Healthcare & Wellness

Designing Research-Backed UX Strategies for Medical Cannabis Care

COMPANY

The WHEEL Lab

ROLE

Lead UX Researcher & Designer - responsible for planning, conducting, and synthesizing research, and defining personas, journeys, and UX recommendations.

TIMELINE

Mar 2020 - Aug 2020

Summary

Led qualitative research with patients, caregivers, and clinicians to uncover the barriers in medical cannabis (MC) treatment. Developed personas, experience maps, and UX recommendations to improve adherence, patient-provider communication, and overall care outcomes.

Context/Background

Accessing healthcare that feels clear, consistent, and supportive is something many patients take for granted. For medical cannabis users, however, the absence of structured treatment guidelines creates confusion, stigma, and inconsistent health outcomes. This project, commissioned by a healthcare organization, aimed to elevate patient voices and create evidence-based UX strategies to support safe and effective MC treatment.

Challenge

Despite wider acceptance of medical cannabis, both patients and clinicians face barriers that reduce treatment effectiveness:

  • Confusion about dosage & interactions due to lack of clinically verified information.

  • Low adherence to treatment regimens (multiple strains, intake methods, and timing).

  • Limited patient-provider communication without structured symptom tracking.

  • Stigma & legal concerns discouraging open dialogue.

Scope:

  • Lead user research and discovery

  • Define user needs, pain points, and mental models

  • Provide insights and actionable recommendations for future UX and content strategy

Constraints:

  • Regulatory compliance (HIPAA & data privacy)

  • Medical accuracy (verified by clinical experts)

  • Limited existing research on MC adherence, requiring original qualitative insights

  • Sensitive subject matter (stigma, legality), requiring trust-building with participants

Research & Discovery

Research Planning: Collaborated with clinical advisors to define objectives and ensure regulatory compliance (HIPAA). Developed sensitive, semi-structured interview guides.

  • Recruitment: 15 participants across 3 groups — MC patients, caregivers, and clinicians.

  • Key Questions:

    • How do patients determine the right dosage and routine?

    • What challenges do they face in symptom tracking?

    • How do they communicate with providers?

    • What tools or methods do they use today, and where do they fall short?

Process

  • Primary Research: Conducted qualitative interviews uncovering gaps in adherence, education, and communication.

  • Personas: I developed three personas to reflect key user groups:

  • Unmoderated User: Self-explores cannabis without clinician guidance

  • Self-Moderated User: Uses personal tracking tools and informal research

  • Clinician-Supervised User: Works closely with their healthcare provider

Type 1: Unmoderated User: Self-explores cannabis without clinician guidance.


Type 2: Self-Moderated User: Uses personal tracking methods for dosage


Type 3: Clinician-Supervised User: Works closely with a doctor for MC management



  • Experience Mapping: Visualized end-to-end journeys across onboarding, daily tracking, and follow-up care.

    Pain Points: Information overload, difficulty recording/interpreting symptoms, limited provider feedback.



  • Task Flows & Prioritization:

    • Symptom Tracking: Dashboards to visualize progress.

    • Dosage Management: Simplified intake logging by strain, form, and time.

    • Provider Communication: Structured, easy-to-read reports for consultations.


Design Solution

  • Introduce guided onboarding flows with educational content to reduce confusion.

  • Create intuitive tracking tools with simple dashboards and automated summaries.

  • Develop secure, shareable reports for patient-provider discussions.

  • Use stigma-sensitive language and interfaces that emphasize support and safety.

Constraints & Trade-offs

  • Regulatory compliance (HIPAA, data privacy) limited what could be logged/stored.

  • Sensitive subject matter required careful trust-building with participants.

  • Limited prior research in this space meant starting from qualitative insights.

Collaboration

Partnered with clinical experts to validate findings and ensure medical accuracy. Worked with content strategists to explore tone, terminology, and adherence-focused UX recommendations.

Outcome & Impact

Tangible Results

  • Developed research-backed UX flows and prototypes for a responsive medication tracker.

  • Conducted participatory design sessions with patients & clinicians to validate concepts.

  • Co-authored a research paper on MC usability and patient behavior (in progress)

Reflection / Learnings

This project showed the importance of designing with sensitivity when working on stigmatized healthcare topics. I learned how trust, empathy, and evidence-based research can directly shape digital tools that improve adherence and reduce barriers to care.