me a message and I'll be happy to answer you as soon as possible.
