Migraine Management App

A multi-channel migraine management system spanning app, watch, and voice UI — designed to empower patients who desperately seek control, empowerment, and hope. Every migraine experience is unique, but the impact on life is universal.

Migraine sufferers face frustration ("I don't know what caused it, therefore I don't know how to stop it"), hopelessness ("No matter what I do, it still feels hopeless"), and isolation ("People will not understand and think 'you only have a headache'").

Patients struggle with unpredictable attacks that disrupt professional and personal life, painkiller stress from needing more medication than prescribed, and the emotional toll of a condition others don't take seriously.

Existing tools failed to support the full migraine lifecycle — from ongoing management through pre-attack warnings, during-attack logging, to post-attack pattern analysis and trigger identification.

Conducted early-phase ethnographic research to understand the migraine experience holistically. Mapped the complete user experience across ongoing use, pre-attack, during-attack, and post-attack phases.

Created migraine interaction maps connecting triggers, predictions, medications, treatment efficacy, quality of life tracking, and clinician insights into a cohesive feedback loop system.

Applied behavior design frameworks — analyzing patient knowledge, self-efficacy, motivations, environmental context, and system-level opportunities including smart defaults, triggers to act, and cognitive load reduction.

Ideated over 80 concepts in 3 weeks based on opportunity areas and behavioral interventions. Collaborated with product managers and developers on trigger identification from device data.

Multi-channel system adapting to context: full app for daily management, watch for discreet during-attack logging, voice UI for hands-free interaction when screen use worsens symptoms.

Migraine Mode — automatically activating Do Not Disturb, dark/low contrast screen, and passive context tracking during attacks to minimize cognitive load while still capturing data.

Smart prompting based on trigger alerts, activity tracking, location, time, and daily routines — reducing the burden of manual logging while building a rich personal migraine profile.

Post-attack recaps synthesizing duration, severity, symptoms, medications, context, and possible trigger events — helping patients and clinicians identify patterns over time.

Key design guidelines established: making migraine entry effortless, adapting the system based on individual patient context, and supporting learning while experiencing.

Framework for patient-empowering relationships that explicitly communicates value and enables learning by doing rather than front-loaded onboarding.