Qured is a British tech healthcare company that provides businesses in GB with a unique platform: pass health tests and receive doctor’s consultations via the mobile application. The APP Solutions is helping to create Qured, a product characterized as “healthcare in your pocket.”
Let’s have a brief look at some important facts about this project.
Qured is an intelligent healthcare solution in Great Britain designed to keep company employees in GB healthy instead of treating them when they’re ill. Qured has built the first proactive, preventative healthcare platform that engages the whole company personnel on a journey to better health. The main components of this healthcare platform include:
Personalized testing with the help of application: Each member’s testing plan is personalized based on their health profile, family medical history, and individual risk factors.
Truly pain-free blood collection during testing: Qured provides users with a groundbreaking blood collection device that uses microneedles thinner than an eyelash, taking all the pain and mess out of home testing and removing barriers to uptake.
Clinician-led results and referrals: Test results, insights, and advice are delivered by Qured clinicians during private video consultations. They offer clinical support and refer to onward care when necessary.
Workforce health analytics: Qured secure employer portal provides an anonymized overview of the team’s health, test usage, and results, helping the target company’s investment into wellbeing, reducing costs from major illnesses, and improving retention metrics.
The core functionality of the Qured app is to help businesses take care of their employees by providing them with preventive healthcare options. There is a mobile application for customers. It includes the following features:
Create personal profile and pass the Onboarding Stage.
Book 1st test via the app for the desirable date and time slot.
Receive the special device kit (with its help, the user can take the health test at home).
Make a video consultation with Health Advisor via the app and take the test home.
Scan the unique QR code that includes the patient details and send them to the medical laboratory.
Track the status of the test kit the user sent back to the lab.
Make a video consultation with General Practitioner via the app and receive his opinion and comments on test results.
Passes all the flow above with the following health tests.
The other elements of the platform are:
The Admin Panel that manages all the mentioned functionality by admins.
Health Advisors and General Practitioners use the Clinical Portal to conduct video consultations.
Dashboard with statistics provided to HR Managers of the companies that purchased this product so they can analyze the data and take action regarding their employees.
The product is already in production and is available for Customers to download on App Store and Play Market (Google): only GB region.
TAS team is working on the development and testing of the core functionality of the Qured mobile application, which means:
Creating new functionality and improving the existing features (for example, an unlimited re-brand of the application was performed by our team in December 2022).
Proposing technical solutions that can improve app functionality and involve more users.
Unique specific design implemented for the users of a different group and sex ranges following healthcare domain solution.
Testing on different real devices as well as emulators that can help to cover a device zoo that real customers use in production.
Qured helps businesses in Great Britain to take care of their employees as well as retain them within the companies.
The application provides an opportunity to pass medical tests and get a consultation with the help of several clicks in the mobile application. This is extremely important in our daily busy life and rapidly-flowing world.
For The APP Solutions company, it is an excellent experience in strengthening healthcare expertise and portfolio as well as making society healthier with the help of preventive medicine. We are developing a solution that is comfortable to use and cares for people’s health.
Our company had the chance to work on such an amazing service. In this article, we are going to tell you about it.
Orb Health project description
Orb Health’s Care Management as a Service enables health centers, systems, hospitals, and unions to scale contact centers and deliver care management programs as a guided service. It simplifies the healthcare journey, maximizes patient outcomes, and enables financial success from fee-for-service to value-based care, without adding staff, apps, or infrastructure.
Orb Health scales patient access through remote contact centers that seamlessly deliver care management as an EMR-connected, data-driven virtual service. We rapidly enable unparalleled clinical patient outcomes and satisfaction while transforming the economics of patient service for health systems, FQHC/community health centers, payers, and unions without adding staff, apps, or infrastructure,
How does Orb Health help customers?
Reduce ER/Hospital Visits
Seamlessly Extend Practice
Expand Critical Services
Provide Interactive Patient Care
Increase Patient Engagement & Satisfaction
Keep Patients In-Network
Increase Revenue
Improved HCC Scoring
Reduce Patient Leakage
From obsolete to technology-driven tech stack:
Migrate data storage from on-premise to cloud to improve accessibility, security, and cost-efficiency
Setting up fault tolerance infrastructure with monitoring, alerting, data backup, data recovering, and autoscaling
Implementing automation testing before release to prevent human factor in the production
Actualize technologies to increase maintenance and speed of delivering new features
Complete redesign and development of a new way of interaction with patient clinical information. Medication, Problems, Allergies, Appointments, Demographics, and much more in a new and easy to navigate format.
