Case Study: A

Medication Reminder
App
 Abstract

 This project presents a Medicine Reminder App prototype. The main purpose of
this system is to help the patients, primarily seniors, take their medications on
time in an easy way without the possibility of missing pills. This app also reduces
the risk of over or under dosing accidentally. Not taking medications correctly can
have serious consequences such as delayed recovery, illness and even death. The
Medication Reminder App could solve such problems by informing and alerting
the patients to take the appropriate dose at the right time. The alarm can be set for
multiple medicines and timings including date, time and medicine description. A
notification will be sent to them through an alert or message inside the system
preferably chosen by the patients
 Objectives
 Create a basic, easy-to-use app so that users don’t forget their medicine schedules
and prescriptions, easily link with their doctors, and can be directed through the
app by their loved ones if necessary.
Main objectives
 To remind the elderly about taking their prescribed medicines or pills within the
stipulated time as prescribed by a doctor.
 Ensure the elderly adhere to their prescriptions and reduce prescription errors.
 To use an alarm ringing system in making the remembrance in order to make
patients stay healthy and fit.
 Link the elderly to their doctors, family members or caregivers for monitoring.
User Research

 Our research began with a series of inquiries directed at the elderly in our society,
their family members and caregivers to have a better understanding of their issues
and demands in remembering their routines. The purpose of this study was to gain
a better understanding of these individuals and their needs, as well as to put them
at the center of our design process and product. We gathered information through
one-on-one interviews in order to learn more about these people and the issues
they confront.
 The key findings:

 Users prefer to keep track of their medication regimens or appointments.

 Users want their devices or apps to be simple to use.
 Users want to manage and keep track of their loved ones’ schedules.
Scenarios

 User scenarios are detailed descriptions of a user – typically a persona – that describe 
realistic situations relevant to the design of a solution. By painting a “rich picture” of
a set of events, teams can appreciate user interactions in context, helping them to
understand the practical needs and behaviors of users.We got these scenarios from our
research
 Scenario 1
 Mary Muthoni is a 60-year’s old retired teacher who lives in Mombasa Bamburi area.
She takes three medicine a day for the last 5 years that includes blood pressure,
diabetes and arthritis medicines. Sometimes she forgets to take her daily medicines
because of her memory loss. Her blood pressure goes up if she misses her daily
medicines and lacks energy. Her daughter Jane lives away from her but both
communicate through smartphone. Jane is finding a way to track her mother’s
medicine schedule and remind her on specific times to take her medicine.
 Scenario 2.
James Mwangi is a 30 years old self-employed shop owner who lives in Mombasa
Mtwapa area. He is married with no children and has a profitable business. He also
has four brothers and takes care of his father after a stroke while helping him out
financially. As a busy person, James is usually caught up with work finds it hard to
check on whether his dad has taken his medicine on time or the right dosage.

 Scenario 3.
Wesley Rono is a retired body builder who lives in Mombasa Tudor area. He has
Congestive Heart Failure for the past 3 years and is a frequent healthcare user. He
also has high blood pressure and high cholesterol. He is currently undergoing a
clinical trial recommended by his healthcare provider for a new drug that will help
him handle his condition better. The clinical trial team wants him to keep them
updated about his dosage and appointments.
Users of the Medicine Reminder App

 The elderly- The elderly are the main users of the app. They will use the
reminders to ensure they strictly adhere to their medical schedules.
 Caregivers – Care givers can also use the app to administer medication to the
elderly in the event that the elderly are too weak.
 Family members – Distant and busy family members can use the app to track
whether their loved one has taken medication in time when away
 Doctors – Doctors can also monitor medicine intake and contact the patient to
make changes to their schedules when necessary.
 Functional and Non-Functional
requirements
 Functional Requirements: 
 The application contains various processes, namely Registration and Database.
 1.Registration
 Sign up: The Application enables the user to register details in the application e.g. Name, Age, Mobile Phone number, Email.
 Login Process: Once the user sign’s up, they will be able to Login to the application
 Input Medical details: The user will fill in details of the medication they are taking and frequencies
 Set Alarms: The user sets alarms based on different time frames from their prescribed medications
 Edit profile: The user can edit his profile/ medical details they already inputted.
 Report Generation: The app generates a report on the user regarding various information like patient’s name, Phone number, type of
illness.
 Log out Process: The user logs out once done

