SKIN app

Person holding a smartphone displaying an infection tracker app with a syringe icon.

Context

Pharmaceutical companies increasingly recognize that treatment effectiveness is influenced not only by medication but also by patient understanding, adherence, and communication with healthcare providers.

This project was initiated as an exploratory effort to design a patient companion application for individuals managing a skin condition. The goal was not diagnosis or clinical decision-making, but support, tracking, and shared understanding between patients and doctors.

The project operated under tight timelines and strict regulatory sensitivity, requiring careful abstraction and forward-looking technical planning.

The Process

Mobile phone displaying the AcroEngage app login screen with logo, login, and create account buttons.

01 / Problem Framing

Patients managing long-term treatments often struggle with:

  • Consistent tracking over time

  • Remembering subjective experiences such as pain, discomfort, or mood

  • Communicating progress clearly during medical follow-ups

  • Understanding whether changes are meaningful or incidental

At the same time, doctors lack longitudinal, patient-generated context and often rely on memory snapshots from short appointments.

The guiding question became:

How might we design a companion system that helps patients track their experience over time and enables clearer, data-informed conversations with their doctors?

Smartphone displaying a health app with a 'Symptom History' chart over the last 60 days, showing symptom levels for Headaches, Body Aches, and Join Pain, with options to Edit, Close, or Cancel.

02 / Approach

Exploratory Research and Concept Definition
I led early research to understand:

  • Patient behaviors around treatment adherence

  • Emotional and physical factors influencing engagement

  • Opportunities for technology to reduce cognitive and emotional burden

This informed a companion-first mindset, focused on support rather than control.

Feature Strategy
The app concept centered on four core capabilities:

  • Treatment tracking
    Simple, low-friction tracking to help patients stay consistent

  • Visual progress monitoring
    Patients could capture images over time, building a visual history that AI could later analyze for change detection

  • Experience journaling
    Text and voice notes allowed patients to record mood, pain, and observations in their own words

  • Doctor sharing and follow-up support
    Patients could share summarized progress with their doctor ahead of appointments

The system was designed to accumulate meaningful longitudinal data, not isolated events.

AI Integration (Exploratory)
AI was planned as a supporting layer to:

  • Guide users in capturing consistent visual inputs

  • Detect changes over time across accumulated images

  • Surface patterns related to mood, pain, and progress

This was intentionally scoped as future-ready, acknowledging the novelty and regulatory sensitivity of AI in this space.

Mobile phone screen displaying an injection tracker app labeled 'Dashboard' with a graphic of a person and dates for today's and last injection, and buttons to save or cancel.

03 / Outcomes

Delivered a complete conceptual and UX foundation under tight deadlines

  • Prepared the product for technical feasibility discussions with the client’s development team

  • Established a scalable vision for AI-supported patient tracking

  • Demonstrated how UX can de-risk early-stage healthcare concepts before heavy investment

Although the project did not progress due to external delays, the strategy, structure, and system design were fully defined and owned by my UX team and me.

Why This Matters

These decisions balanced innovation with responsibility.

  • Companion, not clinician. The app supports patients without making medical claims.

  • Longitudinal over episodic data. Value emerges over time, not per interaction.

  • AI as augmentation. AI supports understanding but does not replace human judgment.

  • Privacy-aware abstraction. Design avoided unnecessary medical specificity.

A man and a woman, possibly a doctor or healthcare professional, sitting together in an office, looking at a smartphone. The woman is showing the phone screen to the man, and they seem to be discussing something related to health or medical information.

This project highlights
my ability to:

  • Operate responsibly in regulated, high-stakes domains

  • Design systems that connect patients, technology, and professionals

  • Lead exploratory initiatives where outcomes are uncertain

  • Integrate AI thoughtfully from the outset, not as an afterthought

  • Deliver under pressure while maintaining strategic clarity

It reinforces my focus on simplifying complex problems into scalable, human-centered systems.