Medicine Cabinet
Medicine Cabinet App
There are a total of 2.9 billion trips annually to purchase over-the-counter, OTC, products. A trip to the local drug store can seem simple, but the multitude of options on the shelves can feel overwhelming. On average, the U.S. household spends about $338 per a year on OTC products, and an individual experiencing an ailment may need guidance from a healthcare professional. The most accessible healthcare professional in your community is the pharmacist, but often times the pharmacist is too busy and doesn’t have the resources to provide you with more time. Medicine Cabinet is an app that provides OTC drug recommendations for minor ailments by evaluating your current symptoms, drug allergies, and medications.
Project Scope:
Discover the target user
Develop key features and tools
Understand user needs and pain points in OTC drug shopping experience
Role: UX Researcher Duration: Aug 2020 - Dec 2020
Deliverables: Presentation of research methodologies, key findings, analysis of data, and product recommendations.
The Challenge
Create an app that provides OTC drug recommendations for minor ailments
The Solution
Design an app that provides OTC drug recommendations by gathering information from the user and providing drug consultation
THE PROBLEM
How can we make safe OTC drug recommendations for minor ailments by gathering the user’s symptoms, drug allergies, and current medications?
Insights
After examining consumer behaviors, we found that most consumers will research online what OTC drug to purchase or will ask for help from a healthcare professional such as a pharmacist.
The healthcare information found online can feel overwhelming and can cause confusion or anxiety. And accessing a healthcare professional such as a nurse or doctor may require an appointment. Fortunately, the pharmacist at the local drug store is a readily accessible resource, but sometimes the pharmacy team is busy and as a result the pharmacist is only able to spare a few minutes with you.
It can be a tiring and frustrating experience trying to purchase the right OTC drug. It may require multiple trips to the drug store or lead to purchasing the wrong items. Within this core problem, we identified three essential user needs:
1. Researching online can take a long time and cause confusion.
Searching for reliable information written by healthcare professionals about your symptoms and what OTC drug to purchase isn’t a simple process. Streamlining the information would help consumers gain confidence in what to purchase.
2. Important OTC drug side effects can be missed.
Although the most commonly experienced side effects are listed on the packaging, it can still be missed. It’s common to see several side effects listed, but it’s unclear in what order the information is being presented and which side effects are most notable.
3. Consulting a healthcare professional takes time and money. Accessing a healthcare professional sometimes requires health insurance, appointments, and money. Some individuals do not have those resources and may decide to speak with a pharmacist at their local drug store instead, but the pharmacist is usually busy which causes longer than expected wait times.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Research shows that that 81% of adults use OTC drugs as a first-response to minor ailments.
Source: Consumer Healthcare Products Association
Individual Interviews
I decided to conduct one-on-one interviews to learn more about our users. I conducted 1 hour individual interviews with 7 participants. The structure of our interview looked like this:
Determining our target users
After the individual interviews, we wanted to further understand who our ideal users were. We had a wide scope of users from the age range of 25 to 65 years old and individuals on varying degrees of being comfortable with technology. I wanted to accurately capture who Medical Cabinet App would best serve by narrowing our wide scope.
I organized notes to reflects two criteria: age and tech-savvy. I identified that the group of individuals that were “younger adults” and “tech savvy” would be our target market.
Hunting for Pain Points
CONCEPT MAPPING
Current State & Ideal State
STREAMLINE TO AN IDEAL STATE
Meet our user, Liz
CLOSER UNDERSTANDING OF THE USER
Following Liz to The Drug Store
I conducted interviews with participants that most closely identified with our target user. The interviews helped us to learn more about the user’s research process and shopping journey when purchasing an OTC drug for an ailment. There were several opportunities to improve the experience and reduce the amount of time spent researching what to purchase. I gathered notable quotes and findings from the interviews and started a virtual map to organize our thoughts and search for additional pain points.
After mapping out the interview notes, I noticed pain points from the information shared and how users determine whether an online resources is creditable. Some key findings from the interviews:
Researching online can be tedious and time consuming. Using top rated sources online and seeing repeating OTC drug recommendations for the same ailment on multiple sites provides assurance.
There is confusion for the user once they arrive at their local drug store. The marketing terms used on products can be misleading and difficult to discern the differences between similar products.
There are multiple OTC products and brands. It can feel overwhelming to have several options. Being able to streamline the options and highlight what to focus on when shopping can be helpful.
I created a concise problem statement and an ideal statement from the perspective of Medicine Cabinet App. The problem statement reflects the current issues and obstacles. The ideal state is an attainable future state that flows with ease when providing OTC drug recommendations.
The problem statements help the team to understand what areas to focus, and how we can make an improvement and impact on the user. The ideal state depicts a simplistic approach in reaching our longterm goals. This simplistic flow established key points to focus on as a team and ensured that everyone understood the goal.
Liz represents the ideal group of users for Medicine Cabinet App. She’s a healthy young adult and feels comfortable using technology. Liz gives more insight about our users and serves as a visual representation of our target market data.
By representing our user group she influences the design of Medicine Cabinet App by reminding us of their behaviors, goals, and background.
Liz’s journey begins with the onset of symptoms and ends with her making a purchase. There were two phases in Liz’s journey and within these phases there were several pain points experienced by the users. The two phases in Liz’s journey include:
Phase 1: Research. Our participants revealed they either google their symptoms or reach out to a healthcare professional for advice.
Phase 2: Shopping. Once our participants found their desired OTC drug, they were now presented with several other options. These options ranged in package size, price, brand vs. generic, dosage strength, and dosage form.
The journey map reflects the user’s thought processes that led to the decision of what to purchase. I added a journey map for Medicine Cabinet App above Liz’s journey to show how the app can play a direct impact in the users life. This visual representation of both the user and the product shows opportunities where we can deliver a positive experience for the user.