Portfolio | Dogtown Media

Merlin AI ChatBot App

nik — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 21:26:47 +0000

“The Most Powerful Chatbot on the App Stores”

Marc Fischer

Co-Founder and CEO, Dogtown Media

The Challenge

It can be difficult to keep up with the latest trends in artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as staying up to date on all the news and advances in the field. The ability too quickly, easily and accurately find the right data sets and resources, as well as receive feedback on how to improve algorithms and models, can be difficult without the assistance of an AI platform.

The Process

Once the concept has been established, we kept it simple, designing a user interface that is easy to use and visually appealing. This includes creating a user flow, designing the layout, and selecting the appropriate colors and typography.
After the user interface has been designed, the next step is to build the app. This involves coding the front-end and back-end of the product, integrating the necessary APIs, and testing the app to ensure it works correctly.
Taking our cues from our UX team’s expertise, user feedback, and keeping a pulse on the fresh and ever changing digital landscape, we did rounds of improvements to guarantee the highest level of usability.

The Solution

With Merlin AI’s artificial intelligence, customer service reps can quickly and accurately respond to customer inquiries in a conversational manner. This ensures that customers have the best customer service experience possible.

This app includes the following:

Natural Language Processing: Merlin AI uses natural language processing technology to understand complex queries and accurately answer questions.
Knowledge Graphs: Merlin AI’s knowledge graph technology allows it to access and organize vast amounts of data from various sources.
Conversational AI: Merlin AI is designed to respond to natural language queries in a conversational manner, making it easy for users to interact with the app.
Machine Learning: Merlin AI uses advanced machine learning technologies to improve its accuracy and understanding over time.
Question Answering: Merlin AI is capable of providing detailed answers to complex questions, as well as providing personalized recommendations.

The Result

Merlin is the worlds most powerful AI ChatBot on the App Stores, powered by OpenAI. The AI powered chatbot allows users to engage in virtual conversations, find out the answers to the worlds most complex questions, and create captivating stories as well as speed up your productivity.

AI for Day to Day Business Functions

Here are a few examples:

1. Automating repetitive tasks: The Merlin app can be used to automate routine tasks such as customer service inquiries, freeing up employees to focus on more value-adding activities.

2. Optimizing business processes: to analyze data and help businesses optimize their processes, helping to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

3. Merlin can support enhancing customer experience by creating personalized customer experiences, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

4. Generating insights: AI can be used to analyze data and generate insights that can be used to make better business decisions.

5. Enhancing marketing strategies: AI can be used to automate marketing activities such as ad targeting and personalized product recommendations.

Contact us about incorporating this solution into your healthcare network today.

The post Merlin AI ChatBot App first appeared on Dogtown Media.

Cal Coast Credit Union

nik — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 18:15:03 +0000

The Challenge

California Coast Credit Union (Cal Coast), is the longest-serving credit union in San Diego County. Many students and young adults never have the opportunity to learn about the basics of finance and this could result in decisions that could negatively impact their lives for years to come. Cal Coast wanted to find a way to engage with these young adults in a manner that is engaging and fun while also helping them to learn about financial concepts that would benefit them for a lifetime.

The Process

Interviewed students and teachers to better understand their behaviors, interests, requirements and app preferences.
Conducted user testing with students using an interactive prototype to get feedback on app ease-of-use and intuitiveness.
Translated learnings from user interviews into a visual appealing and engaging user interface.
Software engineering to create a stable, scaleable, and secure app eco-system framework.

The Solution

Cal Coast chose Dogtown Media to design and develop an iOS and Android mobile application FinSense, to provide financial education to the youth of San Diego and Riverside Counties. The primary goal for the application is to help students and young adults to learn the basic financial concepts of credit, investing and budgeting to help them make smarter decisions throughout their life.

This app includes the following:

Students select a profession and then are presented with real-world situations where they have to make a correct final decision.
Learning modules include: Building Your Credit Score, Budgeting/Saving, Understanding Loans, Investing with Success, Managing Debt, Banking Basics, Avoiding ID Theft.
Students receive points for correct answers and completing learning sections.

