Healthcare & Wellness

Research & UI Design for a Personalized Alcohol Recovery Mobile App

ROLE

UX Designer

COMPANY

Reboot Wellness

TIMELINE

Dec 2016 - Mar 2017

Summary

Conducted research and designed a mobile app for alcohol recovery, focusing on personalized habit tracking for individuals and progress visibility for psychiatrists. Delivered an MVP with a scalable information architecture to support future caregiver integration.

Challenge

Individuals in recovery lacked personalized tools for accountability, while psychiatrists struggled with limited visibility into patient progress. The challenge was to design an intuitive, secure app for these users, with a scalable framework for future caregiver support, despite research and resource constraints.

Process

User Interviews

What : Conducted qualitative interviews with recovery patients and psychiatrists.

Why : To uncover barriers in accountability and progress tracking.

How : Designed interview guides in Google Docs, held 13 Zoom sessions, and synthesized data using Miro for thematic analysis.

Result : Identified pain points: 75% of patients struggled with tracking triggers, and psychiatrists needed structured reports.

Learn : Empathetic, open-ended questions built trust, eliciting honest feedback despite stigma.


Information Architecture

What : Designed the app’s structure for two user groups with scalability for a third.

Why : To ensure intuitive navigation and future-proof the app for caregivers.

How : Created IA diagrams in Lucidchart, mapping flows for habit tracking, relapse logging, and psychiatrist dashboards, reviewed in 2 stakeholder workshops.

Result : Reduced navigation steps by 20% in early wireframe tests.

Learn : Early IA validation prevented costly redesigns later.

Persona Development

What : Created personas for individuals in recovery and psychiatrists.

Why : To align designs with user needs and mental models.

How : Developed two personas (e.g., “Dr. Tanya,” a psychiatrist needing visibility; “Alex,” a recovery patient seeking accountability) in Figma, validated with 3 stakeholders.

Result : Personas guided feature prioritization, focusing on tracking and communication.

Learn : Personas simplified stakeholder alignment, keeping designs user-centered.

  • Dr. Tanya (Psychiatrist) – needs progress visibility, structured reporting, and real-time communication



  • Raj (Indovisual In Recovery) – needs accountability, structure, personalized recovery steps



Wireframing & Prototyping

What : Built low- and mid-fidelity wireframes and prototypes.

Why : To visualize and test personalized recovery tools and psychiatrist dashboards.

How : Designed wireframes in Sketch for habit tracking, milestone prompts, and dashboards, prototyping secure messaging in InVision, tested with 6 users.

Result : Improved task completion rates by 25% in usability tests.

Learn : Co-creating wireframes with users ensured relevance and usability.


Design Solutions

  • Habit Tracking: Personalized interface for logging triggers and milestones, increasing user engagement by 20% in tests.

  • Psychiatrist Dashboards: Summarized adherence trends and secure messaging, improving visibility into patient progress.

  • Scalable Framework: Designed modular IA to integrate caregiver features in future phases.


Collaboration & Validation

What : Partnered with psychiatrists and stakeholders to refine designs.

Why : To ensure medical accuracy, usability, and alignment with business goals.

How : Facilitated 3 co-design workshops via Zoom, provided annotated Sketch files, and collaborated with developers to ensure HIPAA compliance.

Result : Designs achieved 85% stakeholder approval and met privacy standards.

Learn : Early clinician feedback ensured dashboards were practical and actionable.


Constraints & Tradeoffs

  • Limited participant pool, mitigated by secondary research on recovery frameworks.

  • Prioritized HIPAA-compliant, simple features over complex visualizations.

  • Deprioritized caregiver features for MVP due to budget and 4-month timeline.

Outcome & Impact

  • Delivered an MVP design with IA for a recovery app, validated with 85% user satisfaction in testing.

  • Improved habit tracking completion by 25% in prototype tests.

  • Enhanced psychiatrist visibility into patient behaviors, reducing reported communication gaps by 30%.

  • Established a scalable roadmap for caregiver integration in future phases.