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Hi, my name is Amanda 👋🏻
Dexcom Follow
Redesigning the Dexcom Follow app experience by working with Dexcom and the UCSD Design Lab's Diabetes Design Initiative (DDI).
Disclaimer: Specific details of this case study cannot be disclosed due to a non-disclosure agreement. However, you may feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss this project further!
You can also view additional project details on the DDI website.
Some logistics to know
My Roles
UX Researcher
UX/UI Designer
Tools
Figma
Miro
Zoom
Team
Amanda L.
Aaron T.
Austin L.
Lillian N.
Timeline
9 Weeks
Now... onto the good stuff with context!
Dexcom is a continuous glucose monitoring company that develops, manufactures, and distributes diabetes care technologies. With emerging diabetes innovations continuously spurring new design challenges, the Diabetes Design Initiative (DDI) at the UCSD Design Lab collaborates with Dexcom to make diabetes as invisible as possible through a human-centered approach in diabetes technology. In Spring of 2020, I was selected among a cohort of 15 UCSD students to research and design for various diabetes problems, with my specific team focusing on redesigning the Dexcom Follow app experience.
What's this 'Follow' app, you say?!
Dexcom Follow is a customizable app that allows a person with diabetes to share their glucose data from their main Dexcom CGM device to their family and friends. Being able to follow and monitor your friend's or loved one's glucose levels helps both the sharer and the follower have greater peace of mind.
So, what's the goal?
Through a structured 9-week design sprint with team and mentor meetings, my team and I (Team 'Follow') focused on researching and redesigning the Dexcom Follow app to increase functionality and user engagement with the app.
'Follow' (pun intended) me through the design journey
We began by diving headfirst into research and compiling a competitive analysis of similar existing apps to Dexcom Follow. We then conducted user interviews with people with diabetes and caregivers to those with diabetes, most of whom were familiar with Dexcom's diabetes systems and products. These insights were compiled to present to our Dexcom and DDI mentors, where affinity mapping activities were conducted and led to additional secondary research with surveys and creations of personas.
Our findings led us to discover pain points for design opportunities. We decided to hone in on the parents/caregivers of younger children with Type 1 Diabetes, since that was found to be the largest demographic of Dexcom Follow users. We sought to redesign the Follow app in order to increase engagement among parents/caregivers in this target demographic, but while also maintaining the freedom and independence of younger children with diabetes as they grow older.
With this in mind, we ideated and sketched out wireframes. We continued iterating our designs until we developed an interactive clickable prototype that went through multiple rounds of user testing.
We then presented our final deliverables to a large audience over Zoom, consisting of DDI mentors and the other student design project teams, Dexcom mentors and employees, and people with diabetes. Our final results were met with positive responses and potential to be implemented into the Follow app!
And finally, wrapping everything up with a reflection
Thoughts
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Great experience working on a design project with mentorship from real industry professionals!
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Worked through the COVID-19 pandemic—was a big adjustment to virtual learning
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The world of diabetes is HUGE. There is so much to know and learn—it's wise to prepare yourself, learn as much as you can, and ask lots of questions in order to develop better designs for this specific audience
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Felt like I grew immensely as a designer and researcher from this project
Next Steps
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Continue iteration on wireframes and prototype
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More user testing to gather user insights
Special Thanks
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DDI Mentor: Heidi R.
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Dexcom Mentors: Zander W., Charlotte B., and Alyson C.
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