>\ Design Challenge

To create an easier way to take medication.

As part of my studies at the Media Design School, we were tasked with identifying a problem we could personally relate to; ultimately ideating and designing a potential solution for said issue.

As someone who suffers from a lifelong medical illness, I focused on something that would make taking medication much easier, ideally turning it from just another part of your daily routine into something more relaxing, or at least a lot less stressful.

As part of my research into this topic, I discovered the story of a 3-year-old boy who, in 2018, was mauled by a dog, leaving him with a nasty, yellow, baseball-sized infected knot next to his eye. To figure out if he would have any permanent damage, his doctor first needed to treat the infection with antibiotics.

Unfortunately, the boy absolutely despised the awful, bitter taste of the medicine and would gag, spit, and scream whenever he had to have some. To remedy this, an almost ritualistic practice would occur where his parents would strip the boy naked, stand him in a bathtub, and force-feed him the medication with an eyedropper. When the boy inevitably spat any of it out, his father would scoop it all up with a spoon and then force-feed that to him. Repeating the process until it was all gone.

Thankfully this would work and the boys eyesight would fully recover, but I cannot imagine many parents want to go through a such stressful ordeal all to make sure their child doesn't suffer more than they already are.

>\ Initial Approach

The bath bomb

To tackle the difficulty of taking medication, my initial idea was to create a bath bomb or bubble bath solution that helps absorb the medicine through your body while taking a bath - something far more relaxing and enjoyable than ramming a small tablet down the back of your throat and gagging uncontrollably as a monstrously unpleasant bitterness washes over you.

The brief for this project involved the creation of a brand identity and narrative for the service, including both logo and a brand document, as well as a responsive web app for the final output.

As the final outcome would be mobile-lead, I would start by researching popular mobile apps and services as an initial reference point and then begin by creating a mockup of a potential app design in Figma with the intent of creating an interface that would introduce users to the service, allow them to search for their prescription, and then order it online.

While the app design was fruitful, there were some criticial issues with a bath bomb styled solution:

• How do I verify the customer has a prescription?
• What if they have to take more than one medication - most people aren't going to have more than one bath a day.
• How long would you have to stay in the bath for the medication to do its job?

>\ Final Outcome

Then an idea sprung to mind: People like cocktails, right?

The idea of making a literal "cocktail" of drugs came to me when researching the efficacy of mixing medicines, and while it started primarily as a joke it did inform future design choices: Why not just combine our medicine in an easy-to-consume format?

Rather than trying to swallow pills or foul-tasting syrups, your medicine would be pre-packaged into a foodstuff of your choice - such as chocolate or a smoothie - and all you have to do is consume the required amount everyday until you've taken it all.

A major drawback of this design was figuring out how a user verifies their prescription, and so the outcome involved two primary interfaces: One for medical experts, and one for the end user.

The first flow is aimed at doctors and other health professionals. Doctors register an account with us, verifying they are a licensed physician, after which they can login to the app and start ordering their patients prescription. At this point, the doctor will require the name and number of their patient to continue.

From the patients side, after giving their doctor their name and number, they will receive a txt message that opens the app on their phone, allowing them to finish the order by choosing their preferred foodstuff and its flavour, filling out their delivery information, and then paying.