Michael Gao

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Michael Gao

About me

Michael Gao

Home

About me

+StoryMD Health

AI-Powered Personalized Health Journey

AI-Powered Personalized Health Journey

Problem

At StoryMD, we’ve always believed that personalized health care begins with understanding how the body works as a whole. With this philosophy, we designed our health portal to offer users a complete overview of their health history. However, we began noticing a challenge: surfacing everything could feel overwhelming.


We received feedback from a pregnant user who told us:

At StoryMD, we’ve always believed that health is like a mosaic—each part of the body is interconnected, and understanding the whole picture is crucial for personalized care. With this philosophy, we designed our health portal to offer users a comprehensive overview of their health history. However, we began noticing a challenge: while the platform offered immense value by surfacing everything, it could also feel overwhelming.

We received feedback from a pregnant user who told us: "I just want to see my pregnancy journey. I don't need all this other stuff right now."

That moment stuck with me. It became clear that while breadth is powerful, users sometimes only want to focus on a single, meaningful slice of their health journey. The big question became: how can we help users focus on what matters most to them in the moment without losing the holistic view.

At StoryMD, we’ve always believed that health is like a mosaic—each part of the body is interconnected, and understanding the whole picture is crucial for personalized care. With this philosophy, we designed our health portal to offer users a comprehensive overview of their health history. However, we began noticing a challenge: while the platform offered immense value by surfacing everything, it could also feel overwhelming.

We received feedback from a pregnant user who told us: "I just want to see my pregnancy journey. I don't need all this other stuff right now."

That moment stuck with me. It became clear that while breadth is powerful, users sometimes only want to focus on a single, meaningful slice of their health journey. The big question became: how can we help users focus on what matters most to them in the moment without losing the holistic view.

'I just want to see my pregnancy data. I don't need all this other stuff right now. It's a bit intimidating.'

That moment stuck with me. It became clear that while breadth is powerful, users sometimes only want to focus on a single, meaningful slice of their health journey. The question became: how can we help users focus on and understand what matters most to them in the moment.

At StoryMD, we’ve always believed that health is like a mosaic—each part of the body is interconnected, and understanding the whole picture is crucial for personalized care. With this philosophy, we designed our health portal to offer users a comprehensive overview of their health history. However, we began noticing a challenge: while the platform offered immense value by surfacing everything, it could also feel overwhelming.

We received feedback from a pregnant user who told us: "I just want to see my pregnancy journey. I don't need all this other stuff right now."

That moment stuck with me. It became clear that while breadth is powerful, users sometimes only want to focus on a single, meaningful slice of their health journey. The big question became: how can we help users focus on what matters most to them in the moment without losing the holistic view.

At StoryMD, we’ve always believed that health is like a mosaic—each part of the body is interconnected, and understanding the whole picture is crucial for personalized care. With this philosophy, we designed our health portal to offer users a comprehensive overview of their health history. However, we began noticing a challenge: while the platform offered immense value by surfacing everything, it could also feel overwhelming.

We received feedback from a pregnant user who told us: "I just want to see my pregnancy journey. I don't need all this other stuff right now."

That moment stuck with me. It became clear that while breadth is powerful, users sometimes only want to focus on a single, meaningful slice of their health journey. The big question became: how can we help users focus on what matters most to them in the moment without losing the holistic view.

The original dashboard surfaces everything.

At StoryMD, we’ve always believed that health is like a mosaic—each part of the body is interconnected, and understanding the whole picture is crucial for personalized care. With this philosophy, we designed our health portal to offer users a comprehensive overview of their health history. However, we began noticing a challenge: while the platform offered immense value by surfacing everything, it could also feel overwhelming.

We received feedback from a pregnant user who told us: "I just want to see my pregnancy journey. I don't need all this other stuff right now."

That moment stuck with me. It became clear that while breadth is powerful, users sometimes only want to focus on a single, meaningful slice of their health journey. The big question became: how can we help users focus on what matters most to them in the moment without losing the holistic view.

At StoryMD, we’ve always believed that health is like a mosaic—each part of the body is interconnected, and understanding the whole picture is crucial for personalized care. With this philosophy, we designed our health portal to offer users a comprehensive overview of their health history. However, we began noticing a challenge: while the platform offered immense value by surfacing everything, it could also feel overwhelming.

We received feedback from a pregnant user who told us: "I just want to see my pregnancy journey. I don't need all this other stuff right now."

That moment stuck with me. It became clear that while breadth is powerful, users sometimes only want to focus on a single, meaningful slice of their health journey. The big question became: how can we help users focus on what matters most to them in the moment without losing the holistic view.

Overview

My role: UX designer

Methods: User research, prototyping, interaction, usability testing

Tools used: Figma

Teammates: Emily (UX designer)

Date: April, 2025

Discovery

To understand this tension better, we conducted interviews with 4 users in various life stages

Findings

Users don’t want everything all the time. They want the right thing at the right time.

"

"

I have so many conditions that I end up skipping around trying to find the right info. I’d rather have one screen that adapts based on what I’m focusing on right now—like blood sugar.

-Middle aged user with multiple conditions

Users want a personalized health guide that understands their goals and actively supports them.

"

"

I wish the app felt more like my health guide—like it knew what I’m working on and helped me track it, not just throw info at me.