We created a new approach to working with patients in customer practice, maximizing efficiency. This allows navigation between assigned patients, easily keeping up on priority and general que.
A powerful tool aimed to process the Orb Data Base quickly. This allows identifying patients by specific parameters to group them for further treatment.
This cutting edge feature allows creating connections between smart health devices at the patient’s home, gathering, analyzing, and processing data for making peoples’ lives more secure and accountable.
We worked closely with a clinical team to make logging time more manageable and effective – complete redesign legacy Time Tracking with a new and modern look.
Complete redesign of dashboards, created new metrics, making executive board accountable for every vital indicator.
A new tool aimed to create patient programs. Powerful enhancements that allow adding programs and campaigns in a couple of clicks.
Universal Patient Engagement Center Experienced, licensed, and certified medical practitioners empowered by Orb Health’s EMR-centric patient intelligence provide care delivery that exceeds expectations. The core functionality of the Orb Health app is:
Mix and match services to meet your various patient population needs without adding resources.
Scalable patient access and high-quality care management empowers a new level of careful attention that keeps patients healthier, more satisfied, and in-network.
Repeatedly proven and independently validated Care Management as a Service drives significant outcomes while lowering costs and increasing revenue.
There are two web applications for internal users: Clinical Site and Program Manager Site.
Connecting digital health products to provider systems is fundamental to delivering value, but the industry hasn’t made that easy. Healthcare providers are running dozens of different EHRs with various protocols, which means connecting can be a tangled mess of ad hoc solutions. Product teams who use Redox skip the mess and get every provider’s connection in a single developer-friendly API designed to support their product’s functional needs.
Protect your existing workforce management software and technology investments with off-the-shelf integrations that hook into your current solutions. Out-of-the-box integrations with a CRM system, PBX, ACD, workforce optimization, case management, and other legacy systems reduce time to value and quickly get a contact center up and running.
Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated data sources into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights. For example, your data may be an Excel spreadsheet or a collection of cloud-based and on-premises hybrid data warehouses. Power BI lets you easily connect to your data sources, visualize and discover what’s important, and share that with anyone you want.
Data security is one of the significant challenges of developing any service that deals with sensitive data. Therefore, the first requirement was to be able to store patient data as securely as possible.
During the development of this project, we utilized a streamlined, agile workflow. This approach helped us deploy an operating prototype of the system, ahead of the planned date, and dedicate more time to its testing and refinement.
In the year 2021, health is a topic that is discussed more than others. And people are navigating this challenging domain more and more.
The App Solutions was always ahead of the curve, with its healthcare projects, both R&D and users facing ones. So it was only a matter of time when we would implement all our knowledge and expertise and encompass it in one app, one that has all the health tracking functions needed and leverage cutting edge technologies, at the same time. BuenoPR became this app.
BuenoPR Project Description
Bueno is the app that gathers all health-related information in one place. On the one hand, it is made to provide patients with comprehensive knowledge about their conditions, prescriptions, and lab results, with the ability to contact their practitioner or care team anytime via chat. On the other hand, Bueno provides up-to-date information about the state of the patient’s insurance, including individual deductible and benefits highlights.
How does Bueno make a difference in this niche?
Preventive medicine powered by AI
Bueno leverages machine learning to analyze all the health data from its user’s EHR to ensure the preventive care they need. Then, powered by Orb Health, the app provides the analyzed data to the care team to make suggestions to patients regarding time to do a check-up, make lab tests or pay attention to particular symptoms.
All the info about user’s condition in their pocket
Integration with Mayo clinic helps to provide users with comprehensive and 100% science-based information on their conditions. It also serves educational purposes with articles on different organs and systems in the body, and lab tests.
Tracking down all the metrics from one app
Users can track all life-important metrics such as height, weight, activity, blood glucose, and others, all in one place. The app supports both manual entry of these measurements and receiving info from the doctor’s office. It also has integration with Validic so that the data can be pulled from health devices.
Virtual care
The app provides a 24/7 possibility to contact the care team, including the user’s practitioner and trained nurses who can answer any bothering questions at any time, help with understanding a care plan, and schedule the next visit to the doctor’s office.
