UX and UI design · Ongoing side project · Android app
NeuroNote
A headache diary you can still fill in while the pain is there, and that turns what you log into a report a doctor can read in a minute.
The home screen in its normal state. Current design, November 2026. The app itself is German, so every screen and diagram is shown in the original.
Role
UX and UI design, research, concept, interaction design, visual design
Tools
Figma, Miro, Google Forms
Context
Ongoing side project, started in 2024 and rebuilt in 2025 in a UX and UI bootcamp
Research base
Survey with 7 responses, 3 interviews, app store reviews, competitor comparison, professional guidance from a senior physician
Status
Almost nobody keeps a headache diary by choice. Four out of five people who answered this question in my survey keep one because a doctor asked them to. The apps that exist fail at the one moment they are meant for: the attack itself.
I know from my own experience how that ends. You stop logging, and at the next appointment there is no data again.
My sample is heavily affected: 57.1 percent of the seven respondents have headaches every day, another 28.6 percent on 21 to 30 days a month. All seven had already used a headache diary app and given up on it.
„Entries were unclear, sometimes you had no idea how you were supposed to enter all of it.“
Survey, free-text answer, translated from German
„White text on a very light background. The developers have clearly never had a migraine.“
App store review from the affinity map, translated from German
One respondent’s pain swings from 2 to 8 out of 10 within a single day. None of the apps she had used can record that.
Survey, free-text answer, paraphrased and translated from German
Survey, 7 responses: 57.1 percent have headaches every day. Original chart in German.
The basis is a survey with 7 responses, three interviews, the negative reviews of widely used headache apps, a comparison of nine competitors and professional guidance from a senior physician at a pain clinic. Four findings carry every decision that follows.
01
The account is the first hurdle
Forced registration is the complaint that comes up most in the reviews. If you cannot even look at an app without handing over an email address, you delete it. On top of that comes the worry about where the data ends up.
Detail of the affinity map, cluster User account. Click to enlarge. Original notes in German.
02
During an attack the entry is impossible
An attack takes away concentration and eyesight. Several reviews describe not being able to operate the app at exactly the moment they need it. Bright white on light grey is even named as a trigger in itself.
Detail of the affinity map, cluster Unusable with a migraine. Click to enlarge. Original notes in German.
03
Short and easy on the eyes beats feature rich
Asked what would matter most in a new app, 30 percent name colours that are easy on the eyes and 30 percent an entry that is finished quickly. Access for the doctor and a calendar view follow with 20 percent each. Nobody asks for more features.
04
The real reader is the doctor
Four out of five people who answered this question keep the diary because their practice asks for it. The export is therefore not an extra, it is the point of the app. One interviewee said about the strongest competitor: I can use it fine, my doctor cannot.
Survey, 5 responses to this question: four of them name their doctor. Original chart in German.
Detail of the affinity map, cluster Too complicated. Click to enlarge. Original notes in German.
The full affinity map from reviews and interviews. Click to enlarge. Original notes in German.
Lead persona
Leonie, 15, school student
Headaches 2 to 5 times a week
Goes out with friends, watches a lot of television, is on her phone constantly and comfortable with technology.
What gets in her way
Regular headaches · Appointments feel too long and too boring to her · A paper diary strikes her as old fashioned and fiddly
What she wants
Fewer headaches without much effort on her part · To get the entry over with as fast as possible
Persona
Andreas, 37, 3D designer
Headaches 6 times a week
Loves his work, is creative and very confident with technology.
What gets in his way
Frustrated and worn down by the constant pain · The pain keeps him away from his phone and his computer · Dislikes creating accounts for apps
What he wants
To be free of pain · An entry must not cost him any effort
Persona
Melissa, 26, dental assistant
Headaches 1 to 3 times a week
Keeps fit and knows her way around everyday apps.
What gets in her way
Irritable and impatient once the pain starts · Does not want her data passed on
What she wants
To understand how often and why the pain comes · To keep track of how much medication she takes
Four questions follow from this
HMW 01
How might we keep a pain entry short enough that Leonie actually completes it?
HMW 02
How might we make the design easy on the eyes so Andreas can use the app during an attack?
HMW 03
How might we offer encouragement so Andreas keeps logging instead of giving up?
