Priyanshi Parekh Designs
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SugarLOG: Empowering Diabetics to Take Control 🍎
Introduction: Embracing Health Through Technology
SugarLOG is a user-centric app designed to support individuals with diabetes in managing their condition more effectively. The app’s mission is to provide users with comprehensive tools to track their sugar intake, maintain a balanced diet, and access expert help, ultimately giving them control over their health and their future.
The Challenge: Managing Diabetes in Everyday Life
Diabetes management is a daily challenge for many individuals. The goal of SugarLOG is to simplify this process by providing a suite of features that address common pain points in managing blood sugar levels and overall health. The app aims to make tracking sugar intake, monitoring calorie consumption, and accessing medical advice as effortless as possible.
"Diabetic patients who need to control their diabetes and want to keep track of their sugar intake often feel frustrated by the complexity of current management tools and are looking for a simpler, more intuitive solution."
Research and Insights: Understanding User Needs
To create an effective solution, the team conducted in-depth user research focusing on the challenges and needs of individuals managing diabetes:
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User Interviews: Conducted with 10 individuals living with diabetes to understand their daily struggles and needs.
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Surveys: Distributed to 100 participants to gather broader insights into the common challenges faced in diabetes management.
Key Insights
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Tracking Difficulties: Users find it challenging to accurately track sugar and calorie intake due to the complexity and time required by existing tools.
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Need for Reminders: Users often forget to take medication or monitor their blood sugar levels regularly, leading to inconsistent management.
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Desire for Simplicity: Users prefer an intuitive interface that reduces the cognitive load associated with diabetes management.




Solution: SugarLOG’s Comprehensive Approach
Based on these insights, SugarLOG was developed to provide a simplified and intuitive experience for managing diabetes.
Core Features
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Sugar and Calorie Tracker: Allows users to log their daily sugar and calorie intake easily.
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Physical Activity Monitor: Tracks the user’s physical activities and integrates this data with their dietary information.
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Medication Reminders: Provides timely reminders for taking medication and checking blood sugar levels.
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Expert Help via Chatbot: Includes a chatbot that offers live support from healthcare professionals, providing personalized advice and guidance.
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Package Meal Scanner: Users can scan packaged meals to automatically log their sugar and calorie intake.
Designing the Experience: The Process
1. Empathize
The design journey began by understanding the users’ experiences, needs, and pain points through user interviews and empathy mapping.
2. Define
In this stage, the problem was clearly defined: "How might we create a simple and intuitive interface that allows diabetic patients to easily track their sugar intake and improve their ability to manage their diabetes?"
3. Ideate
Brainstorming sessions were held to generate creative solutions to the defined problem. Various ideas were explored, including innovative tracking methods, reminder systems, and interactive features.
4. Prototype
Low-fidelity prototypes were created to visualize the design solutions. These prototypes focused on:
User Flow: Mapping out how users would navigate through the app and use its features.
Interface Design: Developing the layout and visual elements to ensure usability and accessibility.
5. Test
The prototypes were tested with real users to gather feedback and refine the design. Testing focused on usability, clarity, and the effectiveness of the core features.



Overcoming Challenges: Enhancing the Design
Throughout the design process, several challenges were addressed:
Challenge 1: Ensuring the tracker was comprehensive yet easy to use.
Solution: Designed a simplified logging system with quick entry options and pre-filled data for common foods.
Challenge 2: Making reminders both effective and unobtrusive.
Solution: Developed a customizable reminder system that allows users to set their own notification preferences.
Final Design: User-Centric and Intuitive
The final design of SugarLOG integrates all the essential features into a cohesive and user-friendly interface



Outcome and Impact: User Testing and Feedback
The user testing phase provided valuable insights and confirmed the effectiveness of SugarLOG's design.
User Testing Methods
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Scenario-Based Testing: Users were given specific scenarios to perform using the app to assess usability and feature functionality.
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Feedback Collection: Surveys and interviews were used to gather detailed feedback on user experience and app performance.




Results Achieved
Great UI: Users appreciated the easy navigation, interactive design, and minimalistic text, which made the app user-friendly.
Confusion with Reminders: Some users found the reminder feature unclear regarding whether it was for specific days or daily. This feedback led to refinements in the reminder setup process.
Positive Reception: Overall, users found the app’s navigation intuitive, and the features easy to find and use, contributing to a more manageable diabetes tracking experience.
Reflection and Learnings
Designing SugarLOG was a transformative experience that reinforced the importance of user-centered design in healthcare applications. The project highlighted the need for simplicity, clarity, and continuous feedback to create tools that genuinely improve users’ lives.
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