Urwell: a smart analyzer that prevents female Urinary Tract Infection
2014 | Emily Carr University Student Project
Urwell is a consumer urine analyzer that is connected to a smartphone via bluetooth. The purpose of Urwell is to prevent the development of a Urinary Tract Infection through proactively monitoring the patient’s E.Coli level in their urine. Urwell is attached to a toilet and conducts a urinalysis everytime after the user urinates. Urwell collects the test result, translates it into readable information, and sends it to the user’s smartphone via bluetooth. It is an award winning concept prized for its clever strategy and interaction design.
MY ROLES
I was responsible for the entire concept development, research, product design, and final UI and UX execution of Urwell.
CHALLENGES
The biggest challenges our target audience - female patients suffering with recurrent UTI - face are that there aren’t any symptoms before a UTI occurs and the only way to completely cure a UTI is to get doctor prescribed antibiotics from a clinic. Not only the patient has to bear an extreme discomfort while waiting for a diagnosis. The frequent usage of antibiotics also weakens the effectiveness of the drug for future treatment.
Strategies
The design of Urwell is the result of intense research and prototyping. Most of the research effort went into the investigation of the viability of a consumer urine analyzer, a UTI patient’s challenges, and biological data that can be monitored through a urinalysis. Various prototypes were used to determine key decisions of the product. They include the aesthetics and installation of Urwell and the information hierarchy of the test result UI.
Results
Urwell's strength lies in its ability to proactively prevent a UTI before it even happens. On top of notifying the user of any abnormal growth of E. Coli bacteria in their urine, Urwell also reminds the user to drink more water while an infection is likely to occur. Its tracking feature for body chemical changes also provides great insight into one's health.