The Result

Cal Coast Credit Union has effectively engaged with students in Southern California and across the country after launching the FinSense app. Students frequently engage with the app ecosystem, learning valuable lessons about financial literacy which will have positive knock-on effects for them long into the future. Cal Coasts brand reputation has been enhanced amongst youthful demographics and parents alike.

Talk to us about incorporating this solution into your healthcare network today.

The post Cal Coast Credit Union first appeared on Dogtown Media.

National Eczema Association

nik — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 15:52:47 +0000

“We wanted a partner who had experience with nonprofits in the healthcare space and Dogtown met our requirements. The team was professional and responsive to our requests, which were many, and senior members of Dogtown stayed involved over the years we’ve worked together.”

Scott Sanford

COO at National Eczema Association

The Challenge

The National Eczema Association (NEA), is a patient advocacy, non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and quality of life for the 30+ million people in the U.S. affected by eczema through research, support and education. Eczema patients in the United States and globally were seeking a digital solution to track their symptoms, determine causes for flareups, find treatment options, and share critical information with their healthcare provider.

The Process

User research, analysis and design discovery
User flow diagrams using wireframes
High fidelity graphics with interactive prototype
Front-end development for iOS and Android
Backend systems for storing user data and uploading content

Public launch on the app store’s, and scaling to tens of thousands of active members around the country. Continued updates and improvements to the app ecosystem over a continued multi-year product roadmap.

The Solution

An innovative mobile application that allows users to track affected areas on the body that may be experiencing ailments such as itching and pain. Available anywhere at any time, this app also allows users to track other daily activities such as stress and sleep, and it can even recommend potential treatment options for ailments experienced by users.

This app includes the following:

Daily trackers for skin, itch, pain, triggers, sleep, stress, treatment and diet.
Store data in a HIPAA compliant backend system.
Notification reminders for medications and treatments.
Advanced surveys to better understand patient’s attitudes and behaviors.
Ability for patient to view trends over time for the various trackers,
Delivery of personalized eczema care content based on type of condition and tracker input data.
Ability to take and store pictures of affected skin areas.
Easily print tracking data to share during their next doctor’s appointment.

The Result

Since the release of this application, there has been overwhelming support by users. From easily tracking triggers and monitoring skin conditions to receiving customized educational content and push notifications for improved medication adherence, the NEA App is providing relief for eczema patients everywhere.

Talk to us about incorporating this solution into your healthcare network today.

The post National Eczema Association first appeared on Dogtown Media.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

nik — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 17:56:38 +0000

The Challenge

There is currently a shortage of neurologists in the U.S. which is predicted to worsen as the nation’s elderly population continues to increase. In addition, many neurological patients find it difficult to travel to their appointments and this situation has only worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently, there are no mobile apps for remotely monitoring neurological patients that have been clinically tested.

The Process

The Dogtown Media team collaborated closely with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) throughout the user experience design and software engineering process. From the start, we were able to translate complex academic documentation into a series of easy-to-use interactive on-screen tests. Through rigorous user testing in a clinical environment, we were able to refine and improve the patient experience. Once the interactivity and operability of the app as improved, we moved forward with software engineering. The digital health platform combines a robust mobile app, with a powerful engine of back-end components, tracking patient health data securely and privately within the mHealth ecosystem.

The Solution

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) partnered with Dogtown Media for the development of a mobile app NeurCare, to remotely monitor patients with neurological disorders including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Hodgkin’s and Alzheimer’s. NeurCare consists of sixteen tests that measure cognitive, motoric, cerebellar, and sensory functions.

Initial clinical testing has demonstrated statistically significant correlations between in-person exams and the results from selected NeurCare tests.

NeurCare was designed to be easily accessible to a wide range of neurological patients. In addition, easy-to-follow instructions are provided for each test. Also, based on a patient’s abilities, all the tests can be prescribed or just a subset.

