Preventing Misinformed Self-Medication
Preventing self-medication: App design overview
The 4th Health and Lifestyle Study conducted by AEGON in 2021 revealed that in Spain, 24.4% of the population practiced self-medication—an increase of 1.3% compared to the previous year.
Empower Health, reduce Risk
The project aimed to prevent misinformed self-medication by promoting safer health habits and providing tools that help users make informed decisions about medications.
To achieve this, the following actions were planned:
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Raise awareness about the risks of self-medication.
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Encourage consultation with healthcare professionals.
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Develop a medication consultation tool to assess potential risks or interactions.
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Choose the appropriate platform based on the user and product purpose.
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Create a usable and attractive product with a smooth and satisfying user experience.
From data to user understanding
To understand self-medication in Spain, I conducted desk research to gather key data and demographic insights, followed by a benchmarking analysis of existing products, medications, and awareness campaigns.
Finally, I carried out user interviews to uncover how aware self-medicating users are of the associated risks.
The research, supported by interviews, revealed a lack of awareness about the risks of self-medication, drug interactions, side effects, and the inappropriate use of antibiotics. We also identified difficulties in keeping track of medication and following treatments correctly, as well as a tendency to reuse medication when similar symptoms reappear without consulting a healthcare professional, or unknowingly use expired medication. When analysing existing solutions, we found apps for checking medication information, consulting healthcare professionals, or managing treatments, but none focused on informing users about the risks of misusing, combining, or reusing certain medications. This gap represented the main design opportunity.
Interview Insights
One of the issues identified was the lack of information about the health risks caused by the incorrect use of medication
I take quite a bit of medication each month, but I don’t think that it is harmful to my health
Bio
Cristina works in an office and spends many hours in front of a computer; therefore, she frequently has headaches. To relieve the pain, she decides to self-medicate.
Aside from this, she self-medicates every month to alleviate her menstrual pain.
These factors lead her to consume quite a bit of medication each month.
Cristina
32 years old • Digital Marketing • Barcelona
Goals and needs
- Have a better quality of life in the short and long term.
- Be responsible when using your medication.
- Remember to take your medication during treatment.
- Know if a medication can cause an allergic reaction.
- Know when your medication expires.
Behavior
- She accepts advice on which medication to take.
- She takes some medications based on his experience.
- She sometimes forgets to take a dose of medication or takes it late.
- She frequently self-medicates.
- She has sometimes taken antibiotics to treat a sore throat.
- She has mixed medications with other medications.
- She stores medications and may have expired medications.
Designing with Empathy
The Definition and Ideation phase began with the creation of a User Persona based on research insights, ensuring the design focused on empathy and meaningful solutions. Next, usage scenarios and User Journey Maps were developed to identify pain points and opportunities, helping to define the key design requirements for the app.
Structuring for Clarity
The Information Architecture phase began with a content inventory based on the design requirements. This was followed by a card sorting exercise to understand how users naturally group information, which helped define a content hierarchy aligned with their mental models.
Using this structure, I created flow diagrams based on the previously defined scenarios, allowing me to visualize user navigation and ensure that each goal could be achieved intuitively.
Testing for a seamless experience
After sketching and creating wireframes, I designed an interactive prototype.
Usability was evaluated using three methodologies: a heuristic evaluation based on Jakob Nielsen’s principles, a cognitive walkthrough to assess navigation complexity and label clarity, and finally, a moderated user test to identify additional design issues.
This process allowed me to address problems and improve the app’s efficiency, productivity, and overall user satisfaction.
App screens
Login and Sign-Up Screens
These are the screens through which users can log in or sign up if they don’t already have an account in the app.
Onboarding
When the user accesses the app, they are presented with a brief introduction highlighting the benefits of using it.
Main Screens
These are the screens accessible through the tab bar, except for the “My Medication List” screen, which is accessed via the card located on the “Search Medication” screen — the main screen of the app.
Types and Uses of Medications
In this section, users can access information about the different types of medications and their correct and incorrect uses based on the symptoms or conditions they are experiencing.
Start a Treatment
This is the section where users can set up alarms to avoid forgetting to take their medication during a medical treatment.
In addition, the system/app will keep track of the doses the user takes throughout the duration of the treatment.
I’m Going to Take Medication
In this section, the user must indicate—before taking any medication—that they are about to take a drug that is not part of a prescribed medical treatment. For example, taking a painkiller occasionally to relieve a headache.
This way, the medication is recorded in the system and will appear in the user’s medication history.
Additionally, by using this feature, the app can alert the user if they are at risk of overusing medication or if there is any other potential health risk.
Medication History
In this section, users can review the medication they have taken over the past 7 days, the last month, or the last 3 months.
Notifications
These are the different notifications that the app displays to the user.
Alerts
These are the different alert screens displayed by the app when the user may be putting their health at risk, based on medical parameters they have entered into the system when using medication.
My Medical Parameters
In this section, users must indicate any conditions or health issues they have so the app can notify them if there’s any potential risk that could harm their health.
Medicine
This is a sample screen showing how the information about a medication would be displayed once the user has searched for it within the app. The goal is to make the information more accessible, avoiding the need to consult the paper leaflet, which often contains very small text and an overwhelming amount of information.
Reflections from the project
This final master’s project gave me the freedom to choose methodologies and design a product focused on raising awareness about self-medication.
It was my first project completing all stages of the design process, providing holistic UX/UI experience from research to prototyping and testing.
Iterative design and user-centered thinking are essential—testing, learning, and refining at each stage ensures solutions that truly meet user needs.