Gamification
The app presents a system of goals and badges to keep people engaged while improving their health. Achievements are given both for regular app usage, including its functions and reaching personal health goals (e.g., steps count).
Insurance insights
Using integration with Change Healthcare, we can provide information on the health of our users and let them track how it affects their Health insurance. In addition, it allows total transparency and zero worries when it comes to expenses.
The main goals of BuenoPR are the following:
Provide users with comprehensive insights into their health using their Electronic Health Record (EHR) data processed by AI
Ensure 24/7 health support
Reduce stress to a minimum with transparent info, excellent UX and gamification techniques
This combination of functions makes the app unique on the market.
Project technical specification
The main product is a mobile application for patients. Its features include:
360° overview of patient’s health (metrics that are collected from the devices, doctor’s office and manually logged, social activity, allergies, medications, health challenges)
Chat with the care team (doctor and nurses)
Knowledge base with all the info on the body, lab tests, and conditions
Lab results
Care activities prescribed by the doctor
Insurance information
Notification system
Achievements
The other elements of the service include:
Subscription website – to submit registration forms and subsequently, for subscription management;
Admin Dashboard contains the following features:
General application activity overview;
In-app analytics;
User management
Customer support operations.
Key Solutions
Orb Health
Orb helps connect Bueno to the doctor’s office and ensures users only see the most up-to-date information on their conditions. At the same time, Orb is the primary source of info in the app, including raw data from the EHR and results of AI processing. Its predictive algorithm is used to detect negative health trends and alert nurses about at-risk patients.
For Bueno users, this means that their care team knows exactly when to reach out to schedule a doctor’s appointment or do a necessary lab test. Statistics show that this approach prevents 2 out of 3 visits to ER.
Validic
Validic provides one API connection to access data from the best mHealth apps and devices. Since it covers most of the popular devices, our users don’t have to worry about not connecting their particular one to our app. This was one of the main problems we discovered in the competitor’s apps during the inception phase.
Change HealthCare
Since our solution has provided clinical information and insurance info, we needed to connect a third-party solution that would collect data from insurance providers on the user-specific data about their plans. Change really helped us to ensure complete transparency regarding health expenses to our users.
Mayo Clinic
One of the problems we aimed to solve in the Bueno app was the lack of correct patient information. So often, people tend to rely on posts on the internet, leading to a lack of professional help and even usage of harmful practices. So, instead of searching health-related info on Google, we wanted them to have all the relevant information that would be 100% science-based and backed up by research all in one place. The Mayo Clinic integration serves this aim perfectly, providing articles based on research and 150 years of medical practice.
You can’t go far without proper data analytics. An understanding of the state of things regarding the application, the way customers are using it, and how efficiently it operates, hangs on through-and-through analytics.
The app needed a practical and accessible mobile analytics solution to gain insights regarding application use and user engagement.
We have used Firebase because of its ease of use and flexibility. With its help, the company can see what is going on in the application and react appropriately.
It is also used as a platform for push notifications delivery.
Data security and HIPAA
Data security is one of the significant challenges that come with developing any application that deals with sensitive data. And with health apps, it becomes even more important.
The main requirement was HIPAA compliance which is usually identified with foundations secured by the law:
Emergency clinics.
Corporate medicinal services associations.
Research establishments.
Insurance agencies that manage patients and their data.
However, since HIPAA PHI security necessity likewise applies to partners of these offices, it was extremely important to follow these guidelines for user data management, transparent data use, and guaranteeing the safety of data.
The following solutions were used to provide appropriate data security measures:
HTTPS, TLS, SSH for data-in-transit encryption;
Activity Logging + Access Management;
Handling all the secure data on the backend;
Making sure all the third-party solutions are HIPAA compliant;
Limited access to the production database at the network level.
BuenoPR is an absolutely unique app and another great case in the large portfolio of our healthcare projects. It provides all the necessary data for users about their health, and connects them with their care team, but it also uses cutting-edge technology to prevent conditions and complications.
For our company, it was a great experience, applying all our expertise both in the Native mobile development and healthcare domains to create an app that would save people’s lives.
Using the Agile approach, and receiving quality feedback from users, each iteration really helped us deliver a product that would be useful, rich in functionality, and extremely easy to navigate.
Meet The Table is an online platform for business networking we developed for StepintoCity, a business accelerator of entrepreneurs and international companies based in New York.
