During the Ironhack Berlin bootcamp we were assigned a two-week solo project and asked to focus on one aspect of wellness that we considered important (backed up by user research). I chose to focus on offering support and guidance for older men navigating their cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Having had a lot of experience with cancer in my family it was meaningful for me to think about the way a digital product could offer additional support through the uncertainty and complexity of cancer diagnosis and treatment. After completing market research I chose to focus on supporting older men as there weren't many resources directed to them.

I asked: How might we offer ongoing support to patients going through cancer?

To begin with, I created a survey to try and glean insights into potential users behaviour and needs but interviews were really the key to finding deep qualitative data.

I interviewed both patients who have been through cancer and those that are still navigating their treatment. I also interviewed two doctors and an oncologist to get insights from the medical side.

It was a real challenge to limit the scope of my project and not try to solve everything (my affinity maps were dense with detail and information). Living with cancer is an all-encompassing experience with many impacts depending on the prognosis and treatment options. People have to make a lot of decisions while they’re grappling with their new reality and unfortunately often, mortality.

One of the interesting things I learned through the research phase was that there is a new trend to encourage cancer patients to take a holistic (obviously in addition to medical) approach to their care. The patients I spoke to also expressed that maintaining healthy habits helps them to feel less overwhelmed.

I initially thought I would design an app to help manage the appointment schedule and administrative side of care but the interviews and insights changed my direction to thinking more about supporting patients emotionally.

After a lot of empathy mapping, I decided to create two users because of the range of insights and number of use cases.

The first user, Tim, has recently received his diagnosis and treatment plan, he’s feeling pretty overwhelmed by everything and unsure of what to do with himself while he waits for treatment to start. His oncologist told him it’s important to care for all aspects of his well-being during this time (it’s always important but now more than ever).

The second user, Richard is recovering from recent surgery and feeling lost. He’s in some pain and discomfort and isn’t sure if this is normal or a concern. The surgeon was so vague about what to expect.

Cancer patients need support and resources to deal with their new reality and transition into treatment so they can better understand their diagnosis and establish healthy routines to support themselves through a difficult time.

By creating an app for cancer patients that offers resources to help them make sense of their diagnosis, a community to support them through their experience, and guides to assist with healthy lifestyle choices we will be offering additional support users currently lack.

We will know we have designed something that is useful and supportive when we see 15-25 patients aged 55-75 years consistently log activities and use the app throughout their treatment.

Based on the user research the goal for the design was to include:

• Ideas and routine support for healthy living and stress management
• A community feature where users can share stories about their treatment, experience, symptom management, etc so other users can feel less alone and hear in real terms what to expect. It’s important to note this section would be moderated and not an open forum to keep users safe from misinformation.
• A way to affirm users self-care routines through an achievements page that visualises the steps they’ve taken to look after themselves.

Due to the nature of the product and the user’s demographic, it felt important to design an app that was transparent, welcoming, and calming in its design

After establishing a look and feel I tested the moodboard with users of the target demographic to validate and iterate on some of the design decisions.

I also tested the flows through the app and the language to make sure I was on track to creating something that is usable and clear.

The essential user flow is as follows:

• Our user, Richard has been recently discharged from the hospital and is now back home recovering from his surgery.
• A couple of days pass and he’s starting to feel lost. He’s in some pain and discomfort and isn’t sure if this is normal or a concern.
• He remembers he downloaded 'Doing Well' as a tool for cancer and lifestyle support.
• He opens the app and looks around for something to do. He decides to take a guided breath with the meditation section and veiws his recent achievements.
• He then opens the 'Support' page and searches for people's experiences with the surgery he recently had. He finds a thread of other patients recovering from his surgery and feels less alone.

This project was a huge learning curve for me - designing a mobile app alone from scratch was a big but exciting task. If I had more time I would consider the following:

• Further research into self-care sections
• Better integration of the profile and how users can customise their accounts
• Adding the glossary section
• Further research into symptom tracking and a planning feature
• Much broader user testing