Timeline

2022-2023

Company

Dexcom

Role

Product Creative Lead

UX Animation Director

Project Initiator

User Advocate

Cross-functional Liasion

Product Creative Lead

UX Animation Director

Project Initiator

User Advocate

Cross-functional Liasion

Product Creative Lead

UX Animation Director

Project Initiator

User Advocate

Cross-functional Liasion

Collaborators

Motion Designer

UX/UI Designers

Product Management

Human Factors Engineers

Software Engineers

Motion Designer

UX/UI Designers

Product Management

Human Factors Engineers

Software Engineers

Motion Designer

UX/UI Designers

Product Management

Human Factors Engineers

Software Engineers

Increase sensor insertion success rate through the use of short animations


Context: what is Dexcom G7?


Dexcom is a global company that designs and manufactures continuous glucose monitoring systems for people living with diabetes.


The Dexcom sensor is paired with the Dexcom app, and sends the patient's glucose reading to the app. The patient interacts with the data in real time, which inform them of insulin dosing, and diet and physical activity decisions. The app includes additional features to make their diabetes management easier.



Our in-product illustrations are there to provide guidance, feedback, and reinforcement to at key moments through the user journey.

Background:

Shortly after Dexcom G7 launched in February 2023, a small percentage of first-time users had troubles inserting the new Dexcom G7 sensor following instructional illustrations. Step 4, for example, proved to be a persistent hurdle for many of our users.

Proposed solution:

Using animations to replace static illustrations at key steps


Constraints to proposed solution:

  • Competing priorities

  • Engineering team preferred static illustrations over Mp4s to keep app size small / not allowed to use Lottie / Rive files due to concerns of security breach (since medical device app)

  • Difficult to secure buy-in for novel approach


My approach to moving this initiative forward:

  • The first thing I did was mapping out the existing sensor insertion flow

From there, I started with a rough re-imagination of what it could be like to have a flow that provides video instructions on select steps that were challenging for first-time users.

  • This is not meant to be the final solution at all, but rather to get the product and engineering teams thinking

  • I showed the design at our product team’s weekly design critique and got some genuinely interested responses and feedback. That’s where I received the green light and resources to explore this further

I documented the initial feedback (examples below):

  • Product team suggested removing the dark overlay so people can see the graphic at first glance

  • Create a countdown stamp at each animation’s top right corner so users understand these animations are short

After the initial showing at our design crit, UX UI designers, PM, HF joined forces with Product Creative. Arrived at final solution:

  • Animation implemented at key steps

  • Autoplay once

  • Play button shows video progress

Impact:

Animations demonstrated higher success rate than static illustrations in subsequent testing

What would I do differently if I had more time, resources, etc.:

Turn these animations into platform native code to keep app size small (since we are not allowed to use Lottie or Rive files to achieve that goal)

The final animation implementation:
  • Animations implemented at key steps

  • Autoplay once

  • Play button shows video progress

What would I do differently if I had more time, resources, etc:
  • Turn these animations into platform native code to keep app size small

The final animation implementation:
  • Animations implemented at key steps

  • Autoplay once

  • Play button shows video progress

What would I do differently if I had more time, resources, etc:
  • Turn these animations into platform native code to keep app size small

The final animation implementation:
  • Animations implemented at key steps

  • Autoplay once

  • Play button shows video progress

What would I do differently if I had more time, resources, etc:
  • Turn these animations into platform native code to keep app size small