FNDing Recovery
Health
Concept
Users have a journal
In a nutshell
Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) often present with physical symptoms similar to epilepsy, but are typically triggered by mental stress. This makes them difficult to diagnose and treat. Patients find it painful and difficult to talk about their seizures and triggers, which means doctors lack the consistent data they need to provide effective therapy.
Our challenge was to transform this emotionally charged process into something patients would feel okay about engaging with.
My Role
As part of the Ingenious Behavior team, an innovation lab within the Ingenious Agency, I got to participate in several aspects of this project:
Product Design
Behavioral Design
Identity
UX
UI
Design System
Prototype
An Ally
steps in
Behavioral Design Sprint
In a collaborative Behavioral Design Sprint with healthcare providers, we uncovered patient needs and identified the behavioral barriers that prevent consistent journaling.
We then developed a simple, dual-sided prototype called FNDing Recovery.
Patients can effortlessly track their progress by sharing an emoji status, a simple action that's easy to stick with and build upon. Only then are they prompted to share more details about how they're feeling. They also get support from "allies" who can react to their updates with encouragement, no confusing words, just a simple reaction.
Meanwhile, a provider portal allows medical professionals to track patient entries, respond to them, and investigate potential triggers. The system highlights keywords in patient entries, helping providers spot patterns. When a keyword repeats, a provider can ask the patient to clarify its meaning, helping them dig deeper into what might be causing seizures.
Finally, we gathered feedback from both patients and providers to refine the prototype, ensuring it met both emotional and functional needs.
Doctors learn & guide
A key contribution
In an effort to lower the emotional friction of getting patients to engage with their report I introduced a super simple and familiar pattern for sharing how we feel, by simply selecting an emoji.
This feature is based on a simple behavioral principle often called “Foot in the door”, where in order to gain another person’s trust, you make the first interaction/request as minimal as possible. Only after they have agreed to interact, you’ll gradually be able to move forwards with a deeper kind of interaction.
Outcome
We successfully helped the client shape their vision into a functional prototype. This tool is now a tangible asset they can use to secure funding and move the project forward.
"Developing the clickable prototype with Ignacio and Marcelo was seamless and enjoyable. They were patient as our clinical team brainstormed their questions in real time over several meetings. They listened attentively to our ideas and the target population’s needs and were able to translate them into an interactive and engaging prototype. The prototype they created was not only visually appropriate, but successfully integrated features we requested making an intuitive patient and healthcare provider user experience."
Meagan Watson, MPH.
