Glisten
At-home dental monitoring & diagnostic product
OVERVIEW
Glisten was the brainchild of a 3-person interdisciplinary team that I was a part of. The team, consisting of a bio-medical engineer, a bio-technologist, and I, created this product from the ground up within 6 weeks. We competed in multiple design and business competitions, which culminated in winning $10,000 cash prize in one particular event.
The Team
Bianca Andrada
Biomedical Engineer
Justin Monaco
Biotechnology Specialist
Anh Dao
Product Designer
My Responsibilities
1
Develop all physical and digital designs for product concept while balancing aesthetics and usability.
2
Collaborate cross-functionally with teammates to balance technical requirements with user needs.
3
Lead user testing to assess physical and digital prototypes to inform product development decisions.
Our Problem
How can we give people more control and proactivity with their oral health?
There is a worrisome portion of Americans whose lives are affected in a negative way due to unspotted or untreated dental issues. Even for those who do go to the dentist, problems arise all the time in between the visits that go unnoticed.
Our Solution
Create an at-home dental monitoring device along with a companion app
This product helps people monitor their oral health and detect potential problems before they develop into a more severe condition in between dentist visits. It also allows people to save time, money, and productivity by limiting avoidable dentist visits.
The App
Onboarding
New users will go through a brief onboarding flow to help them get familiar with the features of the app.
Taking images
The app directly connects to the intraoral camera and displays images from the camera.
Users can switch between white LED and near-infrared light modes to get different kinds of images.
Logging pH Level
The app logs the user's pH results and builds a summary of the pH levels to help track the data.
Users log their daily pH levels by performing the test and scanning the test strip with the app.
Users can create a prediagnostic inquiry whenever they have have any concerns about their oral health and send it to their dentist office.
Information such as pH levels or images can be added into the submission to help their dental provider understand their concerns.
If the issue is minor, users don't have to take time out of their day to go to the dentist office.
Submitting prediagnostic inquiries
The Device
RESEARCH
The Numbers Behind Our Problem
Dental care is a luxury for many adults in the United States. There is a worrisome portion of Americans whose lives are affected in a negative way due to unspotted or untreated dental issues. Even for those who do go to the dentist, problems arise all the time in between the visits that go unnoticed.
$45 billion
lost in productivity every year in the United States from dental problems
1 in 4 adults
in the US have unspotted or untreated dental problems
59% of adults
in the US choose not to go to the dentist due to costs and time
Data taken from the CDC
Our Product Features
Glisten is an at-home dental prediagnostic and monitoring device that helps people stay on top of their oral health in between dentist visits. It comprises of an intraoral camera, a saliva pH test kit, and an accompanying app.
1
Test strips to allow users to track their oral pH levels. An acidic oral environment means there is a high chance of a cavity forming or already existing.
2
Intraoral camera with white light LED and near-infrared light modes. This allows users to have an unprecedented view at their teeth to look for any potential issues.
3
Users can create a prediagnostic inquiry if they have concerns about their oral health and send it to their dentist office to see if they need to come in for an exam.
4
The Glisten app helps track and display pH data as well as serving as a feed for the intraoral camera. Prediagnostics are also sent from the app.
User Persona
User Journey
Monitor
Spot
Consult
Treatment
1. Use Glisten’s saliva pH test strips to monitor oral hygiene and be aware of overall oral health.
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2. Use intraoral camera to visually check for any potential problems with teeth.
3. pH test strips indicate that there could be a developing cavity problem
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4. Use intraoral camera to locate potential area of the problem and take pictures
5. Create prediagnostic
report on Glisten app containing all relevant information
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6. Send to dentist via the app and wait for a response.
7. Receives response from dentist indicating that he needs to come in to have the issue looked at.
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8. Goes to dentist and gets treatment before the problem develops into a full cavity
APP FIRST ITERATION
App Userflow
In order to build the app to fully compliment and work alongside the physical product, I laid out a diagram that best fits the core user flow to aid in making the app prototype.
1st High Fidelity Prototype
The high fidelity prototype below was used to do user testing to gather feedback. This included the main flows such as: logging pH levels, connecting to and using the intraoral camera, and submitting a prediagnostic inquiry.
TESTING
Overview
Using the first iteration of our high-fidelity prototype, our team conducted a usability study to recieve critiques and feedback on the app, it's overall design, and the experience of completing determined tasks. We completed revamped the app based on the feedback to create the final iteration that you can see in the section above.
Hybrid Sessions
Test sessions were conducted through both in person and online sessions
Main Flows Tested
Viewing ph Profile; perform & log pH test; mock use of intraoral camera; create & send test prediagnostics
7 Participants
The participants consisted of 4 males and 3 females, 3 in their late 20s and 4 in their early 30s
Tested Alongside Physical Prototype
Testing of the physical & app prototype were done concurrently to simulate real-life use scenario
20 - 25 Minute Sessions
All test sessions ran for 20 - 25 minutes from start to finish.
Vocal Reasoning
Participants were asked to convey their thought process vocally throughout the tasks.
User Feedback
“The app integrated quite nicely with the camera. Though navigating between tasks was a bit tricky at times. I would’ve liked to have one of those menu bars or something.”
“I'm honestly a bit confused with all the features and how to use them. I feel like you can benefit from having something that guides users through the features. I think there could be a better navigation system too."
UPDATES BASED ON TESTING
Display more relevant information on home page
Adding in a bottom navigation allows us to display a summary of pH data, images, and other relevant information on the home screen.
Adding an onboarding flow for new users
Users commented on their confusion of the app features so we added an onboarding flow to help showcase the different features.
Changing the pH page to be more concise and clear
While there wasn't any specific comments on this page, we wanted to update it to fit with the new look and also to display information in a more succinct manner.
Add viewing & saving feature for imaging
Users wanted the app to save past photos and to be able to look at them so we added this feature to our app. Users will be able to see recent captures they land on the "Imaging" tab.
Making the prediagnostics flow more clear
We also wanted to make the flow for filling out and submitting a prediagnostic inquiry more clear and structured for users based on feedback.
TAKEAWAYS
My Impact
Consistent praise for design of the product concept
Our concept was consistently praised by judges for its attractive physical form and sleek companion app.
Successfully transformed complex task into easy-to-use features
By constant collaboration with my teammates, I was able to create elegant design solutions that took new and unfamilar tasks and packaged them in an intuitive manner for users.
Reflection
What worked well
The 3 of us worked extremely well together. We always took into consideration each other's expertise and perspective on the product to build a well balanced concept.
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The concept itself was interesting and offered our team a lot of areas of opportunity to explore.
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Testing was key for us to polish our product through iterations. Without this key step, we may not have had such succcess.
Challenges
The most challenging part about this project was the technical aspect of creating the physical prototype since the technology we were proposal was so new.
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Another challenge was fine tuning the kinds of features we wanted for this product and how to connect a physical and digital experience together.
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The timeframe was also challenging. 6 weeks may seem a lot but it was certainly a challenge for out team to complete this project in time for judging.