Challenges of creating a day-to-day smart object that can enhance a user’s lifestyle are explored and recommended design guidelines for creating a smart object in a specific domain are the focus of this thesis. However, embedded systems, radio frequency identification (RFID) and HCI research provides inspiration towards creating a solution. There has been little discussion about perceived forgetfulness in design and HCI, combined with few studied smart objects to aid with memory. Some individuals believe they are forgetful, so emphatically, it disrupts their day. When we forget things, we feel anxious which can impact our day negatively. To address this disparity, we present design requirements for building medication reminders that support the routine aspect of medication-taking and its individual nature, and demonstrate how they could be implemented to move from passive alerts to a smarter memory and routine assistant. Our research highlights the gap between the theory and practice: while the literature shows that many medication regimens are habitual in nature and the presence of daily routines supports remembering, existing apps rely on timer-based reminders. We report the findings of a functionality review of 229 medication reminder apps and a thematic analysis of their 1,012 user reviews. Even though patients have access to smartphone applications ('apps') designed to help them remember medication, neither their quality nor effectiveness has been evaluated yet. Despite the fact that a third of all cases of unintentional medication non-adherence are caused by simple forgetfulness, the majority of interventions neglect this issue.

Birth control pill reminder text