September ‘24 to March ‘25
Project Overview
Methods
So easy, your grandma can use it!
For our senior design project, my team and I were tasked with translating Rx Studio’s pharmacological model into a patient facing application. We took their platform meant for doctors and medical professionals and translated it into something everyone can understand, even those who aren’t necessarily “tech savvy.”
Creating a Timeline
As the project manager, I was responsible for managing the project timeline. I followed agile methodology, and utilized two week sprints to plan deliverable cycles. I did my best to ensure we would be able to present something we could be proud of at our final showcase.
Engineering our Requirements
Meeting with Sponsors
Before we could start designing the application, we had to understand what exactly the sponsor’s were looking for. As such, we held multiple elicitation sessions and meetings with Rx Studio where we discussed their product, as well as the problem context, significance, and real world implications.
What I did:
Led elicitation sessions and meetings w/ project sponsors
User Research
At the same time, we worked in parallel to understand the user perspective. We conducted a total of 20 user interviews to discover common patters, habits, and pain points. We then coded the results into two separate categories: medical insights and technological insights. From there, we translated that into key design takeaways and personas.
What I did:
Conducted 3 Interviews
Coded results of my interviews
Worked with the team to create key design takeaways
Competitive Analysis
We also did a competitive analysis of products currently available in the market. We focused on both features and interface design. With this, we were able to make note of key features that would differentiate us, while also highlighting design choices we need to avoid.
For example, in this case, a patient-prescription feedback loop would be our distinguishing feature.
What I did:
Competitive analysis of Medisafe and Gojji
Deciding the MVP
After all of our research, we had a lot of potential requirements to sort through. We had a lot of big ideas, but we had to remain focused on the essence of our application. In other words, we needed to choose which features would make it in to our MVP.
To determine which features were essential, we started out by creating a use case and user flow diagram.
The challenge here was trying to make our app stand out with unique features, while also being realistic about what we would be able to complete in 6 months.
What I did:
Use Case Diagram
User Flow
Organized requirements into functional and non-functional
Prioritized requirements based on need
Bringing it to Life
Software
Part of bringing our application to life was figuring out how it would work behind the scenes. This meant we had to envision potential classes and methods that would allow our application to run smoothly. This also allowed us to picture how data could be stored and acted upon.
What I did:
UML class diagram
Iterations & More Iterations
Designing the interface was an iterative and collaborative process. We explored multiple directions before landing on a solution that balanced our sponsor’s vision with real user needs.
To ensure the design was both practical and empathetic, we regularly sought feedback from our sponsors and from individuals with firsthand experience—such as family members managing chronic conditions who take medication daily. Their perspectives helped us refine the interface to be not only functional but also intuitive and user-friendly.
For example, we learned that people recognize their medications by what they look like (i.e. “small white pill”), not by what it helps with or what the name is. In fact, most of our research participants couldn’t distinguish their pills by their purpose or name!
What I did:
Home Page Iterations
Prescription Information Page Iterations
Add Prescription Iterations
The Final Product
As the result of all our hard work, we were able to successfully showcase a functional prototype in front of our sponsors, other groups’ sponsors, as well as our professors, faculty, and peers.
What I did:
Home Page Flow
Prescription Information Page
Manual Update & Add Prescription Flow
Symptom Icons
Symptom Modal
History Page Flow
Reflection
Challenges
This was one of the most challenging projects I worked on during my time at UCI. As both a product designer and project lead, I held a wide range of responsibilities that pushed me to grow quickly. I was responsible for managing our timelines, leading team meetings, and keeping our stakeholders updated throughout the process. Balancing design work with leadership duties was no small task, especially during the most intense phases of development, where our team spent many hours iterating and refining our designs. This high level of accountability tested not only my technical and design skills, but also my ability to lead a team through ambiguity.
Closing Remarks
I'm very happy that I got to close out my time at UCI with this project. It was the culmination of my degrees, tying together the knowledge I'd gathered from informatics (i.e. project management, software design, requirements engineering, etc.) and psychological science. I'm very grateful I had the opportunity to practice and apply key skills to a real-world problem, lead an amazing team, all while working with innovators in the field.
One of the most rewarding moments was when our sponsor told me, “You run a tight ship.” That praise meant a lot—it showed that my efforts to stay organized, communicate clearly, and keep our project on track were seen and valued.
Additionally, I have to give a great thanks to my team (Thank you, Design-O-Matx Collective!). We supported one another, learned together, and poured countless hours into bringing this vision to life. Their faith in me was also very encouraging and affirmed my abilities as a designer and a leader.
Overall, this project gave me a glimpse into what working in the industry is like—and it left me excited and ready for my next chapter.
