CUE

Inspiration

Our inspiration for the identity of this project is rooted in service animals. Similar to how service animals cue you when you’re going to experience symptoms or an episode, we hope that this app will serve as a more cost-effective alternative to the tools that chronic pain individuals use today. Our inspiration also comes from the lived experiences of our loved ones, as well as our sympathy and empathy for those seeking a solution.

What it does

CUE is an app that regulates, monitors, and tracks pain. It is meant to be paired to a theoretical device, “CUE IV,” which detects the electrical signal from nerve bundles when nociceptors are alerted. The app regulates medicinal intake and streamlines a person’s experience by automating the administration of medicine. Secondly, the app is a cost-effective approach to medicinal administration and curbs the possibility of opioid addiction.

How we built it

Our group utilized Figma design and Figma Make to create a well-thought-out user experience for people of all ages who suffer from chronic pain and use the app to regulate their medicine.  We primarily worked within Figma design to create wireframes, prototyping, components, and hi-fi frames. Figma was used primarily to create design elements such as the color palette, button and padding constraints, and other trivial aspects to help streamline the process. All animations and components were designed with the use of the variant function in the components.  Our process began with research regarding human senses and other apps that use biometrics and track results. Glucose monitors and insulin pumps were some of the main influences for our design. From that research, we then began working on mood boards and concepts to decipher the best path to take regarding sensory perception.  Ideations, mood boards, personas, and swot analysis. With all  information gathered and researched, we then built a strong narrative and identified the  problem and solution.  Our wireframes gave us a solid foundation for our ideas, and even though the end product ended up being completely different, this process gave us the space to workshop our ideas and germinate them into an efficient, digestible user experience.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into challenges in almost every aspect of our project, though our most prominent challenge was the function of our graphs. Throughout the app, there are several graphs that all individually mean something different. We had trouble defining each graph and what the functionality and style of each graph would be. We also realized that while we, as people creating this concept, may understand what the graph would be used for, other people may not when they first explore the app. This is the moment that we had to pivot and take a step back to consider other parts of the app. This realization led to the reconsideration of not only our graphs, but also our color hierarchy, functionality, and professionalism.  Secondly, Figma was a challenge to work with. It was a learning curve because of the specificity needed for prompts; it often gave us faulty outputs. However, it found its place in our process by streamlining our design constraints and elements.  

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As students, we’re proud of being able to accomplish this project in general. Though we face what we consider a disadvantage, as we don’t have a specified UX/UI curriculum aside from our one-off class, offered over the basics of UX/UI. Everything else we have used to contribute to this project has been self-taught or learned from extensive research. We are proud of ourselves and each other to be able to complete this project with our limited knowledge and limited support.

What we learned

We learned that in the future, user testing is very important in every stage of the project. Not only from our own perspective, but from fresh eyes with limited knowledge of the concept. It gives us better insight as to what may not have been communicated well, or if the concept is easily identifiable. We also learned that design constraints can elevate a project and make it so much more visually unified, and create a satisfying user experience. This entire process was trial and error of working within speculative design, designing an efficient user experience with data information, and learning how to communicate information visually, effectively, and clearly.

What's next for CUE

We hope that one day this technology might be available and that CUE will have its opportunity to make its debut into everyday life. For now, CUE will continue to act as a possibility for our (hopefully) near future.

Built With

• figma