Apple Health Seizure Detection and Response

An extension of the apple health app designed to detect and respond to seizures by contacting emergency services, contacts, and providing a set of tools and instructions to help bystanders within a certain radius of an event occurring.

Duration: 3.5 Months (Jan - May 2022)

My Role: User Experience Designer and Researcher

 

 PROBLEM STATEMENT

How can we utilize wearable technology to connect those in an emergency with the help they need?

 DESIGN PROCESS

 
 

DISCOVER

Comparitive Analysis

Made to find what is working well in the industry and areas of improvement, read the report here

Apps looked at:

  • Embrace Alert

  • Embrace Mate

  • SeizAlarm

  • Inspyre

Current State, Apple Health

Made note of current features and functionality within Apple’s Health App in order to insure a cohesive experience within the final solution.

Key Areas of Interest

  • Fall Detection - Apple’s system currently has the capability to alert registered contacts and call emergency services once a fall has been detected

  • Emergency Weather Alerts - Sends an alert to people based off of geographic location

  • Cycle Tracking - Keep track of significant events and symptoms organized by date in a calendar

In Depth Interviews

Interviewed 5 different college students one on one, following a semi-structured outline.

Key Findings

  • People want to help, they just do not know how

  • Many people think they would freeze in an emergency situation and wait for someone who is more qualified to help

  • Instinctually, people would call 911 first, prior to responding or helping someone in need

DEFINE

Empathy Mapping

Created based off of answers from the in depth interviews.

2 empathy maps made:

  • one for people who are unfamiliar with epilepsy,

  • another for people who are in the medical field or have experience dealing with seizures (displayed on the left)

User Personas

Persona_Kelly.png
Persona_Ricky.png
Persona_Elisa.png

Information Architecture

Made to organize structure of Apple’s health app in order to fit the new experience in.

DEVELOP

Storyboarding

Created to show user flows that could not fit into the information architecture (ex. an emergency alert)

Sketches

Based off of Apple’s cycle tracking, first exploration into redesigning the experience to fit the needs of some who has epilepsy or seizures.

 

Wire-framing

More in depth designing than the sketching to show more micro interactions and have something more to show users for testing.

DELIVER

A/B Testing

Survey given with 5 participants shown option A and 5 participants shown option B, followed by some questions on usability and likelyhood of the participant stepping in to help if shown this notification.

Notifies a bystander of an event occurring near them, then gives them the option to help

Notifies a bystander of an event occurring near them and provides instructions on how to help at the same time

Key Findings

  • More people likely to help when given option A

  • Most people would call 911 when given the option prior to reading the instructions and helping someone

Usability Testing

Walked through and interacted the wireframes with 5 different college students, following another semi-structured guide.

Key Findings

  • Adding symptoms split into generic symptoms and aura, most people found no need for the separation and were confused as to what aura is

  • Medication under widget called “Factors” caused confusion

  • Some language used throughout cycle tracking was found to be confusing and needed reworking

FINAL SOLUTION

Seizure Detection

  • Detected through Irregular Movements

  • Emergency Notification

  • 30 seconds no response > Bystander Notification Sent out and Emergency Services Contacted

Bystander Notification

  • Notifies Bystanders within a certain radius of a detected seizure

  • Provides bystander with instructions on how to help

Symptom Tracking

  • Keep track of events and symptoms

  • Detected seizures automatically tracked and can be edited