HMW 04
How might we store the data without Andreas needing an account?
I looked at nine apps: Headachehurt, the migraine app of the Kiel pain clinic, DMKG, Migraine Buddy, HeadApp, Migraine Tracker, Migränekalender, sinCephalea and Mind. Three of them shaped the decisions on this page.
Strongest competitor
Migraine Buddy
What works
Free, packed with features, an entry can stay open and be finished later, the export works.
What does not
Too complicated. One interviewee put it like this: I can use it fine, my doctor cannot.
What NeuroNote does differently
NeuroNote asks one question per screen and writes the report for the doctor, not for the patient.
Clinically strong
Migraine app of the Kiel pain clinic
What works
One question per page, weather data, a word scale for pain intensity and the last 30 days of acute medication at a glance.
What does not
Hard on the eyes and heavy with text, no overview, an exhausting calendar and an error prone time picker built on a scroll wheel.
What NeuroNote does differently
NeuroNote keeps the word scale and the acute medication card and replaces the scroll wheel with Now as the default.
The approved DiGA
sinCephalea
What works
Approved as a digital health application, reimbursed by the health insurers, a clear focus on nutrition.
What does not
One person I spoke to never used it because of the blood sugar sensor. An extra device is a barrier.
What NeuroNote does differently
NeuroNote needs no extra device and no needle, only the phone that is already in your pocket.
Six decisions shape how NeuroNote feels. For each one you can read what it rests on, what it settles, what I dropped for it and which screen it shows up on.
Decision 01
No account required
Evidence
Forced registration is the reason for quitting that comes up most in the reviews. Next to it sits the fear of losing everything: one review describes three years of data gone after a phone broke.
Decision
NeuroNote starts without an account. The data stays on the device, a backup is optional and is offered after the first entry rather than during onboarding.
Dropped
The login screen from the first version. It contradicted the very decision above and is gone without replacement.
First launch without an account. The welcome card explains the goal, the notice says where the data lives.
Decision 02
One question per screen, and the entry may stay open
Evidence
An attack takes concentration away. The reviews name that as the main reason an entry never gets made. The interviews added the wish to finish a running entry later.
Decision
The entry runs across eight screens with one question each, short sentences and large touch targets. While an entry is running the home screen shows a status card and the button reads Finish entry.
Dropped
One long form on a single page. It saves taps and costs exactly the attention an attack takes away.
While an entry runs, the button changes from Entry to Finish entry.
Decision 03
A 0 to 10 scale, with words as an alternative
Evidence
71.4 percent of the seven respondents prefer to give their pain on a scale from 0 to 10, 28.6 percent in words. In one interview the word scale of the Kiel app was singled out as a good thing.
Decision
What is stored is always the value from 0 to 10, so the doctor’s report can average it. The word scale can be switched on in the settings and is only another reading of the same number: 0 none, 1 to 3 mild, 4 to 6 moderate, 7 to 9 severe, 10 the worst pain imaginable.
Dropped
The old labelling that ran from Mild to Weak. It made no sense as language and has been replaced.
Survey, 7 responses: 71.4 percent prefer the 0 to 10 scale. Original chart in German.
Step 2, the number scale.
Decision 04
The entry button gets a label
Evidence
In the usability test the participant could not find the first entry. She tapped the calendar first. A bare plus sign was not clear enough for a first time user.
Decision
The button carries the word Entry instead of a symbol alone. It is not a fifth tab in the navigation because creating an entry is an action and not a place. The bar keeps Overview, Calendar, Reports and More.
Dropped
The unlabelled plus sign and a fifth tab in the bottom bar.
Four places along the bottom, one labelled button for the action on the right.
Decision 05
Pain intensity kept apart from impairment
Evidence
Reviews and research both said impairment has to be recorded separately. Noise sometimes limits people more than the pain itself does.
Decision
Step 6 first asks which area is affected, so work, school, housework or free time, and then how badly. The value from step 2 is left untouched.
Dropped
A single value for both. It would have made the doctor’s report useless.
Step 6 of 8. Area and severity are asked one after the other.
Decision 06
The doctor’s report gets its own route
Evidence
In the competitor analysis Send to your doctor sat in a submenu, and reports were counted in days instead of months. Four out of five respondents who answered this question keep the diary because a doctor asked for it.