All patient data is streamed to a backend platform for machine-learning analysis that can help to diagnose a patient’s condition and if they need to schedule an in-person appointment.

This app includes:

16 tests that measure cognitive, motoric, cerebellar and sensory functions.
All test results are streamed to a HIPAA compliant backend system.
Motivational feedback – patient test results are displayed after each test and compared to their personal best score and to age-related normative results.
Push notifications provide reminders for taking tests.
Comprehensive instructions for each test along with videos.
A health dashboard provides easy-to-understand overview of the patients test results.

The Results

Clinical Trials – pharma companies can reliably measure neurological functions longitudinally during clinical trials.

- Assist healthcare professionals in detecting early signs and symptoms of neurotoxicity in post-infusion CAR-T patients.
- Hospitals can have more confidence in the post-discharge setting by providing the ability remotely monitor the patient’s condition.
- Clinical testing has demonstrated statistically significant correlations between in-person exams and selected NeurCare results.

Talk to us about incorporating this solution into your healthcare network today.

The post National Institutes of Health (NIH) first appeared on Dogtown Media.

Moffitt Cancer Center

nik — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 17:45:25 +0000

“Dogtown helped us bring our vision for two theoretically-based, dynamic and fully automated smartphone-delivered smoking cessation interventions to life. Over the years that we have worked together, the team has been flexible, creative, and responsive. We are extremely pleased with the final products and thrilled to be testing them in two large National Cancer Institute-funded randomized clinical trials.”

Moffitt Cancer Center

Two Smoking Cessation Trials

The Challenge

Moffitt Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and one of the leading cancer centers in the United States. Moffitt received two R01 grants from the NCI in 2019 to evaluate mobile smoking cessation interventions targeted to special populations (food pantry clients and people with HIV), and they turned to Dogtown Media to develop the mobile apps. The app-based interventions in both trials comprise a twelve-week treatment period, where participants are asked about their smoking status, motivation, confidence and stress level via an in-app survey. Based on their responses, participants are delivered customized treatment videos. Participants are also able to access personalized, on-demand content for a twenty-six-week period.

The Process

User research, analysis and design discovery
User flow diagrams using wireframes
High fidelity graphics with interactive prototype
Front-end development for iOS and Android
Backend systems for storing user data and uploading content

The Solution

A streamlined app that can be easily navigated for users to complete surveys designed to personalize treatment content. Consisting of 12 weeks of structured, video-based treatment sessions and 26 weeks of On-Demand Treatment Content, these applications deliver a weekly in-app survey that assesses smoking status, motivation, self-efficacy, and stress. Participants are supplied with daily text content for the first 12 weeks, along with push notifications that remind them to stay engaged with the program as they strive to quit smoking and stay abstinent.

Both mobile apps include the following:

Integration with a REDCap clinical database for storing all participant data
Building the backend coding logic to determine which video combinations should be delivered to which participants during the twelve-week treatment periods.
Creating an API that reliably and securely connects the app to the backend database.
Personalized notifications sent to participants to encourage them to complete weekly surveys.
Support for intervention delivery in English and Spanish.

The Results

The mobile app has been successfully deployed in both ongoing smoking cessation clinical trials.

Talk to us about incorporating this solution into your healthcare network today.

The post Moffitt Cancer Center first appeared on Dogtown Media.

Minneapolis Heart Institute

Rob — Fri, 29 Jun 2018 23:06:39 +0000

“A rural physician utilized a protocol within the app (could not find paper version at their hospital) and successfully started treatment and transferred the patient (via the app) to us for emergent life-saving surgery.”

Mark Ebling

Patient Care Manager at the Minneapolis Heart Institute

The Challenge

Cardiovascular disease is extremely common in the United States, with 84 million people having some form of the disease, leading to 610,000 deaths every year.

In spite of its common occurrence, first responders and physicians historically only had emergency protocols on paper. When a patient suffers from a cardiac arrest, the last thing anyone wants to be searching for is a scrap of paper.

