Under the skin of user experience – exploring UX in future digital health services at MEX

Ocean was proud to be invited to participate in this year’s MEX conference, where part of our team had the honor of speaking and facilitating creative sessions about the role of UX in future digital health services. MEX is a high-profile annual conference, looking at the future of digital user experience, with participants from the UX industry or with a general interest in UX.

The theme for this year’s conference was “Under the Skin of User Experience,” a theme which we explored quite literally, as ever-advancing technology designed to live inside our bodies might soon play a bigger role in how we manage our health.

Meaning beyond numbers

An interest in applying quantifiable metrics to help us understand how we can improve our health is increasing. Through different devices and technology we can now measure tons of different aspects about ourselves. But are we experiencing a sugar rush that will fade when we realize that this type of data provides little value on its own? For example, knowing how much we slept during the last couple of months does not give us the recipe for how to sleep better. Our bodies are complex systems with so many different parts interacting all the time, and tracking single points of data doesn’t allow us to see the big picture.

As technology advances, we will soon be able to take more information into account, such as our DNA, our genome and biomarkers in our bloodstream. This data can provide us with a more holistic and detailed picture about what’s really going on inside our bodies. But still, we see that the real challenge lies in finding out how we extract quality from quantity; to make sense and meaning of the numbers. The real potential lies in uncovering solutions that not only provide with us the data, but also provide insights and learnings to educate and empower us to take action.

At Ocean we are working with ways to add more meaning to quantitative data in one of our current projects. Together with the Riskminder Foundation we are prototyping a web-based service that shows users how their own unique combination of genetic makeup and certain lifestyle factors impacts their risk for developing a chronic disease such as Multiple Sclerosis or Rheumatoid Arthritis. In this way, a user’s personal data becomes part of a more meaningful solution that delivers highly personal advice on specific lifestyle changes that will have a positive impact in reducing risk or improving prognosis.

From a UX perspective, we might also need to rethink conventional interfaces and explore how to go beyond numbers on the screen to more emotional and subtle experiences that are better aligned with people’s daily life in order to motivate behavioral change. 

Personalization

Another aspect is personalization. We all have different approaches to our health, which means that what’s meaningful to me will likely differ from what’s meaningful to you, depending on health condition, personality and situation. We see the need for solutions that are customizable and adapted to the individual needs, to put the user in control. Tailored experiences could make information more accessible, cause less stress and lead to deeper insights.

Changing healthcare

We see many opportunities for new technology to bring meaningful change in people’s lives, and certainly to healthcare, as long as we let true needs drive how we apply and utilize that technology. Meaningful and trustworthy solutions will be the result of collaborative efforts where stakeholders like patients, healthcare professionals, scientists—and people like you and I—can share perspectives, knowledge and motivations. Design has a big role to play here—and one that is much bigger than simply accommodating for smaller screen sizes.

Check out the full summary of the MEX event here.

Creative sessions exploring the future of UX in digital health

Photographs by Stuart Whitehead