Minueful Kidney user identification

Healthy.io, 2020-2023

Minuteful Kidney App

An FDA-cleared home urine test that allows you to check your kidney health using your smartphone. The app guides patients through the test process step-by-step, and the results are available to share with your doctor.

This is a B2B2C app, and only patients who have the minuteful kidney test kit can go through with the flow. This is Healthy.io's primary service and I was the product design owner of it throughout its run.

User research

Minuteful Kidney was the rebranded version of Kidney Check - our previous ACR (Albumin to Creatinine Ratio) testing service which was developed and tested for several years in what the company referred to as "pragmatic trials".

They included user testing, user interviews, and extensive research in terms of our algorithm, to learn as much as we can about the experience of our users performing the test with their smartphone. The trials were done in the US, through our deals with some of our partners there, and they allowed us to make changes to the flow to accomodate both clinical requirements and user engagement with the test process. It was following these ongoing tests and learnings that Minuteful Kidney was FDA approved in the summer of 2022.

Target audience

Our target users were patients with diabetes, high blood pressure, certain heart conditions and other risk factors which could potentially harm kidney health and cause CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease).

Our main use case was patients in their 50s (and up) who need to complete an annual ACR test but don't do so for a variety of reasons .

Introducing a home urine test that requires a smartphone to this type of target audience was a challenging mission, which the company withstood with remarkable success. More than 98% of users who started the test completed it and got their results within the app.

User flow chart

Test with the kit flow

From opening the kit to scanning the color-board and waiting for the results

In-app user identication

Business goal

Increase user engagement on our identification flow, to get as many patients as possible to the actual test flow.

Challenges

1. Support various types of authentication parameters: phone verification, data of birth and personal invite code (determined by the partner’s database and the user’s journey)
2. Add PIN code protection on PHI (personal health information)
3. Support a use case of multiple patients using the same phone number to perform 2 (or more) tests
4. Support accessibility and keep in mind our target audience is not necessairly familiar with common identification steps

My role

As the design owner of the Minuteful Kidney app I was in charge of desgning and implementing the new identification factors that evolved over time.

Origianl identification process (2020)

Ideating & sketching

These are some of the ideas I came up with for the various steps of identification across the app. They include iterations on UI components, UX options (drawer/chat/new screen), visual assets and micro-copy.

Decision time

Chatbot-based process

We decided to use Emily, our chatbot assistant, to help our users through the authentication process as well, rather than just the test itself.

She’s the one who introduces users to the flow steps, and the one concluding this section, leading to the test.

Realistic visuals

Although these steps might seem trivial, our mostly elderly target audience is not necessarily familiar with this type of experience.   

We wanted to simplify it and I decided it would be helpful to use realistic images of familiar elements to support these screens.

1 input field for all

Since we had different types of inputs and some of them are required one after the other, we wanted to find a solution that provided similiarity, but also reflected the number of characters needed.

The text input component was also shared across multiple apps, so we wanted to find a solution that works on different use cases.

Phone verification

Chosen designs