Doseedoo

Responsive medication reminder app and website

Created as part of the Google UX Design Certificate

My role: I was responsible for the entire UX process — from research and user personas to wireframes, prototyping, usability testing, and final UI design.

Project Goal

Design an intuitive, responsive experience that helps users remember to take their medications, vitamins, and supplements at the right times—reducing forgetfulness, improving consistency, and supporting personal health goals across mobile and desktop environments.

Bridging the Gap in Daily Health Habits

Remembering to take medications, vitamins, and supplements is a daily challenge for many. This project aims to support health goals by making reminders seamless and reliable.

50%

of people with chronic conditions skip doses – poor adherence leads to worse outcomes and higher healthcare costs. (World Health Organization)

30%

improvement in adherence with digital reminders – apps and notifications help people stay consistent. (BMJ)

60%

of users want mobile tools to manage medications – strong demand for digital health support. (American Journal of Managed Care)

25%

fewer hospital visits with proper medication use – timely reminders can prevent serious complications. (Healthline)

Key Insights from Initial Research

We interviewed individuals who either take medications regularly or assist others in doing so. Some participants depend on medication for life-threatening or chronic conditions that require strict adherence, making timely intake essential to their health and well-being. Their responses helped us uncover patterns, challenges, and emotional triggers tied to medication routines.

💊 Most participants take medication daily and permanently – particularly those over 60. The frequency underscores the need for consistent, reliable reminders.

⏰ The most common system used is phone alarms – while effective, users express limitations like inflexibility or reliance on memory when alarms fail.

👨‍👩‍👧 Support systems are often personal – spouses or family members frequently serve as backup reminder systems.

🧓 Pensioned or retired users often manage better due to stable routines, but still value structured planning and notifications.

🩺 Some participants have conditions requiring strict timing, increasing pressure and emotional load when timing isn't followed precisely.

📉 When systems fail, adherence quickly drops – participants often miss doses if alarms are silenced, devices are unavailable, or routines are disrupted, revealing a lack of fallback strategies.

Understanding the user

These personas were created based on research and survey data. Each one reflects a common type of user with specific needs and routines around medication management.

The Routine Guardian

Emilio (72, Retired Engineer, Madrid)

Emilio’s life revolves around his medications. He follows a strict schedule and feels anxious when it’s disrupted. He hopes technology can help—but only if it’s reliable and easy to use.

The Family Health Coordinator

Daniela (49, Retired MBA, Bilbao)

Daniela manages medication for her whole family. With changing routines and multiple regimens, her paper system is no longer sustainable. She’s looking for a smarter, more efficient way to stay in control.

The On-the-Go Optimist

Camila (27, Logistics Supervisor, Seville)

Camila lives a busy life and often forgets her meds. She’s tried alarms and reminders, but nothing seems to stick. She wants a lightweight solution that doesn’t get in her way.

Understanding their journey

By tracing each persona’s routine around taking medications, vitamins, and supplements—and identifying their biggest challenges, stressors, and gaps—I uncovered clear opportunities to simplify their daily health habits and design solutions that genuinely support adherence and peace of mind.

Competitive Audit

I conducted a competitive audit of leading medication reminder apps and identified key strengths, weaknesses, and opportunity areas in the current landscape.

MyTherapy: Feature-rich with travel planning, appointment tracking, pharmacy info, and country-based medication databases. A reliable all-in-one solution, but visually bland and lacking personalization for dependents.
Medisafe: Similar to MyTherapy but adds caregiver invitations, categorized user profiles, and better context (e.g., why you’re taking a med). Offers appointment and refill reminders, but its interface is visually plain and can feel overwhelming.
Tom Pill Tracker: More visual approach using a cabinet-style layout with photos. The app feels nostalgic and user-friendly at a glance but lacks depth in features and looks outdated

Common gaps across competitors:

🖼 Lack of visually appealing or emotionally engaging design

🧴 No clear separation between medications, vitamins, and supplementslity

💊 Missing real-time pharmacy information or price comparisons

🔔 Identical, non-adaptive notification styles across all apps

Opportunities:

✅ Create visual and emotional clarity between different types of intake (medications vs. vitamins vs. supplements)
🎨 Design a more appealing, human-centered interface
📍 Integrate nearby pharmacy search and price-checking
🕒 Offer smarter time-sensitive features (e.g., reminders tied to meals or travel context)
💧 Support hydration tracking for travel or time-sensitive medications

Sitemap Overview

The sitemap outlines the initial core structure of the medication reminder app, providing a clear view of its main screens and navigational flow. It serves as a blueprint for organizing content and interactions, ensuring users can easily access key features such as finding discounts, viewing upcoming appointments, and staying on top of their medication schedule. This structure was designed to support a simple, intuitive experience, especially for users managing their health on a daily basis.

Wireframes

From Hand-Sketched Ideas to a Mobile-First Health Companion

After analyzing user routines, market gaps, and competitor limitations—such as overwhelming reminders, lack of clarity between medications and supplements, and disconnected caregiver tools—I began sketching early concepts by hand. Since initial research revealed that most users rely heavily on their phones and default to alarm-based reminders, a mobile-first approach was established from the start. These early ideas focused on designing an intuitive, emotionally supportive experience that fits naturally into users’ daily routines—starting with mobile, then scaling to other devices.

