Each year, more than 10 million people are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that gradually erodes memory, cognition, and daily functioning. As the disease progresses, it impacts the individual diagnosed and their loved ones who provide support and care.
The number of people diagnosed each year isn’t the only staggering fact about Alzheimer’s. Almost 70% of people living with Alzheimer’s are women—but the research into the disease to date has suffered from the same gender imbalance found in other areas of health research.
Changing this imbalance means funding life-changing research, and that’s the mission of Women's Brain Health Initiative. The national charitable organization is dedicated to protecting women's brain health by supporting research to combat brain-aging disorders that disproportionately affect women and creating preventative health education programs to help prolong cognitive vitality.
Through its research, Women’s Brain Health Initiative has developed the Six Pillars of Brain Health:
- Exercise. Regular physical activity promotes brain health by improving blood flow, reducing the risk of chronic conditions, and enhancing overall cognitive function.
- Mental Stimulation. Engaging in intellectually stimulating activities, continuous learning, and mental challenges fosters brain resilience and cognitive abilities.
- Social Activity. Maintaining meaningful social interactions and strong social networks promotes brain health, reducing the risk of cognitive decline and providing emotional support.
- Nutrition. A balanced diet of antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, and nutrients supports brain health and protects against cognitive decline.
- Sleep. Prioritizing sufficient and restorative sleep supports memory consolidation, cognitive function, and overall brain health.
- Stress Management. Techniques that alleviate stress, such as mindfulness, meditation, and relaxation, positively impact brain health and cognitive longevity.
Bringing these changes into daily life can help reduce the risk, but there is still work to do. Women’s Brain Health Initiative wanted a mobile app that could use science-backed tactics to help improve brain health and promote its mission—and we were excited to tackle this unique opportunity to develop BrainFit – Habit Tracker to help improve people’s lives.
The Challenge
Women’s Brain Health Initiative’s education efforts range from its Mind Over Matter magazine to in-school programming to a compelling video series. The mobile app project would allow Women’s Brain Health Initiative to take its research and education and give people a concrete way to take action by forming daily habits that support brain health.
The earlier you start making changes, the better your potential brain health outcomes may be. But even starting later in life can still make a difference. This presented an exciting challenge because users across a wide age range needed to navigate an application easily.
During the design discovery phase, we also identified that the application needed the same user experience and design on iOS and Android-powered devices. We also knew that accessibility was required and critical to the application’s success.
The Solution
We believe in taking a team approach to projects, and this was a fantastic opportunity to work with staff and volunteers at Women’s Brain Health Initiative, a research team at York University, along with co-op students from the University of Waterloo and the University of Guelph.
The cross-functional, collaborative team worked on customer discovery, application design and development, and launch on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The teamwork didn’t end at launch either—we continue to support the team with ongoing application maintenance and updates to storefront assets.
We started the application design process using design thinking workshops. First, we used focus groups before we designed the application to understand what users might want in a mobile application related to brain health. The focus groups helped us understand what needed to be improved in existing health-tracking applications that we could use to reinforce daily habit tracking.
We re-engaged with the focus groups once the beta version was ready for testing. It allowed us to ask questions specifically related to usability. Following this process helped us deliver an application that met the requirements and delighted end users. Having the main use cases done right the first time meant we could spend time adding additional features, including widgets on iOS and releasing a French language version of the application.
Beyond helping women and men create and track daily brain health habits, we wanted to ensure that Women’s Brain Health Initiative’s educational material would be included in the application, giving users access to the evidence that supports each recommended habit. This unique feature, accessible through the Explore section of the application, includes articles, podcasts, and videos and can be sorted by the six brain health pillars.
To make updating the content easy, we used the Contentful CMS platform. Changes made to content are instantly updated for all users without the need to download a new version of the application.
The Result
“BrainFit is an effective tool for people to select and track habits within all Six Pillars of Brain Health that, combined, form an unparalleled defence against dementia, offering a formidable shield for cognitive well-being,” said Lynn Posluns, founder and president of Women’s Brain Health Initiative.
To date, over 30,000 people have downloaded BrainFit, and they have created 51,416 habits with over 87,000 activities completed to help improve their brain health.
“BrainFit helps fulfil our mandate to provide evidence-informed preventive health solutions to ensure mental wellness and prolong cognitive vitality,” said Posluns. “Wes and the BitBakery team did more than bring technical expertise to the project. They are an active partner in helping our mission to improve thebrain health for women, caregivers, and their families.”
BrainFit was made possible through a financial contribution from the Public Health Agency of Canada and with support from York University, BitBakery, The Citrine Foundation of Canada, TELUS, RBC, and RB33.
