The following user personas were developed for the Gofire Health Suite, an IoT Healthcare Suite intended to provide relief to those suffering from chronic health conditions. The consumer-facing portion of the Gofire Healthcare Suite consists of:

The Gofire Inhaler
Gofire SmartCartridges
iOS + Android App
Gofire DoseCodes (custom batch-specific QR Codes)

Using the Gofire Health Suite, users can find medication solutions for themselves by searching through products that are most efficacious to others also utilizing the Gofire Health Suite (through aggregated anonymized efficacy product ratings). The Gofire Health Suite covers a variety of dosing modalities, but is primarily focused on medication delivered through the Gofire Inhaler and SmartCartridges. Four User Personas were developed to fully describe user interaction with the Gofire Health Suite. Each persona represents a different type of user utilizing the Gofire system. Each persona is paired with a Daily Planner, which details a day in their life before finding the solution to their problems (the Gofire Health Suite). Once each Persona has discovered the “solution,” they have a unique combination of:

Which technologies they utilize (i.e. Gofire Inhaler, iOS App, Android App, DoseCode, SMARTCartridge)
The manner in which they interact with those technologies

To help further account for this complexity, each User Persona was further developed into an accompanying, individualized Task Analysis. Each Task Analysis describes each Users’ day in detail, including their interactions with the Gofire Health Suite. Though each persona uses the system differently, there is no “wrong” way that a User can interact with the system. One of the primary design heuristics while creating the Gofire Health Suite was emphasising the responsibility placed on the designers of the system to prevent any catastrophic problems from being introduced, no matter what steps in any combination or order a User presents the system. The Gofire Health Suite was designed with this Design Heuristic as a primary design requirement, to prevent catastrophic User Error, and provide a delightful User Experience which for each type of User.

Sofia

Profile

Sofia is a 29-year-old food scientist in a big multinational company. She is the head of her department and regularly gives presentations in front of large groups. She is single and rents a condo with two other young women. Sofia is tech savvy and loves her iPhone, it never leaves her hand.

Sofia suffers from anxiety that is greatly affecting the quality of her work and personal life. It is open knowledge between Sofia’s roommates that she has anxiety. However, her coworkers are not aware of her condition. Sofia has recently started Yoga to try and help with her anxiety, but it has only provided a marginal benefit. Her symptoms would include frequent panic attacks, insomnia, and hyperventilation. Sofia’s symptoms are exacerbated when in work and in large social settings.

Sofia has taken a number of anxiety medications in the past, including: Xanax, Valium, Prozac, and Paxil. Her doctor recently switched her to Zoloft. While these medications have helped her somewhat, she doesn’t like taking Xanax or Valium as they slow her down at work. She has experience with cannabis, but usually in a party or social setting. She owns a 510 thread vaporizer and has also owned and tried multiple other types of vaporizers. The vape crisis has made her wary about using these products anymore.

Other Details

Gadgets: iPhone XR, always with the latest firmware. Macbook Air, Apple Watch, Safari
Favorite Apps: iMessage, Instagram, Snapchat, Facetime, Facebook, Apple Health, Apple News, Pinterest
Drives a Toyota Corolla.
3 Bed, 3 bath Condo in downtown Denver.

Goals

Wants to have control over her anxiety to be able to enjoy and get more out of her day to day life.
Stop/prevent her panic attacks at work.
Address her anxiety in a controlled manner.
Be more sociable.

Frustrations

That people may become aware of her anxiety and see her have a panic attack. Frustration around the office atmosphere. That her anxiety flares when she has to give presentations.
Being exhausted throughout her day.
Dreading social events
The problems with addressing anxiety: it’s expensive to go to counselling and takes up a good amount of time.

Daily Daytime Planner

Friday, April 7th

7:00 am: Wakes up, gets ready leave for work, cat needs to be fed, coffee brewed and dishes from her messy housemates need to go in the washer. She medicates as she’s leaving the house.

8:05 am: Arrives at work. Her bag spilled in her rush to get into the office.

9:00 am: Team meeting, App signals her prescription medication is due to be taken.

11:00 am: Meeting with her supervisor. Goes well. Sofia is to do a presentation later in the week

1:00 pm: Sofia goes out with colleagues for lunch to share her news and dread about doing the presentation. While out, she takes her prescription medication discreetly.

2:00 pm: Back in the office, call with UK team goes on and on.