The platform matches Guests – entrepreneurs from Korea who want to start their business and Hosts – New York-based service providers, such as distributors, financial services, marketing agencies, etc.
Both parties can discuss business opportunities in more detail at a virtual meeting table. Such a table includes a built-in calendar to schedule meetings and enables communication via video conferencing and text messaging with live translation to your native language.
The platform also includes City Mates – New York residents who bridge the language and culture gaps by coordinating communication between guests and hosts while advocating guests’ rights and needs.
Our challenge
Junhwan Paul Kang is CEO of the New York-based business accelerator StepintoCity, inc. The business accelerator includes over 30,000 Korean entrepreneurs who want to open a business in New York.
Junhwan Paul recognized that it is hard for Korean entrepreneurs to enter the U.S. market with their business due to several reasons. They are – lack of an online base of reliable service providers, cultural and language differences.
Junhwan Paul hired us to build a project that will combine a networking platform with matching functionality, a virtual solution for business events, and a job marketplace to face those challenges.
The client wanted the platform to support three user roles: guests, hosts, and city mates. For this project, we needed to develop three different user cabinets for three user roles. We also needed to provide users with networking opportunities via secure text messaging and video calls.
Our solution – Meet The Table, the online networking platform
Let’s take a look at the features we implemented for each of the three user cabinets.
Guest profile
The profile includes a guest’s personal information, contact details, and localization (time zone and language). Allows a guest to add a payment method and view the history of payments.
The Product section allows guests to place a request for services they need with a description of the work scope.
The Host catalog includes a list of service providers, the type of services they provide, the project’s duration, and the price for consultations.
The Citymate catalog allows the guest to select a city mate with relevant experience, service category, and availability.
My Booking allows the guest to schedule virtual meetings with hosts and citymates by selecting available time slots in their calendars.
Upcoming Meetings include virtual meetings accepted by both parties (the guest and host), information about the participants, and payment status.
The Inbox allows the guest to communicate with hosts and city mates via text messages with live translation by clicking on a message.
[The prototype of in-app message translation by The APP Solutions]
Video Calls allows the guest to join a visual meeting with the host and a city mate and exchange text messages in a built-in life chat with online translation.
Feedback enables the guest to share their experience with a host and a city mate by writing feedback and rating.
Host profile
The dashboard includes weekly, monthly, and annual booking statistics and their status (initiated bookings, progress, completed).
The profile includes a host’s personal information, contacts, specialization, and location, payment details (Stripe account), and setting of business hours when the host is available for a consultation.
The Guests Products section includes requests from guests, the type of service they are looking for, and a detailed description of the service to be provided.
Create Tables enables hosts to create new tables, add their description, and specify its price.
Tables include the history of services provided, their type, status, and the amount of payment received.
Booking includes all virtual meeting requests from guests.
Citymate profile
Profile with information about a detailed description of one’s specialization, provided services category, hourly rate, and a Review section with feedback from other platform users.
Booking includes a list of requests for virtual meetings from guests.
The Upcoming Meetings section includes virtual meetings accepted by hosts and their details.
Project details
The delivery of the project took us through the following steps:
Step 1. Discovery phase
To ensure the scope of the project was aligned with the client’s business needs, we divided the discovery phase into two stages:
Analysis of competitors
After we defined business requirements, we analyzed several job marketplaces, such as Fiverr, Freelancer, and TaskRabbit, and found some drawbacks in their functionality.
Fiverr does not protect sellers from unfair buyers. Buyers can request some extra work from sellers for free threatening to leave negative feedback. Also, buyers can cancel the project after it is done and get a refund. The chat is very buggy. Users do not receive clear explanations in case Fiverr deletes their user accounts.
The Freelancer platform has fraud issues when freelancers/employers must pay the security and may disappear after money is transferred. There are cases when employers pay for work done and later take money back from freelancer wallets by closing their accounts. There are issues with the synchronization of web and mobile apps. Users cannot connect to their accounts via web and mobile at the same time.
TaskRabbit allows service providers to cancel tasks at the last minute and cause issues for clients. Users have problems with the “forgot password” flow. The system takes a “one-time sign-up fee” from taskers, and as a result, many potential taskers refuse to register in the system.
