Team: 4 Human Factors Graduate Students
Role: Product Analysis, Design, and Testing
Location: San Jose, CA, United States
BACKGROUND
In 2016, approximately 2.1 million people suffered from substance use disorder with regards to prescription opioid drugs in the U.S. (NIH, 2018). According to the Genetics Home Reference from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, “drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death in
U.S. adults under age 50, and opioids account for more than half of all drug overdose deaths.”
With the purpose of contributing to the opioid epidemic, we created this app to assist with the initial process of recovery for people with opioid addiction that are seeking for help. On our app, we’ve incorporated a goal-based approach from cognitive behavioral therapy which is currently used for people recovering from addiction. Here, people can slowly, but surely, work on coping skills through the process of setting step-by-step, small, achievable goals that can turn into good progress if a consistent practice is carried out throughout a period of time. Distraction is another item we considered an important concept to include, especially for people who are in the early stages of recovery.
MAIN CHALLENGES
- Getting people going through this condition to talk to us about it was challenging, considering it’s such a sensitive topic.
- Finding a name for our app that was catchy, but positive and didn’t make people feel uncomfortable to have on their Home Screens.
AFTER TESTING OUR PRODUCT
After testing our product with users, we realized some important aspects we had to take into account.
Click on this link to preview our first version
1) We had first thought of adding rewards the more goals people completing where users could get gift cards for food from companies like Starbucks or McDonalds, but then some participants pointed out users could sell gift cards for money to get more drugs.
2) We changed some of the language used in some of our initial versions of the prototype to more personal language. For example: “Info” became “Help Me!”, “Games” became “Distract Me!” and “Goals” became “My Goals”.
3) Adding a calendar and graph for tracking improvement and goal achievement was important.
4) We included a section in the “Help Me!” page with a quick guide to addiction.
5) We had first thought of adding rewards the more goals people completing where users could get gift cards for food from companies like Starbucks or McDonalds, but then some participants pointed out users could sell gift cards for money to get more drugs.
6) Change “Distract Me” at the bottom menu to “My Activities”: Rather than having just the games, add all the activities that were previously only accessible through the My Goals screen when you made that activity your goal.
7) Limiting the number of goals to start by accomplishing three goals was a good way of guiding the user through this process of recovery without be so overwhelmed by a lot of goals, which in turn increases their chances of achievement.
LESSONS LEARNED
- The importance of doing user research on the target audience.
- Some ways of using technology to aid with a condition such as addiction.
- This is a Work In Progress that we’re still testing and perfecting.
- We will be running more usability testing with our target audience in the near future which will keep helping us improve our app.