Hello, I’m Emma, A fun-loving, enthusiastic and inquisitive UX designer. I’m the founder of Insurin and soon-to-be graduate user experience designer at Puppet. Working on my major project ‘Insurin’ has opened many doors for me, from winning Belfast Business Idea 2022 to currently being in the final stages of Co-Founders by Catalyst managing a team who wants to make my product become a success.
Insurin is an app to help newly diagnosed type 1 diabetics manage their condition with confidence and without fear, ensuring confidence in insulin dependency.
I decided to work on this project as it has personal meaning to me as I am a type 1 diabetic. Secondly, I wanted to spend my final year of university working on something that could change lives. When newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes the only form of guidance patients have are leaflets. Considering the average age of diagnosis is thirteen, the lack of engaging and age specific content on these leaflets often means they are ignored and disregarded. This in turn causes unnecessary added stress on an already overloaded NHS and the emotional and mental health of those newly diagnosed can often plumit.
Through Insurin, newly diagnosed type 1 diabetics won’t need to worry about navigating a life changing condition alone as Insurin will provide the reassurance they need. Insurin will send prompts to the user throughout their day, encouraging them to pay attention to their glucose levels and view relevant guidance and education. Helping those newly diagnosed manage their condition with confidence and without fear.
The creation of Insurin began by speaking to diabetics, carers of those with the condition and health care professionals. I carried out surveys, user interviews and went to support groups so I could understand if there was something that could be done to make the patient user experience better and reduce NHS health costs. It became clear that the burden of a life changing diagnosis affected those involved not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally. Not only was the young person worried and shocked but parents felt a responsibility to make sure their child was feeling okay all of the time. Not only did this take away the childs independence but it left the parent feeling emotionally and mentally drained.
From carrying out user research I was able to decide upon features that can help make the user feel reassured and encouraged so they can manage their condition with confidence and without fear. I would like to launch Insurin for guardians in the near future to help them throughout the diganosis period also.
By being able to decide upon my features I could start planning out my app architecture and what my user interface would look like. Living with diabetes can be overbearing when it comes to charts and graphs displaying important figures. This can cause users of many competitor apps to have cognitive overload. There is so much data heavy information that can confuse young people when it comes to their blood glucose levels. However, they just want to know if they are okay!
My placement year at Puppet helped me to learn how to design around large amounts of complex information and create an app which only displays what's important and useful to know.
I am very happy with how my project has turned out. It enabled me to uncover potential I never knew I had. There was a drive within me to take Insurin to the next level and make it become a success. Insurin is now the Belfast Business Idea Winner of 2022 and I am now a finalist in the Co-Founders 2022 co-hort. Insurin is also being pitched at the Belfast Telegraph Business Awards against four other business ideas and with this funding me and my co-founders team hope to advance the product so it is ready for market.
You can find out more about my project and my process at https://www.emmacorbett.design/dashboard
