Presentation
Designing for Digital Confidence: How to Shape the First Injection Experience with a Connected Medical Device
DescriptionPurpose: The first use of a connected medical device system — such as a patient’s first subcutaneous self-injection — is a decisive moment for building confidence, ensuring safety, and establishing adherence. These systems often require patients to coordinate multiple components: the autoinjector (packaged separately due to cold storage requirements), a reusable smart autoinjector accessory (SAA), packaging, and a digital companion app. This fragmentation introduces complexity and increases the risk of errors at the very moment when patients are most vulnerable.
To design for this critical moment, we conducted a comprehensive user journey analysis and task analysis across all touchpoints. We developed and iterated packaging prototypes for the SAA, focusing on accessibility and durability for at least two years of use. In parallel, we evaluated the digital onboarding experience from login through to first injection, analysing multiple app paths to reflect the complexity of handling multiple devices that are not co-packed. This system-level approach aimed to create a seamless user experience that integrates packaging, device, and app guidance. Finally, we validated the integrated eco system with patients in a formative usability study, focusing on how well it supported confidence and independence during first injection.
Methods
We applied a three-stage approach combining contextual analysis, iterative design, and usability evaluations:
User Journey Mapping (EU and US): We analyzed prescribing and dispensing workflows across healthcare systems, including regulatory boundaries and market-specific rules. This highlighted the challenge of separately packaged autoinjectors and a SAA, which patients must combine during onboarding.
Task Analysis and Iterative Packaging Research: We deconstructed each step from unboxing to first injection. Packaging variants were designed and refined to balance durability, accessibility, and clarity — with special emphasis on patients with dexterity impairments. Since the packaging also serves as a two-year storage solution for the smart accessory, structural durability was a key design requirement.
Usability Study:
Participants: Eleven adults with chronic conditions requiring injection therapy (participants with dexterity impairments).
Setting: Simulated home-use sessions in Switzerland, June 2025.
Materials: SAA device, autoinjector (in its separate packaging), companion app, and three SAA packaging prototypes. Each variant integrated an Instructions for Use (IFU) and QuickStart Guide linking to the app.
Procedure: Participants attempted unboxing, onboarding (from login through to first injection), and completing a simulated injection without prior training. Multiple digital onboarding paths (e.g., immediate injection, later scheduled injection) were tested to reflect real-world complexity. The companion app had previously undergone three separate formative studies; for this evaluation, its flows were adapted to assess the overall integrated user experience.
Results:
Packaging:
All participants were able to unpack the SAA packaging and identify its key components without assistance.
Packaging designed with durability and reusability in mind was consistently preferred, since patients must store the SAA for the device’s expected two-year lifespan. Participants valued designs that balanced secure storage with easy device removal, and that supported repeated opening and closing without damage.
Accessibility features such as pull-tabs and one-handed opening mechanisms proved essential for users with dexterity impairments. These elements increased confidence and reduced frustration.
In contrast, packaging that compromised instruction visibility or showed signs of wear under repeated use was rated less favourably. Participants highlighted that clear and immediately visible instructions were critical during onboarding, particularly given the need to coordinate a separately packaged autoinjector.
Digital Onboarding (Login → First Injection):
All participants were able to complete onboarding and progress to a first simulated injection. They valued the login process, scheduling features such as a treatment plan overview and injection reminders, which aligned with therapy management needs and reinforced adherence.
Testing across different app paths demonstrated the importance of flexible flows that reflect real-world complexity, since the autoinjector and SAA are not co-packed and must be set up in parallel.
Overall, participants reported that the integration of packaging and digital guidance reduced uncertainty and gave them the confidence to self-inject independently, even when handling multiple components.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates that safe and effective self-injection onboarding requires a system-level approach. Evaluating packaging, device(s), and app components in isolation risks overlooking safety-critical issues that emerge only in the integrated journey — especially when patients must coordinate separately packaged autoinjectors and accessories.
Our iterative research showed that:
• Packaging design must support both durability (depending on device life-time) and accessibility. Iterative refinements (pull-tabs, magnets, IFU placement) enabled a solution that was both long-lasting and dexterity-friendly.
• Digital onboarding must span the entire journey from login to injection. By testing multiple app paths, we addressed the real-world complexity of managing devices that are not co-packed. Importantly, the app had been through three earlier formative studies, and was modified in this study to evaluate how packaging and digital guidance work together in an integrated system.
• System integration revealed risks invisible in siloed evaluations, such instruction visibility trade-offs, and the additional complexity of handling separate packaging systems.