The Process

Mark was seeking an easier way for Minneapolis Heart Institute’s network to get the latest cardiac arrest treatment protocols. We began by developing an intuitive app that put up-to-date protocols in the palm of physicians hands, without the need to scramble for out-of-date paper versions.

We integrated all existing processes of MHI to ensure the delivery of standardized protocols across the network. The data was also hard-coded for offline use to ensure that physicians, especially those in rural areas, could access the protocols, regardless of wireless connections.

The Solution

A mobile app with current cardiovascular emergency protocols, available to physicians anywhere and anytime. Access to medical professionals for consultation or patient transfers are also enabled by the app, ensuring that healthcare providers have the tools they need to ultimately save lives.

The Result

Although initial targets were for a few hundred downloads from key physicians within the Minneapolis area, the mobile app has since been downloaded more than 4,000 times in seven countries. The app is actively used in the field and has already saved multiple lives.

Talk to us about incorporating this solution into your healthcare network today.

The post Minneapolis Heart Institute first appeared on Dogtown Media.

Worldwide Breast Cancer

nik — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 19:29:20 +0000

The Challenge

Worldwide Breast Cancer (WWBC) is an American nonprofit that operates virtually, educating over 200 million in 22 languages in 90 countries since 2014. Site visitors learn the 12 signs of breast cancer, when to get a mammogram, determine their risk for breast cancer, and much more.

WWBC sought to curate a personalized educational experience to enable people to easily assess their risk level and receive customized screening recommendations based on the results. By partnering with Dogtown, they sought to streamline the user flow intuitively to aid user navigation. Know Your Lemons started as Native iOS Only but Dogtown Media coached WWBC to pivot to React Native which allowed the target audience to grow exponentially, reaching both Apple and Android user bases.

The Process

We began by analyzing WWBC’s initial designs, advising on how best to iterate and improve the overall user flow. From our analysis, we consulted on how best to incorporate logical Information Architecture by way of implementing missing business logic and screen states. We also conducted multiple rounds of user testing, for each design iteration. Using the user feedback and data, we were able to validate different pain points in both the UI and UX that in turn, helped WWBC improve the App’s final design.

Since this project focused on raising awareness of such an important issue, we had to ensure that the designs were user friendly to people of all ages in the world. We integrated UX/UI best practices to consolidate all the content within the app and minimize cognitive load for the the users

The Solution

A streamlined mobile app with optimized screens and organized navigation to enable users to educate themselves. In addition, users can book screening appointments with local FDA-certified centers, receive tips on how to prepare for different breast tests, and provided with recommended questions for their visit.

Old Navigation with Swipe Interaction

Redesigned Navigation with Bottom Bar

The Result

Know Your Lemons received over 1000 downloads in its first month of release. It is currently on the App Store as well as Google Play, helping to educate users on Breast Cancer with every download.

The post Worldwide Breast Cancer first appeared on Dogtown Media.

Udemy

nik — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 21:56:43 +0000

The Challenge

Udemy is an online marketplace for learning and teaching that has garnered over 80,000 courses and 24 million students globally. Instructors come to the platform to create content and share their expert knowledge of a topic, while students come to the platform to learn a new skill by consuming the instructor-created videos.

Udemy’s robust web platform supports both instructor-facing and student-facing dashboards and tools to help each user type succeed. However, the mobile app version of the platform only has a student side, allowing them to purchase courses and watch videos. Udemy’s goal in working with us was to create the instructor side of the mobile app, focusing on communication with the students in their courses.

The Process

In order to streamline the instructor-facing portion of the app, we needed to understand instructors’ current workflows on the web platform when interacting with students. We interviewed 8 instructors, whose classes ranged from high volume sizes of 10,000 or more to smaller classes of 10-20. Each type of instructor had different ways of using the platform to communicate with students, and different needs for the mobile version. It was essential for us to cater the app to both the high-volume instructors and smaller-scale instructors to make sure everyone’s preferred workflows were included.

The Solution

The final product works well for all instructor types, and is available for all mobile phone and tablet devices. By making the product inclusive, our vision of streamlining instructor to student communication on a mobile app can be reached globally.

