ChroniCuddles — Your cuddly health companion

UI/UX Design • 2024

ChroniCuddles app screens on a teal background

The Problem

Chronic illnesses are associated with a variety of negative experiences, such as physical pain or negative emotions. Their maintenance requires the person to feel well enough to bear this burden.

The Solution

ChroniCuddles turns this burden into a positive activity to help you manage your daily health tasks and celebrate your victories! This gamified app allows you to choose from a variety of chronic diseases, each represented by a cuddly companion. To care for these companions, users are encouraged to complete tasks tailored to each disease, such as making regular doctor visits, taking prescribed medications, and performing suggested exercises.

Project timeline across Discovery, Design, and Delivery phases
Team — Duru Erdem, Elif Laçin Aytaç

Design System

The ChroniCuddles logo, cuddly avatars, playful color palette, and typography (Quicksand for headings, Inter for body) were built to feel warm, soft, and reassuring rather than clinical.

ChroniCuddles design system: logo, avatars, colors, typography, components, and icons

User Interfaces

The final interfaces cover onboarding, task and medication tracking, a calendar for upcoming appointments, achievements, and celebratory moments when a task is completed.

Grid of ChroniCuddles app screens: profile, tasks, chronic illness selection, calendar, achievements, monitoring, and nutrition

Evaluative Research

User tests with Premo method and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 people to understand the emotional responses.

Three usability test tasks given to participants, covering diabetes, drug cabinet, and appointment scheduling

Results

Overall, the feedback of the users aligned with the main goal of ChroniCuddles, which is to ease the burden of chronic illness management. The gamification and tracking features elicited positive emotions. Finally, we revised the appointment and calendar features of the app in response to the constructive feedback received from our users.

Emotional response radar chart comparing Task 1, Task 2, and Task 3
"The characters make the disease lighter and more bearable."
"I like the way it organizes different tasks in one app and I think it would be helpful for somebody who is sick / needs medication."
"What surprised me the most was that I felt like I was playing a game."