Symple
Roles - designer, researcher
Methods - visual design, wireframing, prototyping, user research, user analysis
Tools - Figma
Symple is a streamlined symptom tracking app designed to make logging your symptoms and health as easy as possible. With an intuitive interface, and support for both on-screen widgets and smart watch integration, it helps you quickly identify health patterns and take informed steps toward treatment.
This project focuses solely on the UX design process, including user research, ideation, wireframing, and prototyping.
Problem
People struggle to track their symptoms effectively, delaying crucial health insights
For years, I battled unexplained health issues, bouncing between doctors and tests without clear answers. Every appointment came with the same question: “When did your symptoms start? How have they changed?” And every time, I struggled to recall the details. I tried keeping notes in my phone, using symptom tracking apps, even scribbling symptoms in a journal—but nothing fit seamlessly into my daily life.
This experience made me wonder: Why is symptom tracking so difficult? If identifying patterns earlier could mean faster diagnoses and better treatment, why isn’t there a tool that makes it effortless?
The Solution
Seamless Health Tracking
- Track your symptoms, nutrition, medications, and bowel movements instantly with one tap
- No more navigating through long menus or filling out tedious forms.
- Simplifies the process, makes tracking your health a seamless part of daily life
Get a Quick Glance of your Health
- View everything you’ve logged by day in a single glance
- Filter entries by type for a more focused glance
Daily Check-Ins
- Easily track your mood, stress, energy, and sleep with a quick daily check-in
- Build a regular habit of self-awareness
- Gain insights into how daily factors impact your overall health
AI-Powered Insights & Trends
- AI analyzes symptom history and detects patterns automatically
- Highlights trends, potential triggers, and symptom fluctuations
- Transforms raw data into clear, actionable health insights
White Paper Research
To ground the development of Symple in research, I explored studies on symptom tracking, patient engagement, and health outcomes. One particularly compelling study highlights the crucial role of self-monitoring in managing chronic conditions and improving healthcare interactions. A study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found that:
"Patients who actively track their symptoms report improved communication with healthcare providers, leading to more accurate diagnoses and timely interventions. Regular symptom tracking has also been associated with increased patient awareness and proactive health management."
Further supporting this, research on self-care for chronic illness underscores the importance of symptom recognition as a distinct and necessary step in the self-care process. Without recognizing changes in symptoms, individuals struggle to take appropriate action. As one study explains:
"Monitoring for changes in signs or symptoms is necessary for effective self-care management because one cannot decide what to do about a symptom unless it has been noticed and evaluated."
Beyond symptoms, tracking nutrition is a crucial component of identifying health trends and supporting proactive care. Nutritional imbalances can contribute to a range of health issues, from deficiencies that weaken the immune system to overnutrition-related chronic diseases. Research on nutritional screening emphasizes the value of early detection in improving health outcomes:
"Imbalanced nutritional status adversely affects the health and wellness of individuals. By evaluating the nutritional status of individuals early on, nutritional screening and assessment allow for timely intervention and thus help maintain the health and wellness of individuals and improve quality of life."
Incorporating nutrition tracking into symptom monitoring provides a more comprehensive view of a person's health, allowing individuals and healthcare providers to connect dietary patterns with symptom fluctuations. This proactive approach helps break the cycle between malnutrition and disease which allows for interventions and improving overall clinical outcomes.
Similarly, tracking bowel movements plays a significant role in monitoring overall health. Research has established that stool frequency and consistency can serve as early indicators of chronic health conditions, including gastrointestinal disorders, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. One study highlights:
"Analyses of bowel health should consider the joint effects of stool frequency and stool consistency. Self-appraisal of stool frequency and consistency may be a simple but useful tool for informing about major chronic illnesses."
Deviations from normal bowel patterns, such as infrequent soft stools or frequent hard stools, are linked to higher health risks. Regular tracking helps individuals recognize irregularities early and support timely medical intervention and better overall health management.
Competitive Analysis
The competition has too much friction when tracking
I evaluated 4 popular symptom tracking apps:
I found that a common theme among these apps is that they require too many steps to track symptoms. Users must navigate multiple menus, select from long lists, or input excessive details before logging a single symptom. This friction discourages consistent use, which is critical for effective symptom management.
I noticed also noticed several recurring UX challenges across these apps:
- The interfaces often feel cluttered, making it difficult for users to focus on what matters
- Too many features create decision paralysis; users struggle to know where to start
- Graphs and charts lack clear explanations, leaving users unsure of how to interpret their data
- In Bearable and Ada, it’s not immediately obvious where or how to log symptoms
User Interviews
To better understand the challenges people face in managing their symptoms, I conducted interviews with 6 participants who experience varying degrees of health issues. The goal was to explore how they track, interpret, and act on symptoms, as well as the difficulties they encounter when trying to communicate these concerns to healthcare providers. To uncover trends and pain points, I asked the following questions, which were designed to provide insight into their symptom management habits and barriers to seeking care. The data was then analyzed using affinity mapping to identify key patterns.
Research questions
- Tell me about a time when you noticed a change in your health. What did you do next?
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How do you usually keep track of symptoms when you're not feeling well?
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How do you usually act on symptoms once you notice them?
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Have you ever delayed seeking care because you weren’t sure if a symptom was serious? Why?
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What challenges have you faced when trying to understand or manage your symptoms?
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Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed to explain your health concerns but struggled to remember or describe your symptoms?
Insights from User Interviews
Wireframes
Testing and Improvements
Based on feedback from 6 peers, I refined my design over 2 weeks and implemented three major improvements:
Final Design
Onboarding
Daily View
Tracking / Logging
Daily Check-In
Insights / Reviews
Home / Lockscreen
Apple Watch App
What I Learned
I’m extremely grateful to have been through an entire UX process so I can see what it’s actually like. On that note, here’s a few things I’ve learned:
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Simplify, then simplify again. Early designs included too many features that, while useful, added unnecessary friction to the experience. Through testing and iteration, I learned that the best design choices often come from removing rather than adding.
- User feedback is everything. My initial assumptions about symptom tracking were challenged through interviews and testing. Users struggled with logging symptoms quickly, which reinforced the need for a frictionless interface. Regular feedback loops ensured that the final design aligned with real user needs.
- Clarity beats complexity. Many competing apps provided data-rich visualizations, but users found them difficult to interpret. I focused on designing insights that were not only informative but also actionable and easy for users to understand their health trends at a glance.
- Iteration is the real design process. This project went through multiple rounds of iteration, each refining and improving the product. Testing and revising based on real-world use cases helped me develop a more thoughtful and user-friendly experience.
- Good UX is invisible. The most effective designs don’t call attention to themselves, they just work. By prioritizing simplicity and intuitive interactions, I wanted to make Symple feel like a natural extension of the user’s daily routine rather than just another health app.