NYU Diabetes Journal
OVERVIEWNYU Diabetes Journal is a text messaging and journal program. It was created as part of a study that sought to test the efficacy of modern journaling vs the usual care that diabetes patients receive. Patients were asked a series of questions about their health and well-being over a period of 12 months via text messaging and would receive a summary of their responses in a monthly journal.
OBJECTIVEAssess the usefulness of a monthly diabetes journal for diabetes patients, and learn if text messaging is an easy way for them to track their condition.
KEY RESULTSLearn if diabetes patients value journaling as a tool to help them understand their condition
Learn the value of a text messaging program as a means of tracking their diabetes
ROLEProduct Designer, Product Strategy, User Research, User Experience
May 2019 - May 2020
The Users
The study focused on primary care providers and patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes. The study targeted social and economically disadvantaged patients due to the high prevalence of type 2 diabetes and related complications in this population. Conversations with providers and patients lead to discovering the following roadblocks:
Patients feel as though their lives are controlled by their blood sugar values.
Providers have a hard time determining what patients are actually doing in their everyday lives that is causing their blood sugar values to be out of control.
Patients do not think providers take a whole-person perspective to diabetes management (e.g., considering their emotional health).
The Process
Qualitative interviews and an iterative design process helped produce a journal that participants rated as easy to read, useful, and friendly.
DISCOVERIESPatients felt like four weeks was the right amount of time to get feedback on their progress.
Most participants felt like moving the insights adjacent to its corresponding row made the information feel important and gave them something to strive for.
Responses that spanned a 2-week time frame made the graphs difficult to interoperate, and participants preferred weekly and daily representations of their progress.
Final Design & Outcomes
Patients in the study had a 76% response rate to the text messages and 85% of patients rated the diabetes journal as very helpful for managing their type 2 diabetes.