Recommendations
After we learned about the competitors’ weaknesses, we made up a list of recommendations for the project’s functionality which we considered during the development:
We must avoid fraud from guests, hosts, and city mates. We need to validate hosts and city mates to ensure that they are reliable contra gentes. The system must not include any security payments and show guests that they should not perform direct costs.
We need to check all cases when guests request money back.
Rating of host or city mate should not significantly influence their possibility of being involved in service requests. In such cases, guests will not be able to request any extra work for free, threatening to put a low rating for host or city mate.
The payment system must be stable because issues with payment flow always harm the user experience.
We should avoid canceling the meeting at the last minute by any user. The system must block such requests or charge a fee.
Step 2. Project documentation phase
We created a product vision and roadmap and built an architectural design in line with business goals.
The project documentation consisted of several parts:
General description – we gave an overall vision of the project, explained prominent user roles, and the project’s primary business goals.
General functional and non-functional requirements – we clarified that functional requirement as “The system must send emails to Users in defined events.” We also determined the primary non-functional requirements as “The system must handle approximately 3000 users at the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) phase”.
Payment flow. To avoid issues and fraud with payments from both clients and service providers, we documented all scenarios in which the platform withdraws charges and sends them to hosts and city mates. Based on those scenarios, we wrote a detailed payment flow for the project.
As a payment solution, we decided to use Stripe, a third-party payment gateway that includes high-end security. Using existing payment solutions is much cheaper than developing a payment gateway from scratch.
MVP scope. We start working on most new projects by developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and this project wasn’t an exception. Before defining the MVP scope, we wrote user stories for three types of users (actors). Then, we isolated MVP user stories for the Meet The Table app’s core from the rest of the project scope to be implemented during the second development phase.
Step 3. Product development phase
With a formalized product vision in Technical documentation and the MVP project scope for the development team, we arranged a Kickoff meeting with stakeholders from Step into City and performed the initial project setup.
The development phase took us through the following tasks:
Design creation
Since Meet The Table includes three user roles, we made the UX convenient and clear by adding only the necessary functionality to each user profile type. We also used a navigation tab on the header available on any page for quick access to essential information. In a nutshell, we did the app’s design in the following ways:
Mockups. We made several mockups of the approximate layouts of main pages and user flow, described in the project’s tech documentation. As the main color scheme, we used yellow and gray, previously agreed with the project stakeholders.
Prototype. We added more elements, such as widgets and buttons, to the initial mockups. We combined ready screens into a clickable prototype, which we also agreed with project stakeholders.
Polished the design. Once we agreed on all the pages and their elements with the StepintoCity team, we polished the design with minor changes. Then, the front end developers implemented all the necessary functionality.
Backend development
While part of our team worked on the platform’s design, the backend developers did the following tasks:
Code refactoring. We decided to use an existing marketplace code as a core backend. So we needed to do a code refactoring at the initial stage of the backend development phase.
Code refactoring is a process used in the DevOps software development approach that involves editing and cleaning up previously written code without changing the code’s function. The essential purpose of code refactoring is to make the code more efficient and maintainable.
The developers performed code refactoring by getting rid of switch statements, making conditionals descriptive, and eliminating code duplication.
Data storage. We integrated cloud data storage into this project. As a cloud storage solution, we used Google Cloud Platform since it ensures the necessary data storage level and scalability in real-time, thus, ensures main non-functional requirements, i.e., handling over 30,000 users during the MVP phase.
Calculation logic. We developed the price calculation algorithm that calculates the platform’s revenue and revenues for host and city mate received from guests.
Feature implementation. As the tasks backlog, developers used the functionality described in the MVP project scope and user stories from the tech documentation. Developers spend from one to two weeks of coding to implement one user story, based on its complexity. As soon as a user story was implemented, QA managers tested the ready-made functionality and returned them to fix errors.
Project Tech Details
Backend: Node JS
Frontend: React JS, jQuery
Database: MongoDB
Cloud Storage: Google Cloud Platform
[Meet The Table architecture diagram]
Third-party software integration with API
We decided to use existing solutions for some of the project’s functions. Right after the project core functionality was ready, we integrated the following REST APIs:
Stripe for online payments
Twilio for online text messages
Socket.io for real-time bi-directional communication between the web client and server
Google Translate for multi-language online chat
WebRTC for online streaming and video calls
Team composition
1 Designer
2 Frontend Developers
3 Backend Developers
2 QA Managers
1 Business Analysts
1 Project Manager
Value delivered
The Meet The Table platform was developed as a networking tool that ensures secure and fraud-tolerant cooperation of U.S. based service providers, New York residents, and Korean entrepreneurs. You can check out the project by visiting the official Meet The Table website.