By aligning physical and digital touchpoints, this study provides a roadmap for safer, confidence-building connected drug delivery systems. The findings underscore the importance of durability, accessibility, and integration in supporting patients through complex real-world treatment journeys.
To design for this critical moment, we conducted a comprehensive user journey analysis and task analysis across all touchpoints. We developed and iterated packaging prototypes for the SAA, focusing on accessibility and durability for at least two years of use. In parallel, we evaluated the digital onboarding experience from login through to first injection, analysing multiple app paths to reflect the complexity of handling multiple devices that are not co-packed. This system-level approach aimed to create a seamless user experience that integrates packaging, device, and app guidance. Finally, we validated the integrated eco system with patients in a formative usability study, focusing on how well it supported confidence and independence during first injection.
Methods
We applied a three-stage approach combining contextual analysis, iterative design, and usability evaluations:
User Journey Mapping (EU and US): We analyzed prescribing and dispensing workflows across healthcare systems, including regulatory boundaries and market-specific rules. This highlighted the challenge of separately packaged autoinjectors and a SAA, which patients must combine during onboarding.
Task Analysis and Iterative Packaging Research: We deconstructed each step from unboxing to first injection. Packaging variants were designed and refined to balance durability, accessibility, and clarity — with special emphasis on patients with dexterity impairments. Since the packaging also serves as a two-year storage solution for the smart accessory, structural durability was a key design requirement.
Usability Study:
Participants: Eleven adults with chronic conditions requiring injection therapy (participants with dexterity impairments).
Setting: Simulated home-use sessions in Switzerland, June 2025.
Materials: SAA device, autoinjector (in its separate packaging), companion app, and three SAA packaging prototypes. Each variant integrated an Instructions for Use (IFU) and QuickStart Guide linking to the app.
Procedure: Participants attempted unboxing, onboarding (from login through to first injection), and completing a simulated injection without prior training. Multiple digital onboarding paths (e.g., immediate injection, later scheduled injection) were tested to reflect real-world complexity. The companion app had previously undergone three separate formative studies; for this evaluation, its flows were adapted to assess the overall integrated user experience.
Results:
Packaging:
All participants were able to unpack the SAA packaging and identify its key components without assistance.
Packaging designed with durability and reusability in mind was consistently preferred, since patients must store the SAA for the device’s expected two-year lifespan. Participants valued designs that balanced secure storage with easy device removal, and that supported repeated opening and closing without damage.
Accessibility features such as pull-tabs and one-handed opening mechanisms proved essential for users with dexterity impairments. These elements increased confidence and reduced frustration.
In contrast, packaging that compromised instruction visibility or showed signs of wear under repeated use was rated less favourably. Participants highlighted that clear and immediately visible instructions were critical during onboarding, particularly given the need to coordinate a separately packaged autoinjector.
Digital Onboarding (Login → First Injection):
All participants were able to complete onboarding and progress to a first simulated injection. They valued the login process, scheduling features such as a treatment plan overview and injection reminders, which aligned with therapy management needs and reinforced adherence.
Testing across different app paths demonstrated the importance of flexible flows that reflect real-world complexity, since the autoinjector and SAA are not co-packed and must be set up in parallel.
Overall, participants reported that the integration of packaging and digital guidance reduced uncertainty and gave them the confidence to self-inject independently, even when handling multiple components.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates that safe and effective self-injection onboarding requires a system-level approach. Evaluating packaging, device(s), and app components in isolation risks overlooking safety-critical issues that emerge only in the integrated journey — especially when patients must coordinate separately packaged autoinjectors and accessories.
Our iterative research showed that:
• Packaging design must support both durability (depending on device life-time) and accessibility. Iterative refinements (pull-tabs, magnets, IFU placement) enabled a solution that was both long-lasting and dexterity-friendly.
• Digital onboarding must span the entire journey from login to injection. By testing multiple app paths, we addressed the real-world complexity of managing devices that are not co-packed. Importantly, the app had been through three earlier formative studies, and was modified in this study to evaluate how packaging and digital guidance work together in an integrated system.
• System integration revealed risks invisible in siloed evaluations, such instruction visibility trade-offs, and the additional complexity of handling separate packaging systems.
By aligning physical and digital touchpoints, this study provides a roadmap for safer, confidence-building connected drug delivery systems. The findings underscore the importance of durability, accessibility, and integration in supporting patients through complex real-world treatment journeys.
Event Type
Oral Presentations
TimeMonday, March 231:52pm - 2:15pm EDT
LocationNassau
Digital Health