UX/UI Project: MY MIGRAINE DIARY

1. Homepage

• Challenge: Sophia would like to log her attacks during the episode itself to not forget details, but the apps tried so far confuse her with too many questions, make her impatient, are too bright, or use disturbing colors like red.
• Opportunity: A clean, intuitive homepage with a clear call to action (CTA) that allows users to log a new attack in just a few taps. A color palette that evokes calm and relaxation, avoiding harsh tones like red, fuchsia, or orange.

2. Light sensitivity

• Challenge: Light sensitivity is a common issue experienced by many migraine sufferers.
• Opportunity: To solve this problem, I introduced a light-dark mode toggle directly on the homepage. This feature allows users to easily switch to a darker interface, helping to reduce eye strain.

3. ‘Add new migraine attack’ flow

• Challenge: Recording a new attack can easily become overwhelming due to the excessive number of questions and the difficulty of formulating them in a simple and intuitive way.
• Opportunities:
  • Implement a clear progress indicator at the top of the ‘add attack’ process. This will provide users with a constant sense of where they are in the flow and how many steps remain. (Jakob Nielsen’s heuristic of Visibility of system status.)
  • Add links or buttons as ‘Skip’, ‘No idea’, ‘Next’, ‘Save’. (Jakob Nielsen’s heuristic of Freedom and control.)
  • After the user has recorded a few attack instances, the app should begin to intelligently identify patterns and proactively surface personalized suggestions for ‘My medications’ and ‘My triggers’ within the ‘add attack’ flow. (Alan Cooper’s heuristic of Software should be interested in me – Personalize and Customize information.)
  • Within the ‘Add notes’ section, provide users with helpful suggestions.

4. Accessibility

The EAA is a European Union (EU) directive (2019/882) that aims to harmonize accessibility requirements for a wide range of products and services, including mobile applications, across EU member states. The EAA requires that covered products and services are perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust (POUR).

• Challenges:
  • Ensuring perceivability: information available through different senses (e.g., text alternatives for icons, sufficient color contrast – crucial for users with light sensitivity which can be triggered by migraines).
  • Supporting operability: Users might experience motor difficulties during a migraine, making typing or interacting with small UI elements difficult.
  • Maintaining understandability: Using clear, simple language and ensuring consistent navigation can be difficult when addressing complex medical or health information.
  • Achieving robustness: Making sure the application works seamlessly with a range of assistive technologies (e.g., screen readers) requires thorough development and testing across different platforms and tools.
• Opportunities:
  • Implementing text alternatives and high-contrast options improves accessibility for all users, not just those with disabilities.
  • Introducing a voice dictation option at the end of the “add a new attack” flow would allow users to easily record notes about symptoms, triggers, or medications without typing — an essential alternative when fine motor skills are impaired, such as during a migraine. Even users without motor difficulties would benefit from a faster, more convenient way to add detailed information, enhancing the overall user experience.
  • Using simple language and clear navigation will make the app easier and faster for everyone to use, improving user satisfaction.
  • Ensuring compatibility with assistive technologies like screen readers.

5. Simplifying Time Input for Migraine Logs

• Challenge: It’s often hard to remember the exact time when the attack started. This is especially a problem if it begins at night, when time gets confusing.
• Opportunity: To solve this problem of uncertain times, we could offer users a choice between general times of the day: morning, afternoon, evening, and night. Plus, we’d give them the option to write down the exact time if they remember it. To avoid confusion, the parts of the day that haven’t happened yet would be shown in grey. For example, if the attack started at night and it’s still morning, they wouldn’t be able to choose afternoon and evening.

6. User-friendly end attack options

• Challenge: Sophia found it confusing when the app asked her to specify when her migraine attack ended, especially since she was still in pain and couldn’t easily indicate that the attack was ongoing. Furthermore, once she managed to log that the attack was still happening, the app overwhelmed her with repeated notifications asking if it had ended, which caused her anxiety.
• Opportunity: To address this, after the initial question about when the attack started, I will introduce a new page asking: ‘Is the attack already ended?’ This will provide a clear way for users to indicate if the pain is still present. Additionally, I will add a secondary ‘End Attack’ button to the homepage for easy access when the user knows the attack has finished. Below this button, I will include a link to ‘Customize Notifications’ that will allow users to personalize how often they receive reminders asking, in an empathetic and reassuring tone, if their attack has ended, avoiding the anxiety-inducing experience Sophia encountered.