When we created Meet The Table, we focused on making the project to complement Stepinto City’s value proposition as a company to make it easier for global entrepreneurs and companies outside of the U.S. to open their business in New York.
To see more results of our work, visit our Portfolio.
Need to develop a business events platform? We'll help you to make a secured job marketplace with video streaming
If a doctor prescribes you medication, you need to take it regularly to feel better. For this purpose, you can use one of the existing mHealth applications. Most healthcare apps are targeted at people with chronic conditions, have an inconvenient user interface, and many ads that distract users.
Moreover, to report adverse reactions to your doctor, you need to assign a new appointment, which takes time and money.
The mHealth application we developed for our client will help users keep track of their medicinal consumption. Another of the app’s functions is to provide users with a community of people and articles to answer health-related questions that they might have.
How does mHealth app work?
It allows users to create a list with personal medication, log symptoms, and keep prescriptions in one place. The app sends reminders to the phone and always tells users the exact time they need to take medicine.
Users may also specify certain medications as “emergency”, which must be taken in extreme situations. The app provides users with quick access to the Emergency screen with information about medicine and doctor’s contacts.
Users can monitor their own health and create profiles of their family members.
The community feature provides users with access to articles & opinions to clarify issues that they might be facing with one or other medication.
Client requirements
Client wanted to create a medical & non-medical adherence and community app that is targeted for women between the ages of 25-40, but open to all.
The app had to become a digital friend for managing medication adherence, developing routines, and nurturing health-related curiosities.
Our solution
For this particular case, we suggested she participate in the Inception phase, our service that shapes the project vision and its roadmap. But, for the rest of our clients, we suggest moving with MVP.
Our challenges
A team to develop the product roadmap from scratch. For this task, we followed such requirements:
Find the ultimate database of medications available across the European market.
Make the product compliant with existing digital product regulations in the European Union (GDPR and PIPEDA).
Create UI/UX design. The product should have a custom design tailored to the target audience and a convenient interface.
The Inception phase took us through the following steps:
Step 1. Market research
Before designing the project documentation, we conducted market research in the search for potential competitors. It turns out that app has three main competitors – CareZone, Dosecast, Mango Health apps.
Then, we made up a table with their main drawbacks:
CareZone has too many ads, an outdated list of medications, and an inconvenient user interface.
Dosecast offers users a database of drugs available only in the U.S., device synchronization issues, and no ability to set different tones for different medicines.
Mango Health application has a UX which is too tricky to navigate and cannot log medication intake before reminder.
We also analyzed what color scheme and layouts competitors use to create a custom design for the project.
Competitor analysis also gave us insights into the monetization strategy to suggest the feature list and user stories. With this information at hand, we began to create project documentation.
Step 2. Project documentation
The project documentation performs as an instruction for developers and gives them an idea of what product they are about to develop. We developed the documentation for the main project parts are a mobile application, the Admin Panel, and a marketing landing page.
The project documentation starts with the following elements:
General Functional Requirements
In this section, we highlighted the main requirements for the project, i.e., what the system must and mustn’t do, such as:
The User must access the same account created in the app from multiple devices with the installed app.
The app should ask the User to update time once the User switches the time zone.
The application must have both offline and offline modes. In the offline mode, the User must have access to Home, Emergency, Stories, and Symptoms screens.
Non-functional Requirements
Non-functional requirements explain how the app should work. Our general non-functional requirements are the following:
Applications must support three languages: English, French, German.
The backend must handle increasing traffic loads – from 40,000 users for the first year to 200,000 users for the third year after the project launch.
Once we were done with the project’s general requirements, our solution architect, project manager, and business analyst started mapping up the project architecture and listing third-party solutions to apply.
App structure
App structure helped us map up features and user flow in the app before writing use cases. The app structure is the very first text-based wireframes for the project. Thanks to the app structure, we placed the User into the app’s flow and determined whether a conceptual framework agrees with the target audience and its needs.
The diagram below shows the action flow the User must take for completing a particular task.
Project architecture
We decided to begin with a monolith web-application containing most of the features to simplify initial development and split it into microservices over time.