5:00 pm: Out with her team to a local bar for drinks. She’s not a drinker really but decides to make an effort and it’s a good opportunity to get their ideas about her presentation. She goes to the bathroom for privacy to take her medication. It’s not the cleanest bathroom.

8:00 pm: Sofia drives home. She left her bag at work so she only has her purse with her.

9:00pm: Yoga time

11:00pm: Sofia preps for bed and takes her medication while reading. She nods off shortly after

Task Analysis

Brian

Profile

Brian is a 60-year-old store manager for Best Buy. He is a veteran that served in the Gulf War. He is married with two children — one girl (16) and one boy (14). Brian lives with his wife and children in a single family home in Sarasota, FL. Though he lives in a relatively quiet neighborhood, his neighbor’s noisy dog barks sometimes making it more difficult for Brian to sleep at night. His wife is employed as a nurse and works odd hours. Often, Brian will wake up when she is leaving for her shift at 2:00am, and he is unable to get back to sleep again. Brian also considers himself a “night owl” because though he hasn’t been sleeping well, he feels more energetic in the evening.

Brian suffers from insomnia that is greatly affecting the quality of his waking life and relationships with his family and others. Additionally, he suffers from PTSD from his time serving. While Brian’s symptoms don’t exist at work, he does feel tired and disconnected while there. His PTSD makes him anxious to be in large crowds, and as a result, Brian has to tailor his life around avoiding those situations. Brian and his doctor have tried a number of treatments, including sleeping pills, meditation, diet, and more to address his sleeplessness and waking up in the middle of the night. While some types of sleeping pills have helped him get to sleep, he has suffered from a number of side effects from the various types of sleeping pills he has been prescribed, including Ambien and Lunesta. Brian has also been addicted to sleeping pills in the past, which was a difficult process to recover from. He is now taking a different set of sleeping pills selected by his doctor.

Other Details

Gadgets: Fitbit (sleep pattern tracking), Google Pixel 2, Dell XPS, Ring Doorbell, Amazon Alexa, DJI Mavic Pro (Drone), Mozilla Firefox
Drives a 2013 Xc90
Never used cannabis before. The stigma of cannabis holds him back. He doesn’t want his friends to think that he is a “pothead”. Scared to try on his own and navigate that landscape on his own.
Side effects of sleeping pills: Daytime drowsiness, bad dreams, sleep inertia, addiction (in the past)
There is an aspect of his masculinity that he doesn’t like admitting his problems (even to himself) or seeking solutions to his problems.

Goals

Wants to have control over his sleeplessness at night. Want to address his insomnia in a controlled manner.
Get adequate sleep so he can feel productive in his waking life and have better mood stability
Be more present for his family
Avoid having to take sleeping pills (in order to avoid side effects and potential addiction).
Be able to calm himself (and his nervous system) down when he would like to get to sleep.
Find a safer, more reliable way to fall and stay asleep.
Address his PTSD symptoms, but doesn’t want yet another prescription medication that would cause side effects.

Frustrations

An inability to sleep causes mood swings and lack of focus in his waking life.
Being exhausted throughout the day
Lying awake at night with racing thoughts, even when his body and mind feel exhausted.
A reliance on prescription sleeping medications that work poorly and cause side effects

Daily Daytime Planner

Friday April 7th

6:50 am: Brian wakes up groggy. He didn’t sleep well. Checking his Fitbit, it tells him he got 5 hours of sleep

7:00 am: Breakfast with his kids. His kids are wide awake while he is still very much fighting off tiredness. They finish breakfast and head out to work/school respectively.

7:50 am: Arrives at work. The big project of the day is organizing the new inventory. Brian runs the meeting but is visibly tired. His team can tell he’s not quite himself yet.

9:00 am: Brian is feeling more awake and present after having his 2nd cup of coffee. He’s doing better.

12:00 pm: Brian eats his lunch in the break room with some colleagues. Organizing the new inventory has been hard work and the task is both physically and mentally exhausting. Brian is starting to see the effects.

1:00 pm: After lunch, Brian is feeling better for now.

3:00 pm: A few hours after lunch, Brian is completely exhausted. The last two hours are always the hardest. His team can tell he is having trouble focusing as he makes more mistakes than earlier.

5:00 pm: Brian’s work day is finally over. He drives home. His wife (a nurse) is fast asleep after her shift ended earlier this morning. She almost always works odd hours.

7:15 pm: Brian sees that his son’s high school football game is about to start. Brian wishes he could be there to support his son, but can’t bring himself to be exposed to that large of a crowd. Brian is very sad because his PTSD is causing him to miss out.

