Memo Health: Revolutionizing Medication Management

Designing for Health: Tinylogics' Innovative Approach to Medication Adherence

The inspiration for Memo Health came from the understanding that environment cues can significantly influence behavior. Professor Marteau at Cambridge University demonstrated how reducing the size of sugary drinks promotes healthier choices. Tinylogics applied this concept to medication adherence, designing an app that cues users to comply with their medication regimen.

Memo Health stands out for its unique properties. It integrates Bluetooth and cellular smart pillboxes to automatically generate records, eliminating confusion about whether medication has been taken. It also features remote family adherence tracking and VoIP calls, allowing family members to engage with their loved ones. An advanced algorithm learns from the user's habits, reminding them to take medication only if they fail to do so, making the app's reminders less intrusive.

The design realization of Memo Health combines technology with a tactile user experience. The app feels like a piece of Memo stuck on the fridge, tracking both trivial and important tasks. Light skeuomorph design elements give users the feeling of operating the app like a piece of Memo, without overwhelming the user's visual field.

Memo Health works seamlessly with wearables like the Apple watch, Bluetooth smart pillboxes, and cellular smart pillboxes. It juggles data across multiple platforms and the cloud, enabling remote family adherence tracking and engagement. The app is about intelligence, actively interacting and informing the user, as opposed to serving as a passive tool.

The design of Memo Health faced challenges in balancing complexity and intuitiveness. The goal was to make the app intuitive for non-tech savvy users while allowing eager users to explore deeper functionalities. This required designing a learning curve that encourages exploration and limits unnecessary choices. The design team also had to learn from user behavior data to fine-tune the design.

The project started in 2012 in Cambridge, UK, and spanned four years and 10 thousand miles to Shenzhen, China, where the hardware part - Memo Box was manufactured. The Memo Health APP was published in August 2016 and received the Red Dot award in 2016. The design was awarded Golden in A' Mobile Technologies, Applications, and Software Design Award in 2017.

The centerpiece of Memo Health design is the feel of intelligence, derived from actively interacting with the user. This unifies with a light skeuomorphic approach, offering the user a sense of attachment. The amalgamation of intelligence and personal approach serves an important purpose - to give the user a sense of ownership and to cue the user to comply with one’s own medication regimen at the rightful moments.