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client success stories
Establishing a lifetime of healthy oral healthcare habits
3 min read
Healthcare
End-to-end healthcare mobile app development with Motivational UX™
The Philips Sonicare team, makers of the #1 recommended brand by dental professionals, wanted to build upon the success of their rechargeable power toothbrush for kids. By harnessing the latest in Bluetooth connectivity, there was an opportunity to create a holistic brushing experience for kids using a Philips Sonicare brush that was so compelling that they would proactively ask to brush their teeth, while learning proper brushing techniques that would benefit their health for decades to come.
Additionally, as Philips Sonicare for Kids is a FDA regulated medical device, the product couldn’t just claim to work. As all Philips Sonicare toothbrushes have strong clinical claims, there needed to be supporting evidence that the companion application would add meaningful value regarding engagement levels. A robust research plan, including per-user analytics, was required to provide the proof and traceability for Philips’ marketing claims.
We started with identifying what would truly motivate our audience, which we unearthed through several rounds of contextual interviews in participants’ homes, early prototypes and concept tests, real-time data analytics, and even visits to numerous dental offices, to ensure professional feedback and product engagement data was incorporated into the product’s value proposition during product development.
This led to a very powerful insight: while most kids turn brushing into a battle, they don’t actually dislike it. In fact, the feeling of a clean mouth is extremely motivating to them. They simply don’t like to stop what they are doing, or don’t want to do what follows brushing teeth (going to bed, for example), so it became a stall tactic. This sparked many product improvement ideas, and helped us with the healthcare mobile app development phase.
It was clear the connected experience needed to be more than just a glorified toothbrush timer or a game. We needed kids to feel empowered to brush on their own, while still providing significant education around how and why to brush. This led to the creation of a character (Sparkly) during app development, a cute furball in desperate need of brushing help. Sparkly was designed to trigger care and nurturing impluses in kids, improving customer motivation to brush while sparking a strong emotional connection with the character. Because of Sparkly’s tiny arms, the only way to help him is to have kids follow along with the guidance on the mobile app screen twice a day.
The healthcare app showcases the desired movement of the toothbrush, providing real-time coaching for proper technique as instructed by dental professionals, enhancing the customer experience. When they finish, kids receive a present from Sparkly. This variable reward completes the engagement loop (a critical component of Motivational UX™) when they finish a full 2 minutes of brushing and triggers the desire to return again.
We measured and analyzed user engagement, which helped us create the design for features like the Parent Dashboard that follows strict COPPA guidelines. The Parent Dashboard tracks user behavior (including when and average duration of brushing), achievements for both kids and Sparkly, daily and weekly calendars to track and manage progress, and the awards kids get for brushing. It allowed us to incorporate motivational factors that kids resonated best with, based on hard data, not general self-reporting which can be unreliable. This increases the value of the new product to parents and kids alike.
It was a device that accomplished the inconceivable: It made oral hygiene so fun that kids want to stay on top of it.
Over time, kids feel empowered to use the connected Philips Sonicare kids brush without the assistance of mom or dad, increasing product engagement, while parents are able to monitor their kids’ brushing through a parent-friendly dashboard that follows strict COPPA guidelines. Brushing has become not only a habit and routine, but fun, and Philips Sonicare for Kids is instilling healthy oral healthcare benefits that will last a lifetime.
