Balance PC

MediLife Software produced a series of personal health titles. MediLife is now defunct, but some of their products are now sold by Proactive Metabolics.

I filled several roles at MediLife: I was responsible for all visual aspects of the product line, which included Balance PC (diabetes), Fit City (weight loss), a women's health title, a diabetes information web site, and an interactive demonstration of an Internet based drug store.

I defined the look and feel of the products and was chief user interface implementer. I collaborated with the development and marketing teams to define product features. Acting as art director, I identified artists to create original illustrations that were used in the packaging and splash screens.

The first product released by MediLife Balance PC was a personal disease state management program for individuals with diabetes. It is this product that is discussed in the rest of this page.

Design Highlights:

• Easy Navigation
• Daily Overview
• Fast Date Navigation
• Useful Visualizations
• No Red Numbers

The daily overview acts as a home base for users and offers the user a clear presentation of the day's events and many paths to other views.

The jump bar allows navigation to the major areas of the programs.

The daily overview area displays the day's events in one of three views: sorted by time ("Schedule"), sorted by category ("Health"), and meal details ("Food"). The calendar taps provide access to these views of the day.

The compact calendar display facilities fast navigation to other days.

The event list permits the user to add new events to a day's agenda.

The daily overview displays day's activities in three formats. The schedule view sorts entries by time. Since mealtimes are essential to a diabetes patient's schedule, meals act as visual anchors in this view.

The user can check off events as they occur. Once an event is checked it becomes available to all reports and graphs.

The date navigator realizes a design proposed by Kevin Mullet. This implementation modifies his concept to fit it into a small space.

The current year, with a white background, is flanked by buttons that move the year up or down by one. The month and day can be selected directly. An addition button, "Today," navigates immediately to the current date.

The daily analyzer compresses the display of all items relevant to managing diabetes: blood glucose reading, insulin and other medications, observed symptoms, and meal time and composition. So, the diagram above indicates that a low blood glucose reading followed and exercise session. The patient could conclude that a snack before or after aerobics would prevent that drop

A weekly version of this display, also part of the product, permits the detection of patterns over a wider time window.

Although diabetes is a physiological condition -- high blood sugar caused by insufficient in ineffective insulin -- interviews with the people with this condition revealed that they have a complex psychological relationship with it. Patients are forced to regulate and monitor many aspects of their lives. Blood glucose meters are typically used to take readings several times a day. A blood glucose reading is not experienced as an objective datum; it is often regarded as a judgment of the individual's worth. So, patients will skip readings if they anticipate a bad result. As one patient who was interviewed stated it, "If I've enjoyed myself at a birthday party, I don't test. I know that my blood sugar is too high." There was no point in adding another strident voice that would be ignored