ADHD/ADD App
Proof of Concept
UX Case Study

In this exploratory phase, I ask how software might help adults navigate their ADD symptoms to minimize or eliminate harmful pharmaceutical treatment.  

Challenge:
Understanding the problem—diagnosing ADHD/ADD is subjective, and symptoms can change over time. Clinical diagnosis lists three presentations—Predominantly Inattentive, Hyperactive-Impulsive, and Combined. 

Roles, Constraints & Scope:
I am bootstrapping early product development before seeking seed funding. In this validation phase, my roles include Research, UX Design, Testing, and Product Vision.

To maximize resources, I have limited the scope to researching ADD symptoms and therapeutic strategies that can be modeled and tested within four weeks.

Approach:
• Secondary Research on Symptoms and Treatment Strategies
• Primary Research: User interviews and surveys of Reddit groups
• Affinity Mapping (workshop with users)
• User Personas
• Problem Definition
• Competitive and Comparative Analysis
• User Flows & Wireframes
• Feature Prioritization 
• Design & Prototyping
• User Testing

Results/Learned:
Adults with ADHD symptoms seek tools/methods that target specific symptom areas (organization, prioritization, task focus, and time awareness). My user testing revealed a strong desire for a single solution with minimal cognitive load—a toolset that can evolve as their ADHD symptoms/needs change.

Research

I began my work with secondary research, reading articles on the CDC, NIMH, and CHADD websites to understand the science of ADHD/ADD. How is it diagnosed, what are the symptoms and treatment options for adults with ADHA/ADD. I also followed podcasts, Reddit, Facebook groups, and other online communities and support groups, reading first-hand accounts of the frustration and embarrassment that come with this disorder.

This secondary research gave me a solid foundation of understanding. Both the clinician’s perspective (the science) and the patient’s point of view (the emotion) of life with ADHD. 

My primary research focused on uncovering the perceptions and emotions of adults with ADHD/ADD symptoms. I conducted in-person interviews and distributed surveys throughout the Reddit and FB communities asking open-ended questions designed to solicit first-hand stories about the emotional journey, what “life-hacks” worked well and in what areas did the user want help. 

Using affinity mapping to distill the user interview data, I could see clusters starting to form. Patterns of shared experiences, behaviors, and actions became apparent and I recognized adults with ADHD/ADD symptoms struggle with three problem areas:

• Behaviors

• Actions

• Emotions

Comparing these insights to my secondary research, I could see three “problem-areas” mapped to specific clinical diagnosis criteria:

• Executive Function

• Organization

• Focus

For this research and testing phase, I constrained my the goal to address four Adult ADD symptoms that fall into these diagnosis criteria: 

No. 1: Prioritizing Issues (executive function)
Often, people with adult ADHD mis-prioritize, failing to meet significant obligations, like a deadline at work, while spending countless hours on something insignificant.

No. 2: Time Blindness (executive function)
There are many reasons for this. First, adults with ADHD are often distracted on the way to an event, maybe realizing the car needs to be washed and then noticing they’re low on gas, and before they know it, an hour has passed. People with adult ADHD also tend to underestimate how much time it takes to finish a task, whether a major assignment at work or a simple home repair.

No. 3: Disorganized (organization)
For people with ADHD, the responsibilities of adulthood — bills, jobs, and children, to name a few — can make organization problems more apparent and more problematic than in childhood.

No. 4: Extremely Distractible (focus)
ADHD is a problem with attention, so adult ADHD can make it hard to succeed in today’s fast-paced, hustle-bustle world. Many people find that distractibility can lead to a history of career under-performance, especially in noisy or busy offices. 

Maintaining a tight focus on only four symptoms helped narrow the scope of feature development and UX design further down stream development.

Sorting and filtering my user interviews and survey data for trends, I created two user personas to represent my primary cohorts: “Diagnosed User” and “Symptomatic User.”  Each persona noted the users WANTS, PAIN POINTS, and possible OPPORTUNITIES where software could help address the three . Each persona also highlights the cohorts comorbidity risks to remind me of the hidden risks of ADHA and ADD (see the side bar below).

Sidebar: The two cohort distinctions reflect how each user perceives their symptoms. Through their diagnosis and therapy, the Diagnosed User understands the disorder and feels empowered. In contrast, the Symptomatic User defines themselves by their struggles with a high instance of comorbidities (anxiety and depression).

Problem Definition:
Charting the persona’s WANTS,  PAIN POINTS, and OPPORTUNITIES helped inform the evolution and refinement of the final problem definition to: “Adults with ADD symptoms need a way to manage their goals, tasks, and time because they are frustrated and anxious.”

Goal:
Develop a product to address ADHD/ADD symptoms and help improve people’s mental health.

Competitive Research:
The market is saturated with apps addressing ADHD symptoms but they only do one thing—an organizer, a routine builder (executive function), or a Pomodoro timer (focus). There are no apps addressing ADHD/ADD symptoms as a suite of interconnected solutions. 

I also looked outside the app market to consider offline solutions and therapies. These real-life solutions informed and influenced the design or product features, such as the task prioritization feature that emerged later.

Product Vision

I workshopped early ideation and storyboarding with five volunteers who report ADHA/ADD symptoms, representing the “Diagnosed User” and “Symptomatic User” cohorts. Working backward from my four defined symptoms, I looked at LFR (learn from real-life) examples of therapies and tools that might work as software. I simplified problem areas to:

• Structure time

• Organize & Prioritize 

• Sustained Focus

User Experience

Early paper prototyping revealed that simplicity is elusive. I strove for clarity on flow and sequencing of user interactions with card sorting and testing flows with paper prototypes—maintaining focus on minimizing cognitive load.

Notable pivot: I abandoned early ideas of a “Natural Language” interface. This might help reduce cognitive load of the app but based on the project scope (and my bootstrap budget), NLP is not a part of the scope of my research.

With further user testing, observing behavior, and learning from failures, each wireframe prototype incrementally improved the flow and overall experience.

An important learning take-away: effective solutions are not static. Like my users, tools or solutions should support common goals which are constantly fluid.