10:00pm: Brian checks his watch and sees that the football game is over. Both of his kids are going out with friends and will be back later.

12:00am: His daughter returns home, in time for her 12am curfew. His son is late and Brian stays up waiting for him.

12:30am: His son returns, making excuses for missing curfew. Brian can now try to get some rest.

1:30am: After tossing and turning for an hour, Brian is finally able to fall asleep. The new prescription medication is less addictive than his earlier prescription, but less effective.

2:00am: Brian’s wife wakes up for her shift at the hospital. Despite being as quiet as she can, Brian wakes up and is unable to fall asleep again.

3:00am: Half an hour after his wife leaves the house, Brian is finally able to fall back asleep.

Task Analysis

Jasmine

Profile

Jasmine is a 75-year-old retiree/geriatric. She used to work as a seamstress long ago, but spends her time nowadays with family and at the assisted living facility in which she lives. At this point in Jasmine’s life, she has developed a number of chronic health conditions. While she has a cheery spirit, her conditions severely limit what she can do and in some cases prohibit her from doing them at all. They are also a constant distraction for her throughout her day.

Jasmine suffers from arthritis, chronic pain, and nausea (due to the cocktail of other prescriptions she takes). While Jasmine currently takes several prescription medications, they do not fundamentally lessen the pains associated with some of her conditions. Not taking or switching her medications is not an option for Jasmine. She also often forgets whether or not she took her medication, which can cause her to deviate from her regimen and can be very dangerous, even though her son helps her to fill her monthly pills containers.

While Jasmine says she likes to learn, working with technology has always been a difficult endeavor for her. Her dexterity is very limited and it is painful for her to press buttons and move her fingers repeatedly. She also has trouble reading small (and even standard-sized) text. She has a smartphone, but regularly needs to be reminded about how to perform basic functions she has been previously taught how to do.

Other Details

Apps she uses: Phone, Email, Text
Has an Apple iPhone 6+, given to her by her son.
She has never consumed cannabis before, and does not know where to start. She is afraid of getting too high. She also has no one in her life who she can talk to about it.

Goals

Have less day-to-day pain from her conditions.
Take medications that will not give her nausea, so she doesn’t have difficulty.
To feel as though she has some control over her pain.
Lessen her pain so she can feel more comfortable and psychologically present during the day.
Ensure she is staying on her dosing regimen and be confident that she never misses a dose.

Frustrations

Her pain is a constant feature in her life, and that it takes up so much mental space.
She is not able to participate in some of her favorite activities that cause pain, namely due to her arthritis.
It is easy to forget when she needs to take her medications (or that she has already taken them). This often leaves her feeling confused.
It is difficult to open/use her medicine containers/applicators.
Helplessness in that her side effects cause issues, but not taking her medications would be worse.

Daily Daytime Planner

Friday April 7th

9:00 am: Jasmine wakes up after sleeping ok. Her pain level is higher than normal, not having taken her medications yet. She heads into the kitchen to find her prescriptions. She takes her first round of medications of the day.

9:15 am: Jasmine is nauseous from the medication, but needs to take them with food. She manages to get down a light breakfast which only mildly helps with her nausea. She is both in pain and nauseous, but mildly so for both.

11:00 am: After watching some daytime television, Jasmine heads out to meet a friend for lunch. She brings her medications with her so she can take them beforehand.

11:30 am: Jasmine arrives at the restaurant and takes her medication. Her pain level has been climbing since 9:15 so she is looking for relief. She heads in for lunch.

12:30 pm: After eating lunch, Jasmine returns to her car to find her prescription bottles in her car. Did she take these beforehand? She doesn’t remember. She is in pain and nauseous. She decides not to take more medication. She heads to the park to clear her head.

3:00 pm: Jasmine has had a nice time at the park. Her pain level prevents her from going on walks, but sitting on a park bench watching nature has put her in a better mood. As soon as she gets up to leave, however, she is reminded of her constant pain. She heads back to her car.

5:00 pm: Jasmine is cooking dinner. Her arthritis makes it difficult for her, but she manages. She isn’t particularly hungry, but that’s pretty common for her throughout the day.

5:30 pm: After eating dinner, Jasmine is ready to take more medication. She looks around for her prescriptions but can’t find them. They’re not in their normal spot in the kitchen. Where are they?

5:40 pm: Jasmine remembers that they must be in her car from earlier. She goes out to her garage to get them. She brings them inside and takes them in the kitchen.