For this project, we suggested the Google Cloud Platform as a cloud environment. GCP provides many built-in tools for developing the app’s architecture and the ability to move architecture to other environments without significant changes.
Since data synchronization was one of the competitor’s weak points, we decided to power up the project with the Kubernetes platform and Docker containers. Both solutions synchronize data in real-time and ensure the system’s scalability and portability.
Then, we drew up a scheme of the project architecture’s main components:
The Admin Panel for managing users and tracking statistics, connected with the app via Admin API
A mobile app retrieves and stores user info via Client API
Global Load Balancer HTTPS ensures cross-region load balancing. i.e., distributes backend tasks over a set of resources, making their overall processing more efficient.
CDN (Content Distribution Network) caches HTTP(S) load balanced content in users region through Google’s globally distributed edge points; thus, delivers the content without downtime.
Kubernetes cluster runs containerized web applications for authentication, authorization, and User management via API.
CloudSQL database is a solution for storing encrypted user data and relational databases for application statistics.
Cloud Storage is a hosting server for storing files that are not sensitive data.
Cloud Build is a tool for the continuous development of Docker images.
Container Registry is a GCP component for storing Docker container images.
Stackdriver is also a GCP component. It ensures operational logs, monitoring dashboards, and alerting to email and SMS.
Integrations
Chino.io is our solution of choice for ensuring GDPR and HIPAA compliance because it is ISO 13485 and 27001 certified. The platform encrypts data with secure record level encryption and sends it to the server via API calls. This integration also significantly reduces the development time and costs.
Drugbank API is an ultimate database of medications that includes all drugs available across the E.U. The database also contains info about contraindications, adverse effects, and medication compatibility.
Mandrill API is a mailing platform for sending transactional emails to users.
Main actors and use cases
We made up the list of features to add to the project right after competitor analysis.
When we mapped app structure, we prioritized functionality to implement first (the must-have features) and those to integrate later (nice to have features).
Then, we created a list of actors (users) who will interact with the app and the Admin Panel. They are:
Unregistered User, who does not have an account in the system, so cannot use the functionality of applications
Registered User, who successfully created an account in the system and has access to all functionality of applications
Unregistered Admin is a person who does not have a user account in the Admin Panel.
Registered Admin is a person who has a user account in the Admin Panel.
We have written user stories that describe each type of actor’s user path based on user goals. User stories are also handy for testing and quality assurance since they represent what the User should do on one or other screen.
Step 3. UI/UX design
Wireframes
We also leveraged the app structure during the wireframing stage. Wireframes are another Inception phase deliverable that includes a schematic view of app screen components. Instead of giving the ultimate design view, wireframes percentage the information displayed on the page, an outline of structure and layout of the page and user experience, and the overall direction and description of the user interface.
Once wireframes were ready, our designers created the app’s prototype in Figma, a professional web-based tool for prototyping apps. The prototype simulates the navigation, gestures, and overall look and feel of the app.
Then, we moved to the visual design stage to give more personality to the app.
Visual design
As we previously said, the app is going to serve women between the ages of 25-40. To make the app attractive for the target audience, we used a combination of pink and blue colors for Medicine, Home, and Emergency screens.
For the rest of the app’s screens, we used a blue background, white and dark blue elements to make users stay focused on their goals.
The main app’s screens we designed are:
Build-in calendar for logging symptoms and medication intake. Users flow for logging symptoms includes:
Selecting the date on the calendar at the Home screen
Pressing on the “Symptoms” button
Opening a carousel with symptoms and indicating symptom level
History of symptoms. The User can access one’s history via a full calendar view or from the Symptoms page.
Reminders. Users can keep track of their intake and log their symptoms.
Emergency information. Users have quick access to the critical information they choose to have.
Medications list. Users have their list of medications on hand with product details.
Articles. Users can access articles about medications, their adverse effects, and symptoms shared by other app users.
Offline access. The app provides users with offline access to the following data:
All medicine consumption related information
What users have to take
Users’ inventory
Results that we achieved
The Inception Phase took us two months from signing the contract to agreeing on the app’s last screen.
The team that worked on this project included:
1 Business analyst
1 Project manager
1 Solution architect
1 Designer
After partnering with us, client received the following Inception phase deliverables:
Written market and competitor research
Technical documentation
UI/UX design screens
A clickable prototype
A product roadmap
Project architecture
A list of integrations for medications database and user data encryption
