Mixed-Methods Research: Health and Wearables

Summary of My Role

I co-led a mixed-methods health and wellness research project for a major smartphone manufacturer that evolved from broad exploratory work into focused product development. Working with a team of three researchers, we conducted multiple research phases over several months, ultimately leading to the development and testing of a new medication management feature at the operating system level based on what we uncovered in the initial exploratory testing.

Research Objectives:

Understanding Personal Health Journeys Explore how different people define and pursue wellness, and how technology fits into their health management strategies.

Identifying Technology Opportunities Discover areas where smartphone and smartwatch features could meaningfully support users' health and wellness goals.

Testing and Validating Solutions Validate specific features through both user testing and healthcare provider input to ensure viability and value.

Strategic Planning Develop a framework for engaging different health mindsets, from health-curious to health-competent users.

Research Activities

1. Initial Research Phase Started with 500 potential participants on Dscout, carefully selecting 50 for in-depth interviews based on balanced representation across demographics, device usage, and health approaches. From these, we identified 30 participants for a 2-week diary study.
2. Quantitative Validation Executed a survey with 1,000 users across the US to validate our qualitative findings and learn more about our emerging user segments.
3. Prototype Testing Conducted a 3-week diary study with 100 users testing a beta version of a medication management feature, requiring users to install a special OS version.
4. Healthcare Provider Research Interviewed doctors, nurses, and pharmacists about patient medication management, focusing particularly on how they would want patients to share health data during consultations.

Project Challenges:

Key Contributions

Health Mindset Framework

Developed a sophisticated understanding of different health mindsets - from health-curious to health-competent - and how these mindsets influence feature adoption and usage.

Strategic Implementation Roadmap

Created a 5-year plan that mapped how to:

• Increase awareness for health-curious users
• Highlight correlations between actions and health outcomes
• Develop productive interventions for different user groups
• Curate appropriate guidance based on user readiness

Healthcare Provider Integration

Gathered specific input from healthcare providers about how they want to receive patient data, ensuring the feature would work within real-world medical consultations rather than just adding to providers' information burden.

Want to know more? Shoot me an email at uxnoah@gmail.com, or schedule a time with me here.