Challenge

The challenge I decided to tackle is that of ​medication non-adherence ​ , specifically

among ​mobile diabetics ​ . Let me explain what each of those highlighted terms mean. Medication

non-adherence is the tendency for patients with chronic diseases to not stick to their medication  regimen as prescribed by their doctor. Mobile diabetics are diabetics that are constantly on the  move, for example, students and young professionals, and thus need to carry their medication  with them. They are busy with their hectic/unconventional schedules, and hence find it difficult to  adhere to their regimen. Diabetes requires patients to adhere to their doses on a timely manner,  or they might develop complications and even face fatal consequences.

To address the problem, we must first understand the cause behind this problem. Mobile

diabetics tend to forget or confuse their medications and end up taking the wrong dose or even  the wrong medication. The confusion might be due to lack of attention or seriousness towards  their condition, or the complicated medication regimen that they were prescribed. Their busy  schedules further exacerbate the issue and lead to missed doses or overdoses to cover up  missed doses. Both of which can lead to fatal consequences.

Selection

I used the ​Storytelling ​  design tool to better understand the problem at hand. I chose this

tool since I found it to be a good way to put oneself into the shoes of the challenged individual  and experience the problem from their perspective. It is crucial to understand the daily routine  and habits of a mobile diabetic before even trying to come up with solution ideas. Once we have  sufficient knowledge about their day-to-day activities, we can use this tool to tell the story of a  day in the life of a mobile diabetic, with the hope that this will uncover insights that were  previously hidden.      Application

I spent some time with a friend of mine who is a diabetic and a young professional,

which is my ideal target user. I gathered information about his daily routine and his existing  problem with non-adherence. This information was captured in the form of notes, from his  waking up to sleeping. I also found more studies and experiences online that further verified and  strengthened my notes.

In order to more accurately represent the target user base, I decided to combined

aspects from the routines and mix-and-match experiences of various people and created a  unique story out of it. This way it’s not just biased towards my friend and represents several  aspects to this problem. I now had a way to look at the problem from the user’s perspective and  walk myself in their routine.

Insight

By creating a story out of the problem, I could very clearly understand the problem on a

first-person basis. By sharing this story with some of my friends, they were very easily able to  relate to the problem and even thought of some ideas that might help. I think the biggest  advantage of creating a story is that everybody on the team/organization knows exactly what  the strategy or vision is and can relate to it, from the blue collars to the pink and to the white  collars.

As I went through the story, it forced me to ask crucial questions, the answers to which

might lead to potential solutions. For example, ​why are they forgetting to take the medication?  How can they be reminded if they forget? How can they get help if an emergency may arise due  to a missed dose or overdose? ​   Each of these questions can have a solution or part of the

solution, and it became evident due to the storytelling technique.      Approach

If I had to this second time around, I would try the Visualization tool because it would

have helped to get a visually descriptive representation of the problem. It also goes well with  storytelling since a story is very easy to visualize and understand better. Maybe some  combination of these two techniques would be interesting to experiment. For example, creating  a visualization of the story, say like a storyboard/comic-book technique, and putting it up on the  walls in the company lobby or in the common areas, so that all employees can see it everyday  and the strategy is transparent across the company.