-Expecting mother

Ideation

In a collaborative ideation session with developers, and product managers, we brainstormed a range of ideas through quick sketches and discussions to tackle the user need from multiple angles.

To spark creative thinking, we came up with two HMW questions based on the research findings

  1. How might we deliver the right health tools at the right moment?

  2. How might we actively supports users' health goals?

We then aligned on the most impactful and feasible solution.

Started from sketches

Solution

How might we deliver the right health tools at the right moment?

We identified two possible solutions on how to deliver the focused experience.

  1. The first was to build a separate app for each major health topic (pregnancy, managing weight, diabetes..).

  2. The other was to keep everything in one platform and offer dedicated pages for each user’s health goal.

We eventually chose the latter, as the first option would fragment the overall user journey, whereas option 2 helps users to stay focused, while not losing the holistic view. We named the dedicated pages Journeys.

How might we actively support users' health goals?

We decided to use AI-driven chat and insights. Static content often feels generic and one-size-fits-all, whereas AI could offer timely, relevant, and contextual support. By learning from user behavior over time, the AI would be able to deliver smarter, more personalized insights.

Usability test

We created mockups based on the solutions we came up and moved on to evaluate them with 6 participants.

Our goals for the testing were to:

  1. Test discoverability of newly designed components such as 'Journeys'

  2. Test the usability of the new add a Journey flow

  3. Learn do they feel that it’s personalized and helpful?

  4. Learn users' opinions on AI

Iterations

Finding 1: Users were not able to quickly find the new ‘Journeys’ they added

Finding 1: Users were not able to quickly find the new ‘Journeys’ they added

In user testing, participants didn't realize the 'Journeys' item in the sidebar was where they’d find their condition-specific tracking. It also required an extra click to open the second level menu and access individual Journeys.

Solution 1: Redesign left navigation to make space for individual Journeys

Solution 1: Redesign left navigation to make space for individual Journeys

In user testing, participants mentioned that the individual Journeys (Pregnancy, Asthma, etc) were much easier to understand. I first tried to place the individual ones in the left nav, but the existing nav was already crowded and too narrow. To address this, I widened the nav to make space for the individual Journeys.

Finding 2: It’s cumbersome to set up health goals

Finding 2: It’s cumbersome to set up health goals

To provide tailored personalization, we ask users to select from a long list of goals and then answer around 10 follow-up questions per goal — this makes the setup process long and frustrating. Many users gave up midway.

Solution 2: AI-powered goal recommendations and prefilled answers

Instead of having users manually choosing health goals, we used their existing health data to proactively suggest relevant health goals. During the set up process, we reduced friction further by pre-filling as much as possible based on the user’s health history.

Finding 3: Users didn’t trust AI

Finding 3: Users didn’t trust AI

A large portion of users acknowledged the power of AI but were skeptical about its use in tracking health. They were concerned about whether their sensitive health data would be shared with others and questioned the accuracy of the AI-generated insights.

'I use AI for work tasks, but when it comes to tracking my health, I'm not sure if I can rely on that.'

Solution 3: Add a disclaimer screen and give users control

Solution 3: Add a disclaimer screen and give users control

  1. We renamed StoryMD AI to StoryMD Assistant and gave users the choice to enable it. To build trust, we introduced an onboarding screen that explains what the assistant does, how their data is used, and the benefits it provides.

  1. We added user control over what they share with AI, and they can stop sharing at any time.

Overview

My roles: Product designer

Teammates: Emily (Product designer)

Date: April 2025

Methods: User research, prototyping, interaction, usability testing

Final results

We ran 4 usability test sessions to test the new changes. We received very positive feedback from users!

  1. All users said they would set up a Journey and described the experience as “focused,” “easy to navigate,” and “reassuring."

  2. The AI introduction screen improved trust and clarity, reducing user concerns about data privacy.

  3. Users liked the AI insights - it made them feel “more in control” of their condition.

Add a Journey

Browse a Journey

Chat with AI agent

Mobile designs

Updates

The feature was shipped in May, 2023!

We have seen a growing trend in the number of users making manual entries. Additionally, I have received positive feedback from users about how simple it is to add entries manually.

Final prototype

Key takeaways

  1. Designing for AI is tricky. AI is a powerful tool, but users will only use it if they trust it. I had to think carefully about how to frame AI suggestions, set expectations, and guide interactions so users wouldn’t feel confused or misled.


  2. Iterative Feedback Loops Drive Real Progress. User testing challenged my assumptions. I learned to let go of my ideas and adapt quickly based on how people reacted.

Key takeaways

  1. Not afraid to speak up. As a new member of the team, I was initially hesitant when challenged by the tech lead. However, as a UX professional, I wanted to advocate for the user and provide my expertise. I'm glad I spoke up, which eventually resulted in a better UX.


  2. Consider development limitations. I intentionally reused as many existing components as I could, which sped things up and avoided excessive development effort.


  3. Conduct user testing prior to development. The initial mockups were implemented without any usability testing, leading to issues and resulted in wasting valuable development resources. It is far more efficient to have a solid design in place before development.

Overview

My roles: Product designer

Teammates: Emily (Product designer)

Date: April 2025

Methods: User research, prototyping, interaction, usability testing

Let's connect!

Let's connect!

Let's connect!