Caritt: Dynamic Allergy Care

Caritt is a proposed on-the-go environmental allergy care system: the Caritt app takes in real-time information (geolocation, weather, pollen levels) and references the user's noted allergens and symptoms to create informed recommendations on medication use frequency and dosage; the carrying case is both a visual reminder to take medications and an encouragement to keep up proactive care.

Over the course of 15 weeks, I developed Caritt in four stages: research identifying a problem space and affirming product opportunity gap; research on allergies and affected people, existing products and solutions, and developing a product proposal; prototyping developing the proposed product; and finalization and presentation of Caritt.
Duration:
15 weeks

Skills:
Product Opportunity Research
Competitive Research
Comparative Analysis
Solidworks Modeling
Keyshot Rendering

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Environmental allergies are the sixth most common chronic disease in America; since they are not preventable or avoidable, leaving people to combat their reactions and symptoms since the factors that affect each individual are highly variable and dynamic, there is a significant cognitive burden on sufferers to accurately predict and treat what symptoms will affect them on any given day. Caritt reduces the cognitive load by taking on the "guesswork" and functions as a reminder for proactive care and relief.

In order to come to the presented solution and product, I conducted research for a period. This research ranged from the latest allergy treatment trends and current market products to surveying individuals' personal experiences trying to keep up with their allergies and what would best support them in taking care of themselves. The following is a brief summary of my user research and market competition, however, you can read my full paper here.

Ultimately, the majority of the problem lies in reducing both the symptoms and the effort of managing allergy symptoms that create a significant burden on those with allergies. With the current healthcare space moving towards more digitized care, there is an opportunity to leverage individual personal and public data to generate tailored relief recommendations and set the expectations of their allergies for the day.

Based on the data gathered from the survey participants and competitive product analysis, three major characteristics had to be at the center of considerations: organization, confidence, and urgency. The product requires easy navigation or makes it easier for the user to navigate their allergies, allows for the user to feel confident in themselves and the data provided and collected, and should urge the user to immediately take care of themselves. One of the major technical concerns was personal privacy and security. This element pointed towards working within an existing healthcare system, specifically MyChart, MyHealth’s app, that already has built-in security; it is no longer a third-party product, but something that is a part of the user’s care provider’s system. MyChart was specifically chosen because it is the leading healthcare application, serving almost half of the US population. By working into a preestablished system, it also allowed for direct data sharing between users and their doctors.
Parallel to these sketches, I was ideating and prototyping physically to confirm or dismiss ideas. From there, I would create the physical grey model as a representative for my final presentation.
Gauging minimum size tolerances for standard allergy medications: pill bottles, inhalers, eyedrops, and nasal rinses.
Puzzling together medication profiles and experimenting with how to hold medications in place.