Once the most promising sketch concepts were identified, I translated them into digital wireframes. The goal was to build an experience that feels intuitive and human—supporting users like Emilio and Camila with clear navigation, minimal mental load, and thoughtful design cues that adapt to different routines and health needs.

Usability Testing, hi-fi mockups & Iteration

A usability study was conducted with high-fidelity wireframes to validate the core interaction flows and identify areas needing clearer guidance. Key insights from participant observations were used to inform improvements in button labeling, visual hierarchy, and interactive elements.

🚫 Users struggled to realize that the “Add new” button initiates creating a reminder → clearer indication on how to use the button needed

✏️ “Add new” copy was too generic and unclear for most users → copy should be tailored to clarify its functionty

🔍 Uncertainty about which elements on the home screen are clickable → provide clearer indications of clickable elements

❌ “Add new” menu icons were mistaken for checklist items due to the “X” symbols → clarify that these are icons, not checklist markers

Designing for Families and Larger Screens

While the design prioritized mobile use—based on users’ reliance on smartphones and alarm reminders—the research also highlighted that users managing medications for others, especially family members, often preferred using a desktop or larger screen. This made it essential to also develop responsive website wireframes, allowing for a more comfortable, organized, and efficient experience when handling multiple users and more complex schedules.

Addressing challenges

Most existing medication apps offer basic functionality to manage multiple users and long-term treatments—but they often overlook the emotional burden, daily complexity, and real-world routines involved. This project set out to improve those experiences through clearer organization, more human-centered reminders, and emotionally supportive design—helping users feel more confident and in control of their health.

1. Fragmented Tracking of Medications

People needed more than an alarm—they wanted to see their whole schedule of doses to plan their day and feel confident.

✅ Solution: The app displays a clear timeline of upcoming medications, helping users anticipate, stay consistent, and avoid missed doses.

2. Managing Multiple Users or Family Members

Users who weren’t tech-savvy struggled with overly complex or unclear app experiences.

✅ Solution: A low-friction interface with clear navigation, fast checkout, and simple login options made the app feel easy and accessible.

3. Disconnected Refill Experience

Users had to check multiple apps—one for reminders and another for their national health card—to know if a prescription was available or if they needed to book an appointment.

✅ Solution: The app syncs with the national health system to show what’s already on the user’s health card, paired with real-time stock alerts—reducing guesswork, delays, and unnecessary pharmacy visits.

4. Visual Overload and Poor Differentiation

Most apps don’t separate prescriptions, supplements, or vitamins, and many rely on long text lists that overwhelm users—especially those with low vision or limited tech experience.

✅ Solution: Medications are organized by type, and each one is paired with simple, friendly avatars and modern visuals—making it easier to identify and interact with every item at a glance

5. Lack of Expiry or Cost Awareness

Users often forgot when meds were close to expiring or didn’t know where to buy them affordably or nearby.

✅ Solution: The app alerts users when a medication’s expiration is approaching and provides pharmacy location tools and price comparisons—helping users act in advance and save money safely.

Test the prototype

Conclusion & Takeaways

Designing a medication reminder experience offered a deep dive into the emotional and practical dimensions of health management. Through user research, competitor analysis, wireframing, testing, and iteration, I explored how technology can better support consistency, peace of mind, and daily wellness—not just through functional reminders, but by integrating empathy and clarity into every interaction. This project reaffirmed that truly helpful digital tools are those that adapt to people’s real lives and remove unnecessary friction.

What I learned:

Empathy drives utility
The most effective features were those that acknowledged emotional stressors—like anxiety over missed doses or confusion from poor visual design—and addressed them with thoughtful, human-centered interactions.
Generic doesn’t work
“One-size-fits-all” solutions fail in health-related contexts. Users needed different notification types, display options, and family coordination tools to fit their unique routines and needs.
Simplicity is power
Reducing visual noise and clarifying key interactions (like “Add new” vs. checklist items) directly impacted user confidence and engagement, especially for non-tech-savvy individuals.
Visual differentiation matters
Grouping and visually distinguishing between medications, vitamins, and supplements improved comprehension, lowered cognitive load, and made the interface more trustworthy and approachable.
Cross-device support is essential
While most users relied on mobile, those managing multiple regimens valued the extra space and clarity offered by desktop interfaces—making responsive design a necessary layer of inclusivity.

Next steps:

Refine onboarding flows
Simplify the first-time user experience with contextual tooltips and guidance for setting up the first reminder or dependent profile.
Expand accessibility testing
Conduct further testing with users who have limited vision or dexterity to ensure contrast, navigation, and tap targets meet accessibility standards.
Implement smart notification logic
Integrate contextual triggers (e.g., “remind me after breakfast”) and adjust notifications based on missed patterns or skipped doses.
Design for edge cases
Explore additional use scenarios—such as travel mode, low connectivity, or multilingual households—to ensure the app remains supportive in varied contexts.

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