The Problem

Alzheimer's treatment is normally given by healthcare professionals in clinical settings. A pharmaceutical client was developing a drug intended for home use, which introduced a design challenge with no clear precedent: how do patients and their caregivers manage a complex, months-long titration regimen without clinical support?

The titration process begins at a low dose and low frequency, gradually increasing over several months before arriving at a maintenance dose. Injections occur infrequently in the early stages, far apart enough that expecting patients or caregivers to retain the full protocol was unrealistic. The experience also needed to work across a whole care network: the patient, family members acting as caregivers, and the healthcare professionals overseeing the process. Each has quite different needs and different levels of medical literacy.

Reframing the Challenge

The team's insight was simple: stop designing for the complete titration journey, and design for the next injection instead.

Giving patients a mental model of a multi-month medical protocol adds cognitive load without reducing anxiety. What helps is knowing exactly what to do next. That shift shaped everything.

Given the long gaps between injections, the app focuses users on immediate next steps and milestone achievements rather than the full protocol. This reduced dependence on the app between injections while keeping patients and caregivers confident they were on track.

The Design

The central feature of the app is a set of dynamic cards on the home screen. Each card surfaces the single most important next action for the user: whether that's preparing for an upcoming injection, confirming it was administered, or simply reassurance that nothing is needed right now. The cards adapt based on where the user is in the titration schedule, and respond differently depending on whether the user is the patient, a family caregiver, or a clinician.

There were no existing brand guidelines. We built a complete design system from scratch (full colour system, type scale, and component library), starting from four colours the client provided. The structure was built so developers could work from it without guesswork.

User Flow

The Result

The product was delivered to client approval across all three user groups. The work was later repurposed as the design foundation for another internal brand, which suggested the system was solid enough to stretch beyond what it was originally built for.