8:00 pm: Jasmine winds down for the day. She watches her favorite shows and lounges on the couch. She is in mild pain, but as long as she doesn’t move around too much, she’s ok. Her son got her a new remote that she can speak commands too. She likes it a lot because it’s painful for her to use a normal remote. If only she didn’t hurt so much.

9:00 pm: Jasmine gets ready for bed. She takes her last medications of the day and dozes off.

Task Analysis

Tony

Profile

Tony is a 26 year old former college football player who lives in San Diego. During his athletic career, he attended San Diego State University on a football scholarship. He now works for Enterprise Rent-A-Car and lives with one roommate in a townhouse on the outskirts of the city. He has a social, outgoing personality, and a girlfriend of 4 years.

Tony suffers from intermittent headaches as a result of concussions he experienced while playing football. After getting concussions during his freshman, sophomore, and junior seasons, Tony, his family, and his coaches decided that it would be best for him to medically retire. He is still physically active, but prefers low impact sports and has started taking Jiu-Jitsu classes. Jiu-Jitsu is fun, but takes a toll on his body, which makes him question if he wants to do this athletic endeavor in the long-term.

To treat his headaches, Tony takes Tylenol or Motrin throughout the day to manage his pain. Unfortunately, Tony senses that his body is becoming accustomed to the medication since it is proving less effective over time. He wonders if he needs a prescription, and wishes he had a method to track his pain in the same way he diligently tracks the progress of his workouts in his written journal. Additionally, he feels irritated often, which he suspects is a result of his persistent pain from his headaches. He can recognize that he is agitated but it is hard for him to control his mood when he is upset.

Tony has some experience with cannabis, although it’s not a big feature in his life. During football season while in school Tony wasn’t allowed to use it. During the off-season, Tony would try it at parties, but while he enjoyed the effects he never enjoyed the feeling of inhaling the smoke. After college he started getting into smoking more, but didn’t like his ability to be active when smoking. He was also not a fan of edibles as they give him a “dumb” feeling. His friends suggested trying vaporizers, but he didn’t like the cheap ones on the market, and the premium ones are too expensive for his interest. He is still open-minded, but got turned off to finding his own path for using cannabis.

Other Details

Drives a 2013 Ford Explorer.
Uses an iPhone X. Favorite apps are: Snapchat, Instagram, ESPN, BJJ HQ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Headquarters)
Plays a lot of PS4 games with his old college football buddies, including: Madden, UFC 3, MLB The Show, and FIFA.

Goals

Have some measure of control over his pain, or a better understanding about his (potentially) worsening condition.
Be able to be active in a way that won’t exacerbate his headaches.
Address his irritability.

Frustrations

Concerned that his condition is getting worse, and that pain is becoming a big distraction in his life.
His irritation is affecting his relationships with friends, family, and his girlfriend. It is also affecting his performance at work.
His over-the-counter medications are becoming less effective.
His love for activity is in jeopardy due to his pain.

Daily Daytime Planner

Friday April 7th

7:00 am: Tony wakes up. No headaches, thankfully. His body is pretty sore from Jiu Jitsu the day before, but he manages. He gets ready for work.

7:50 am: Tony arrives at work. Today looks like it’s going to be a busy day with lots of cars scheduled for rental. He begins to mentally prep.

9:00 am: Tony has already helped a few customers when he starts to feel a headache come on. He grabs some Tylenol to try to mitigate it.

11:00 am: Tony’s day is not going very well. The Tylenol he took earlier seemed to do little to address the oncoming headache which is now full blown. It’s clear that his customer service has started to go downhill as his responses to his customers become very short and he loses patience much quicker than before. He knows he is agitated, but it’s difficult for him to manage. Tony takes some Motrin.

1:00 pm: After lunch, Tony is feeling mildly better. He takes some more Tylenol to help stave off the headache that has seemed to subside.

4:00 pm: Tony’s afternoon is going better than his morning went. He seems cheerier and his interactions with his customers have improved.

5:00 pm: Tony heads to his local Jiu Jitsu gym for training.

6:30 pm: After working out, Tony is exhausted, but feeling good. He is sore from Jiu Jitsu, but knows that he’ll be more sore tomorrow. He takes some Motrin.

7:00 pm: Tony gets home and eats dinner.

9:00pm: Tony lounges around his townhouse and plays some video games. He feels another headache coming on so he takes some more Tylenol.

11:00pm: Tony heads to bed.