Instructor Inputs

The Result

The new instructor side is currently available in the Udemy mobile app. Instructors can easily view, filter, and reply to messages and questions from their students while on-the-go.

Customization Settings: Features like push notifications and communication channel preferences were incorporated in the app.
Quick Response Feature: Instructors can write certain reponses before hand to save time in repeating the same answers to multiple students.
Filter Options: Instructors can use filters to scan through a lot of messages quickly.

Device Optimization

We also created Android, Tablet and iPad versions of this App.

The post Udemy first appeared on Dogtown Media.

Google Train Up

nik — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 15:59:05 +0000

The Challenge

We were tasked to develop a mobile app for Google that trains retail employees how to best sell Google products, named Google Train Up. The challenge was on finding a way to incentivize the employees to participate in the mobile app training, given they were not getting paid for this training. We also had to ensure when updates were made to the pre-existing Google Train Up web browser, the corresponding app was also updated.

The Process

We collaborated with the Google Quality Assurance (QA) department, their design department, Google’s project manager for this app, and their back-end team, by acting as a programming augmentation. In the end, the cross-team collaboration was successful as we were able to adapt to the various teams’ processes, project management style, quality assurance requirements, and design needs. We adapt to Google’s work styles and were flexible with the needs of Google’s’ various departments. To add to this, we also provided valuable user-experience direction, which the Google design team appreciated during the challenging times of developing this mobile app.

The Solution

To motivate retail workers to use the app and allow themselves to be trained on how to best sell Google’s products, we implemented gamification that allows users to gain prizes (such as discounts on software and hardware Google products) at the end of every training game. To drive further user participation, we used push messaging, reminding retail employee users to take advantage of the Google software and hardware discounts offered when participating in the training app.

We developed the app so it would be used internationally, being made available in 10 languages, and 4 dialects of English (American, Australian, British, and Canadian).

The Result

Within the first few weeks, tens of thousands of users downloaded the app! It became really popular among retailers and their employees. Google commended us not only for the development of the app, but also for the tremendous effort of meeting their tight deadlines and collaborating with various teams from their company.

The post Google Train Up first appeared on Dogtown Media.

Sleeplife

nik — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 22:11:37 +0000

The Challenge

The National Sleep Foundation conducts regular clinical sleep trials to monitor and evaluate sleep habits. Previously, these trials were conducted in person at their laboratories, leading to skewed results as patients were placed into an unfamiliar environment. National Sleep Foundation approached Dogtown Media to help develop a less intrusive mobile app solution for clinical sleep trials.

The Process

The National Sleep Foundation knew that an app-based solution was essential but didn’t have the technical capabilities to develop the solution in-house. Dogtown Media undertook the technical design and development, leading to the creation of a HIPAA-compliant app that paired with a FitBit wearable device, necessary for the successful completion of the clinical sleep trials.

This app and wearable-based solution was determined to be ideal as it allowed trials to be conducted by patients in the comfort of their own home. This led to more accurate results for the National Sleep Foundation researchers as well as being less disruptive to their patients.

The Solution

The end product was Sleeplife®, an mHealth application that integrates with Fitbit to track a patient’s sleep patterns at night. The solution incorporated custom charts to allow ease of comparison between actual patient sleep habits and National Sleep Foundation guidelines, the data of which was also sent to a custom Doctor Dashboard.

The app enabled two-way communication between doctors and patients via a messaging feature, as well as enabling the completion of in-app surveys. In addition to the app development, Dogtown Media created one-pagers to aid in the facilitation of the clinical sleep trials.

The Result

Both end patients and National Sleep Foundation researchers praised the app for its design and usability, making it an ideal tool for the clinical sleep trials. The National Sleep Foundation commended the completed app as a product of Dogtown Media’s attentive nature and strong technical skills, while maintaining continued communication for appropriate enhancements.

Device Optimization

We designed and developed a HIPAA-compliant app for iOS, Android, and web, that integrates with FitBit wearable devices.

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