Habitual
People with narcolepsy track symptoms their way and bring the patterns to their doctor
Freedom to live on your terms
- Key fact
- 5–10 yearsTypical path to a narcolepsy diagnosis
- Team
- 6 master students
- Disciplines
- Design · Digital Health
What happened, step by step.
Challenge
Takeda asked how to support people with narcolepsy beyond medication, so they can predict and manage their condition. Every case differs, so patients and specialists struggle to see how symptoms, habits and medication relate.
What the team learned
Interviewed patients rarely tracked symptoms for long and had abandoned earlier apps and journals. They wanted tracking tailored to their own medication and symptoms, as 6–12 months often pass between specialist visits.
What they built
Habitual is a companion app for people with narcolepsy. Users customise a short morning questionnaire, choose when to track to suit their energy, see real-time charts and scores, follow programmes for routines and print reports for doctor visits.
How it evolved
- Step 1Tested a portable paper diary to check that daily habit tracking can be quick and simple.
- Step 2Trialled a multi-sensory wake-up bed with a patient: gradual stimuli worked, but the system was too large.
- Step 3Turned the Lenny sleep-routine light, liked by five testers, into Lenard, a working scheduling light.
Results
- Remote app tests with patients in Australia and the USA: most found it easy to use and secure.
- Testers asked to track more factors, such as stress, alcohol and menstrual cycle.
- All interviewed patients valued customisable reports, though the sample was small and limited by COVID-19.
Impact
The team sees Habitual as a base for automated tracking with wearables, behaviour-change coaching and community features, and recommends further tests with larger samples.
In their words
A comprehensive companion app like this would be invaluable to everyone living with narcolepsy.
Full project text
The team’s original texts from the project page.
We designed Habitual for people with Narcolepsy.
Habitual empowers people with narcolepsy to understand their condition, manage their lifestyle and participate in society on their terms.
Challenge
How might we support people living with narcolepsy to predict & manage their condition? This was the challenge between the Hasso Plattner Institute and the design factory Melbourne at the Swinburne University of Technology. The students found that behavioural changes are a fundamental part of managing narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is treated by a combination of medications and adopting behavioural changes and better lifestyle habits such as sleep hygiene, exercise and diet. As narcolepsy is so diverse and each person’s experience so varied, the challenge for many people with narcolepsy and their specialists is to understand their condition and how the various symptoms and lifestyle factors correlate.
Solution
Habitual, your Narcolepsy companion.
Habitual will enable people with narcolepsy to learn about their individual condition and understand how their symptoms, medications and other factors correlate with each other.
The student have found that with regular tracking, you can see how your condition correlates with your medication, your lifestyle and most importantly the impact on your sleep. As narcolepsy is so diverse, with Habitual people with narcolepsy can track their specific symptoms. With regular use, they will be able to use the tracked data to adapt their lifestyles, schedules and habits better. In the future, the students hope Habitual will be invaluable to people with narcolepsy by benefits both immediate and over the longer term.
Impact
We understand that daily tracking may be a burden for people with narcolepsy. That’s why they can choose what time of day they would like to track to optimize their energy. We have created questionnaires of the most common narcolepsy symptoms as well as being able to track what matters to you. Habitual provides programs which are integral to building and managing a unique routine and schedule which is a fundamental part of managing narcolepsy.
One of the benefits to the user will be the insights they can gain from the tracked data. My data will provide correlations to show the patterns and trends between various parameters such as their symptoms and habits. Habitual combines the data into a report that provides a summary of the symptoms and management over a longer period of time. This report is customizable and aims to facilitate better conversations between patient and practitioner.
Watch the team’s pitch.
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From the field to the prototype.
Who built it.
Wiktoria Staszak
Digital health
Julius Severin
Digital health
Juan Carlos Niño
Digital health
Manami Ray
Design
Ethan Zhang
Design
Melanie Calleja
Design