EpiConnect - Self-management App for People with Epilepsy

EpiConnect - Self-management App for People with Epilepsy
Timeline

September 2025 - April 2026

Role

UX Research Lead
UX Designer

Collaboration

1 Product Manager
3 Designers
3 Developers
4 Research Stakeholders

Nav

Problem

Most people with epilepsy track their seizures and medications using multiple tools, causing confusion and trouble in analyzing symptoms due to the disorganization and users' memory issues.

Solution

We built a centralized platform to record everything epilepsy-related, which is designed for this audience's unique pain points. Users can understand their conditions better through AI-powered insights and patterns.

Impact
93%

user satisfaction rate on the final prototype

74%

potential conversion rate
(tester to future user)

CONTEXT

When academic research meets UX

Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disorder in the world, which causes recurring, unprovoked seizures.

Some professors and PhD students at Drexel University are studying the human behaviors in epilepsy. We partnered with them to build an app that improves the experience of people with epilepsy and their caregivers.

PROBLEM

Epilepsy is unpredictable and patients can't keep track of their conditions

Through stakeholder interviews and secondary research, I realized that people with epilepsy have specific struggles that others don't understand.

People with epilepsy report memory problems.

People with epilepsy report memory problems.

They are likely to forget to take medication, or forget when they experienced seizures.

They are likely to forget to take medication, or forget when they experienced seizures.

Don't have a systematic way to manage their epilepsy.

Don't have a systematic way to manage their epilepsy.

They tend to use the Notes and Calendar apps, or a physical diary, which makes it hard to synthesize information and identify trends/patterns.

They tend to use the Notes and Calendar apps, or a physical diary, which makes it hard to synthesize information and identify trends/patterns.

How might we create a centralized hub catered for people with epilepsy and their specific needs, which enables them to track their symptoms and understand their conditions better?
IDEATION

Accessibility when designing for a vulnerable population

This is my first time designing for a target audience with specific health concerns, so I conducted a desirability study and a co-design session to learn how visuals and interfaces can impact people with epilepsy.

Avoid bright colors and motion

Flashing light and animation can potentially trigger seizures. We prioritized designing the dark mode version of the app while still ensuring color contrast and bring calm, relaxed feelings to users.

Personalize experiences

Epilepsy is extremely complicated and varied — each person can experience it very differently.

We customized the app experience based on individual users' unique triggers and seizure types.

Create a positive perception of epilepsy

People often associate epilepsy with the image of a lightning bolt striking through a brain, which evokes negative connotations and emotions.

We created Finn — a mascot that acts as a gentle and supportive companion for people with epilepsy, helping them feel better about their conditions.

CHALLENGE

Manage stakeholder expectations and set product prioritization

Expectations 🌟

Stakeholders wanted to have a fully functional app with 5-6 main features that is ready to launch at the end of the 6-month project.

Constraints ⚠️

  • Building from scratch with no funding

  • Working 5-10 hours/week

  • Recruiting user testing participants take time

Considering stakeholder and user needs, as well as the team's bandwidth, I analyzed all the features on an Impact-Effort matrix and proposed the list of prioritization to the rest of the team.

Throughout the project, we were constantly discussing to make sure everyone on the same page with where the project goes.

Must have

Nice to have

Skip for now

DESIGN DECISION #1

All-in-one Epilepsy diary: Seizures, Medications, and Daily check-ins

Users either don't use any platform to record their symptoms, or use too many platforms all at once: calendars, Notes app, journal, etc. These tools are not designed for people with epilepsy specifically and require a lot of manual work.

I designed a specialized feature for each type of conditions users often need to log, providing templates and auto-populated fields to save time and effort.

DESIGN DECISION #2

AI-powered Insights and Trends

Logging medication and seizures wouldn't mean anything if users couldn't identify patterns and trends of their conditions, especially when epilepsy is unpredictable and complicated.

I designed an AI agent that could autonomously analyze users' data and reveal hidden insights into each person's unique experience with epilepsy — what they don't see on the surface.

Previous Iteration
Previous Iteration

❌ Surface-level insights

❌ No trends/ patterns over the time

❌ Text > Statistics & data

Final Iteration
Previous Iteration

✅ Highlight key data points + stats

✅ Show changes in user's conditions over the time

✅ Reveal hidden causes of seizures

Previous Iteration
Previous Iteration

❌ Using text to describe info is confusing

❌ Limited space to display multiple info types

Final Iteration
Previous Iteration

✅ Using both icons & colors for accessibility

✅ Show multiple info all at once for easier comparison

BEYOND THE PHONE SCREEN

Experimenting with AR glasses & smartwatches

IMPACT & USER FEEDBACK

Users make better decisions and get the tasks done more quickly

I tested the prototype with 8 users from diverse backgrounds—including students and tech professionals—with varying levels of cloud experience (beginner to intermediate) and from different regions across America, Europe, and Asia. The outcome was promising.

87%

Participants said the user flow was easy to comprehend, and the visual design and content were intuitive

70-75%

of the user process was automated by Copilot Agent, which gave users ease of mind

“The Cost Simulator feature shows me how my expenses would be impacted if I changed my services, which enables me to make informed, cost-effective decisions on Azure.”
“I love how I can interact with AI right in my main workflow on the portal without opening a sidebar or a fullscreen chat. It helps maintain the Cost Management context and a centralized user process.”
“Azure is a complex platform with lots of features I don’t know, so it’s great to have an AI agent get the tasks done for me, instead of just answering my questions like a chatbot. And I love that I have control over the AI!”
REFLECTION

What I learned as a Designer

Responsible AI

Being assigned to work on an AI-first project, I always reminded myself the most important goal was to remain user-centric and make sure my AI-powered design could solve user problems.

Think outside the box

As a designer, I’m often encouraged to follow the design systems, but in this project, I was given the creative freedom to explore new design elements. This experience taught me to take bold steps beyond the patterns I had limited myself to, create something new, and demonstrate its usability to the team.

Two-way collaboration

As a young designer, I’ve always seen collaboration as a way to learn from others and get feedback on my work. But this project showed me that my ideas could also contribute to others’ projects and inspire them. My design turned out to be more influential than I expected!

Big thanks to my teammates for building this app with me!

©
Kaylie Nguyen

2026