ExpressMS is a custom keyboard for iOS and Android devices. It promotes thoughtful debate about the hidden symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis. ExpressMS aims to achieve better support for people living with MS from friends, family, colleagues, and doctors. It promotes increased knowledge and awareness of MS symptoms.
People living with Multiple Sclerosis can experience a wide variety of symptoms. Some will be visible to those around them, but there are MS symptoms that are not visible. These symptoms can have an enormous impact on people living with MS. Their invisible nature can make them difficult to talk about. People don’t always recognise or understand the challenges or reality of living with them. Multiple Sclerosis symptoms include:
The custom keyboard uses smart auto-correct functionality to suggest more descriptive phrases. It provides a clearer picture of how Multiple Sclerosis symptoms feel. It integrates with the standard mobile phone keypad and functions with any messaging service or app.
All too often, the terms used to describe MS symptoms are ones that are common in society. Phrases such as “I’m exhausted” make it difficult to describe how those living with MS are feeling. Friends may not fully understand when they say that they’re ‘too tired’ to meet up. Rather than saying “I’m tired,” ExpressMS will suggest something else. Phrases such as “I feel as if I’ve run a marathon” describe the symptom in a more impactful way.
The phrases were developed based on extensive online analysis of the most commonly cited invisible MS symptoms. Each of these formulations have been verified by people with MS. Key features of the ExpressMS keyboard include alternative phrases. They describe the five most commonly cited invisible MS symptoms:
Edelman appointed Milo as their technology partner to work on digital innovation projects in the healthcare sector. Our mobile app development team and Edleman's digital product development team were eager to work together right away. We worked iteratively on digital product development using agile methodologies to solve the problem for the target audience.
A performant custom keyboard for iOS and Android requires a lot of specialised work. Both Apple and Google have set a very high bar for performance. We were tasked to create a custom keyboard, and it had to have a similar user interface and performance. This was not an easy task to complete given the time and financial restrictions.
Our UX team collaborated with the Head of Creative Technology to create a seamless user experience design. In a series of UX workshops, prototypes were tested with the intended audience. To iterate more quickly, our mobile app developers employed a JavaScript-based prototyping technique.
Our mobile app developers produced several versions of prototypes. These were put to the test on the intended audience using the lean UX methodology. This was carried out in order to collect feedback and enhance the app's user experience design. We created an iOS feasibility prototype after receiving favourable feedback from our test groups. Then, it was tested and approved by the different stakeholders, whose comments were incorporated into the prototypes. This eventually served as the foundation for our subsequent round of iOS and Android mobile app development.
Our preferred framework for building mobile apps is React Native. However, in this case we needed access to the lower level APIs and the ability to build app extensions. Because of this we had to fully commit to native app development across iOS and Android smartphones. This was not an issue for our expert team of mobile app developers. They have been using native SDKs since the initial releases of iOS and Android.
The ExpressMS keyboard app is available to download on mobile devices in Germany, Austria and Italy. ExpressMS will be more widely available in other European countries during 2022-23. To find out more visit Janssen expressMS.
Access to low level APIs is necessary in order to create a custom keyboard for iOS and Android devices. As a result, we developed the app using native SDKs in order to produce the required app extensions.
