Papaya — Wireframe Exploration

Project Overview

During my internship at Jenevive Health, I worked on Papaya, the company's mobile app created to support patients living with Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS).

The goal of this project was to explore wireframes and UX patterns that would encourage sustainable self-care through gentle, supportive gamification. Unlike traditional gamified apps that rely on competition and pressure, Papaya's design emphasizes compassion, privacy, and small achievable steps.

Goals

• Provide daily check-in flows that are easy to complete and don't punish users for skipping.
• Help patients visualize trends and patterns in their HS symptoms.
• Offer doctor-ready summaries of logs to support clinical care.
• Encourage self-care through milestones and awareness badges—without social comparison.

My Role

• Wireframing: Created low-fidelity wireframes for home, log flow, insights, and summaries.
• UX Research Synthesis: Adapted gamification strategies from Duolingo, Flo, Nike Run Club, and Strava into health-appropriate patterns.
• Information Architecture: Defined core flows: Log → Insights → Summary.
• Ethical Guardrails: Identified harmful patterns (leaderboards, streak punishment) to avoid in health contexts.

Tools

Key Screens & Sections

1. Home / Today

• Gentle daily prompt: "How are you feeling today?"
• Soft streaks that encourage but don't punish.
• Quick log buttons (pain, mood, sleep, meds).
• Small XP ring showing progress in insights gained.

2. Log Flow

• Step-by-step entry with simple sliders and notes.
• Skip-friendly ("Not today" doesn't break the flow).

3. Insights

• XP meter for awareness, not performance.
• Tiles showing patterns (e.g., "Flares often follow poor sleep").
• Bite-sized educational unlocks when trends emerge.

4. Milestones & Badges

• Private milestones (e.g., "Logged sleep 7 days this month").
• No ranks, leaderboards, or public comparisons.

5. Doctor Summary

• Simple PDF export with symptom charts, medication logs, and highlights.
• Clear, patient-friendly design for clinical conversations.

Interaction Patterns (What We Adapted)

• Flexible streaks → soft resets, no guilt.
• XP progress → reframed as insight XP.
• Achievements → framed as self-care wins, not competition.
• Nudges → supportive reminders, never punishment.

Guardrails (What We Avoided)

• Leaderboards or leagues.
• Streak punishment.
• Time-pressure mechanics.
• Symptom comparison across patients.
• Any pay-to-progress features.

Gallery & Mockups

Reflection & Outcome

This project showed me how design can empower patients with chronic conditions when it's grounded in empathy, ethics, and accessibility. By wireframing Papaya's flows, I practiced transforming gamification mechanics into supportive, health-appropriate experiences.

The work laid the foundation for moving into mid-fidelity prototypes and usability testing with HS patients, ensuring the design remains compassionate, clear, and clinically useful.