Insurin
Ensuring confidence in insulin dependency
Problem: Imagine being 13 years old and being told your life has changed forever. Your new chronic condition impacts you physically, mentally and emotionally. Finger pricks, needles, worried parents and daily concerns about what seemed like normal choices to everyone else is your new daily routine. And what do you get? A couple of leaflets and an appointment in 6 months. Long, boring leaflets……. 80% of the NHS budget is spent on treating diabetes complications and this equals to 11.2 billion annually which can be spent elsewhere with better education and guidance.
Solution: The Insurin mobile app aims to help newly diagnosed diabetics manage their condition with confidence and without fear, ensuring that they will gain independence as they grow throughout their teenage years. The Insurin app will provide behavioral nudges alongside engaging, bitesize insights which are interactive and personalised according to the users needs. Enabling young people to become more engaged with their condition, potentially saving up to 11.2 billion within the NHS. This will provide an early intervention that enhances health and reduces strain on healthcare providers, freeing up time and resources across the NHS.
Discovery
Initial Research
Being a type 1 diabetic myself, I understood the condition well and have first hand experience of the physical, mental and emotional impacts of keeping your blood glucose levels within the correct range. However, my experience may differ to what thousands of other diabetics face. Therefore, I undertook both primary and secondary research.
I looked at already published data, carried out surveys with both type one diabetics and health professionals, alongside going to support groups. My main findings were:
- The mental and emotional impact was heavy for both the person living with diabetes and their parent.
- Parents worried about children when no they weren’t within their watch resulting in lack of independence for the child and increase stress for the parent.
- Children felt different to peers in school and when doing sport
- Fear of complications
- Fear of hypoglycemia
Target Audience
Below is a user persona of a person living with type one diabetes. This allowed me to understand who I’m creating the product for and what they want to get out of my application. Our target age range is early teens to young adults.
Empathy Maps & User Journeys
Below is an empathy map I created for my user persona of ‘Rebecca’. I also created user journeys to empathise with how my user may be feeling. These were a great referral point throughout the process if I ever lost focus upon who I’m solving this problem for.
Sketching & Wireframing
I explored different ways I could present information to my user, allowing me to iterate and come up with the best user centred solution. I then took my most effective concepts and turned them into wireframes to ensure they worked well on screen and interacted with each other well.
Testing my Wireframes
To test my wireframes I used Maze. This allowed user testing to be done by type 1 diabetics across the globe as all they need is a link. Maze provides the instructions for users to carry out the required tasks. Through user testing I was able to identify areas of the app which needed improved, this mainly consisted of renaming navigation items and taking on board users helpful suggestions for further features the app could have. One suggested feature included having the estimated glycemic index information added when logging a meal which I took on board.
Mockups
Check out my final prototype below:
Insurin Today
Insurin has been the recipient of the Belfast Business Idea Award, Belfast Telegraph Business Award and it has been the winner of Co-Founders by Catalyst. I have brought 3 co founders on board, each with a unique skill set to help make Insurin become a reality.
Insurin today is very different to what you see above. We have pinpointed the 3 main features needed for it to become a success and gain customers. I am now officially the founder and CEO of my own company and the Insurin MVP is currently under development. The branding has changed, the app has changed, however we are still targeting the same goals.
Here’s a sneak peak:
The app is currently being built for both iPhone and Android. We have formed partnerships with Diabetes UK and JDRF who are helping us hold focus groups and user testing sessions with our customers. We hope for Insurin to be released on the app store in Spring, 2023 to start transforming lives.
View our website: www.insurin.app
