Developing an app for IBS patients

The Challenge

Our client wanted to assess the appetite for a mobile app supporting IBS patients. Did those patients have enough unmet needs to justify the development of such an app? What barriers were there to restrict its successful implementation

Our Approach

We started by assessing what digital tools were already available to patients, and how they were being used. In addition to desk research, we conducted focus groups with patients to understand their experiences and attitudes to their disease. Here we included a co-creation element to design an ideal app (in terms of content and design).

The Outcome

Following the research we were able to establish that there wasn’t significant desire for a new app, with many patient developed tools already serving their needs. This prevented our client from making a substantial investment in the design and implementation of an app that could offer no additional benefit to the IBS community.