 2. Database
 ● Mandatory User Information: Every User has some necessary data like phone number, their first and last name, postal code,
country, address, city, 'patient's phone number, Next of Kin Phone Number etc.
 ● Updating information of the Patient: Users update their information as described in the mandatory information included.
 Non-Functional Requirements 
The application contains various processes, namely User Interface, Security, Performance, Maintainability, and
Reliability

1. User Interface
 Simplicity: User Interface design should be simple with a low number of mouse clicks and keystrokes.
 Intuitiveness: The user interface should be easy to learn so that user can pick it up quickly and easily.
 Prevention: The user interface should prevent users from performing an in-appropriate task by disabling or
“graying cut” certain elements under certain conditions.
 Usability - The app should be easy to use for all users.

2. Security
 Logon ID: Any users who make use of the application needs to hold a Logon ID and password.
 Modifications: Any modifications like insert, delete, update, etc. for the database can be synchronized quickly
and executed only by the user.

3. Performance
 Response Time: The app should provide acknowledgment in just one second once the 'patient's information is
checked.
4. Maintainability: 
 Back-Up: The system should offer efficiency for data backup.
 Errors: The app should track errors as well as keep a log of them. 

5. Reliability
 Availability: The app should be available all the time. 
 Scalability: The apps response time shouldn’t be affected by higher workloads.
Design Personas

 We came up with these proto-personas, or names, based on the research findings

from the user interview. These personas would be crucial to the rest of the design
process. All design decisions will be assessed and reevaluated using these
personas, keeping the user and their perspective in mind
Persona 1
Persona 2
Persona 3
Use cases
We started thinking about how the user would use the product after developing my
personas. Working from their point of view, we designed a user flow to show how the
user might interact with the product.

 Use case for medicine reminder app: The users can use the app to add medicine
and set reminders. Once a reminder is set, an alarm will ring to remind them it’s
time to take their medicine. An alarm will also ring to remind them of doctor
appointments. In this case, the app must be able to add medicine, set alarms, and
communicate with the doctors, family members or caregivers. 
 System: Medication Reminder App
 Primary actor: The Elderly on Medication, Family members to the Elderly,
Doctor, or Caregivers
Scenario1:
 The user (The Elderly) launches the app, they will be prompted to login/signup. After
login in, they will get to the home screen which has Four tabs, Medicine, Account,
View Appointments and Parental. Under the medicine tab, the user can add medicine
and set reminders, or edit medicine and edit reminder. Once done with the dosage,
the User (The Elderly) can use the delete medicine tab to stop the reminders. The
User can also view appointments under the appointments tab.
Scenario2:
 The user (The Family Member/Caregiver) launches the app, they will be prompted to
login/signup. After login in, they will get to the home screen which has Four tabs,
Medicine, Account, View Appointments and Parental. Under the parental tab, the user
can link to their loved one’s account (The elderly) using a unique system generated
parental code. Once linked, the user can use the monitored account option to add
medicine and set reminders, or edit medicine and edit reminder. Once done with the
dosage, the User (The Family Member/Caregiver) can use the delete medicine tab to
stop the reminders. The User (The Family Member/Caregiver) can also view
appointments under the View appointments tab.
Scenario3:

 The user (The Doctor) launches the app, they will be prompted to login/signup.
After login in, they will get to the home screen which has three tabs, Medicine,
Account and Parental. Under the parental tab, the user can link to their patients
account (The elderly) using a unique system generated parental code. Once
linked, the doctor can use the doctors account option to set appointments and view
appointments. The doctor can also use the monitored account option to add
medicine and set reminders, or edit medicine and reminders incase the patient
lives alone with no family member or care givers.
Use Case Diagram
LOW-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
Then came the exciting phase of creating screens! We started out with paper sketching. And of course, I
went through a few iterations before doing the lofi wireframes. We prefered drawing on paper because we
didn’t have to worry about exact looks, alignment, and we could easily throw it aside and start over.
MEDIUM-FIDELITY PROTOTYPES - SKETCH WIREFRAMES
Once we had an idea of what the main screens will look like, we designed Sketch Wireframes using Balsamiq.