Date of Award
June 2019
Degree Type
Thesis
Department
Design
Advisor(s)
Kendall R. Phillips
Keywords
Application, Autoimmune Disorders, mHealth, Mobile, Pain, Report
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities
Abstract
Many mobile applications on the market can help patients record symptoms and progression of their illnesses, and among them, many help to document autoimmune disorders. In this article, I've used the content analysis method to analyze the existing relevant apps in the Apple App Store. My results reveal an important design gap, in that there is almost no app that allows patients to communicate with their doctors in a timely manner and accurately record their week to week, month to month medical condition. This article presents the smartphone app I developed based on the iOS operating system to fill this gap, allowing patients to journal about their pain conditions in real time, communicate with doctors online, and generate personalized custom reports. In developing this app, I designed a series of user interface prototypes as my idea evolved. I also surveyed physicians and used their feedback to modify my design and give it further theoretical support. Then I conducted usability testing with participants who have undiagnosed chronic pain or autoimmune disorders. I found that this app improved doctor/patient communication and allowed patients to be more anatomically accurate as to the source of their pain when recording their condition.
My design strives to make up for market vacancies and cater to user needs. Through three generations of prototyping, communicating with professionals and conducting effective user testing, I arrived at a final design prototype. This project aims to contribute to the healthcare field by bringing new design inspiration to user experience and user interface design.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Deng, Yun, "Diagnostic mHealth for Autoimmune Disorders" (2019). Theses - ALL. 363.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/363
