Tiny Medical Apps
Designing around the person, not just the patient
Tiny Medical Apps was developing a digital health passport for young people with epilepsy. With epilepsy significantly more common among autistic people, they knew the product needed to work particularly well for autistic young people.
The project had two parts. First, I designed and ran inclusive user research with young people, including participants who communicated without speech. Working with trusted adults and the communication methods each young person already used, we explored what they wanted other people to know about them, what mattered in managing their epilepsy, and what they wanted their passport to communicate.
What emerged was a much richer picture. Medication, symptoms and health information mattered, but so did favourite music, interests, routines, preferences and all the other things that make someone who they are.
I turned those insights into practical recommendations and ideas for the product. Then I worked with the wider team, from the CEOs to product managers, training them in neuroinclusive product design and giving them practical tools they could use as they continued to develop the app.
““Sascha’s training sharpened how we build. It made us more disciplined about simplifying: cutting choices back so the options left are clearer, rather than adding more. Her research was one of the best pieces of user research we’ve commissioned. It let everyone take part, however they communicate, and gave us the features and the language at the heart of our epilepsy app for neurodivergent young people.””
