Overview

Pulse bridges design and empathy to help users navigate the invisible weight of chronic illness. It transforms fragmented self-care tools into one cohesive, intelligent system that responds to users’ real-time needs. Through color psychology, accessible layouts, and predictive insights, Pulse empowers users to live rhythmically, not reactively.

My Role

UX Research, UI Design,

Prototype Design, Development

Timeline

2 months

Figma, Photoshop, Procreate

Tools

The Challenge

People living with chronic illnesses often face unpredictable symptoms that make daily planning, work, and self-care difficult. Most wellness apps lack empathy and adaptability — they assume consistent energy levels that simply don’t exist for this audience.

The Goal

Design an app that learns from a user’s symptoms and behavior patterns, helping them plan their day, pace activities, and rest without guilt.

The experience had to be calm, consistent, and deeply human.

User Interviews and Research

I interviewed 10 users living with chronic illness, fatigue, or autoimmune conditions.

Insights

Users felt overwhelmed by tracking tools that required too much input.

Flare-ups often derailed daily plans, causing guilt or frustration.

A need for gentle, adaptive structure rather than strict productivity systems.

These insights shaped the foundation of Pulse — a tool that listens and responds, rather than demands.

Personas

Research Backed Insights

“Self-tracking tools can uncover hidden symptom patterns and help users better understand their body’s behavior.”

— Urteaga et al., 2018, Phenotyping Endometriosis through Mixed Membership Models of Self-Tracking Data

“Digital self-care platforms improve user autonomy and emotional well-being when the experience is adaptive and user-driven.”

— Qualitative Study of Stakeholders’ Perspectives, 2023, Journal of Medical Internet Research

“Over half of U.S. adults live with two or more chronic conditions — making intuitive, accessible technology essential for daily health management.”

— Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2025

“Non-communicable diseases account for nearly 75 % of global deaths, underscoring the urgency of scalable, inclusive wellness solutions.”

— World Health Organization, 2024

Chronic Illness by the Numbers

75% of deaths worldwide are caused by chronic, non-communicable diseases. (WHO, 2024)

3 in 4 adults in the U.S. live with at least one chronic condition. (CDC, 2024)

$47 trillion - projected global economic cost of chronic disease by 2030. (World Bank / WHO, 2023)

Visual Identity & Design System

Design Language:

Palette: soft white, blue, and muted yellow accents against dark mode UI (#0D1117).
Type: rounded sans-serif with generous line height.
Iconography: consistent stroke weight, minimal outlines.

The visuals support clarity and restfulness, not stimulation.

Core Features

Symptom Tracker & Log: Log symptoms, rate them 1–10, and note triggers. Pulse visualizes patterns to detect trends and suggest pacing strategies.
Adaptive Task Planner: Uses AI to suggest how to adjust work, chores, and rest based on recent symptom history.
Mood & Energy Check-in: Daily slider allows quick reflection. Subtle color changes indicate user state.
Predictive Insights Dashboard: Displays gentle visualizations of symptom trends, stress correlation, and flare-up risk levels.

Impact

Reduced user stress through gentle visual rhythm
Fostered autonomy through predictive self-care insights
Elevated accessibility beyond compliance — to empathy

Reflection

Designing Pulse was deeply personal; accessibility isn’t only about compliance, but about emotional safety and self-compassion.

The process challenged me to translate lived experiences of chronic illness into thoughtful systems that listen rather than demand.

I learned to design for variability, not perfection for people whose energy and symptoms change daily. Every decision, from color and typography to data visualization, was about making wellness feel gentle, not clinical.

More than a wellness tracker, Pulse became an exploration of how UX, empathy, and adaptive technology can work together to give people agency over their day — even on their hardest ones.

Further Considerations

To evolve Pulse from a concept into a real-world tool, the next steps focus on expanding intelligence, integration, and medical collaboration:

Wearable Integration: Sync passive data (heart rate, sleep, step count) for richer symptom context.
AI-Driven Personalization: Use pattern recognition to predict flares and suggest micro-adjustments to daily pacing.
Clinical Validation: Partner with healthcare professionals and chronic illness researchers to validate recommendations ethically.
Community Layer: Introduce a gentle social component for encouragement, not comparison — a space for shared understanding.
Data Ethics: Build transparency around data use, allowing users full control over what’s stored and shared.

The long-term vision is to make Pulse a holistic, adaptive ecosystem that bridges technology, self- care, and human empathy, a wellness experience designed to meet users exactly where they are.