Decision
Reports are a tab of their own in the bottom bar, and the next appointment on the home screen leads straight into the report. Page 1 is built for a quick look during the consultation, page 2 holds the detail. Notes are off by default, because they can contain private things.
Dropped
The report as an item inside the settings, and periods counted in days instead of months.
The Reports tab. Create a doctor’s report sits at the very top.
Both diagrams are large. Each one is shown here as a readable detail, and the full view opens on click.
Information architecture
What to look at: the pain entry and the emergency entry sit on the same level as the calendar and the reports. No entry is buried in a submenu, and the way from the home screen to the first field is one step long.
Detail: home screen, pain entry, calendar and reports. Original diagram in German.
The full architecture with all six branches. Click to enlarge. Original diagram in German.
User Flow
The flow shows three routes: create an entry, change an entry later from the calendar, and produce a report. What to look at: the route to the report ends at an email address, not at a download somebody has to print.
Detail: the route through the pain entry, one step per question. Original diagram in German.
Detail: the route to the doctor’s report ends at sending, not at a download. Original diagram in German.
The full flow with all three entry points. Click to enlarge. Original diagram in German.
The wireframes settled the order of the questions. What changed afterwards came out of the usability test, the reviews and the competitor comparison.
Comparison 01
Step 1: date and time
The week strip now starts on Monday instead of Sunday, and Now is preselected. The scroll wheel the competitors use is gone because the research showed it produces negative hours. Anyone who wants to leave the entry open picks Still running instead of an end time.
Wireframe
Design
Comparison 02
Step 2: pain intensity
The wireframe set numbers and words side by side. That became a word scale: None, Mild, Moderate, Severe and Worst imaginable pain, each with its number or number range next to it. A value from 0 to 10 is still stored, so the doctor's report stays comparable.
Wireframe
Design
Comparison 03
Step 7: medication
The free text field became a list with checkboxes, dose and time. That was necessary because the acute medication is counted in the doctor’s report and has to be countable to assess medication overuse.
Wireframe
Design
In November 2026 the screens are still being worked on, the pain entry first of all. The result everything leads to is that report: two A4 pages, page 1 for a quick look during the consultation, page 2 for the detail.
Doctor’s report page 1: key figures, calendar overview, monthly trend and acute medication with dosing days per month. Report in German.
Doctor’s report page 2: type of pain, location of pain, accompanying symptoms, impairment and every entry in detail. Report in German.
The screen scrolls because the three views sit one below the other.
Step 4 of 8
Where the pain sits
The location is picked from three views of the head: front, side and back. Right and left are anatomically correct and swap sides on the back view, so nobody taps a mirrored spot.
The chosen areas appear below as chips. The screen grows with its content instead of cutting it off, which makes it the one step that runs longer than a single screen height.
Step 8: notes, left out of the report
Calendar, month view
Report: choosing the period
Report: warning when there is too little data
Report: preview before sending
Light sensitivity, loss of concentration and visual disturbance are part of migraine itself. Accessibility is not an extra here, it is the condition for the app being usable during an attack at all. The app is not accessible yet, but that is the goal, and the following guidelines point the design in that direction.
No information carried by colour alone
Pain intensity is written as a number inside the circle, the colour only reinforces it. A selection is also recognisable by its fill and its position.
No red and green coding
The usability test flagged red and green colour blindness as a risk. No state carries its meaning in red or green alone.
Contrast bound to variables
Colours come only from on surface and on container roles. Dark mode and high contrast are meant to follow automatically.
Touch target sizes
Entry button 56 dp, navigation items 64 dp, buttons 56 and 48 dp, chips and fields 48 dp, scale fields 54 by 54 dp, day cells 46 by 72 dp.
Font size at 200 percent
At double font size nothing should break because every screen sits entirely in auto layout.
No pure white
The surface sits on an off white. White on light grey is named as a trigger in the reviews themselves.
The test used one person and one scenario: a new app, Friday, the headache is starting, first entry. I wanted one question answered: does the first entry work without help?
The tasks
Continue as a guest (the first version still had this login). Start an entry while the pain is still running. Intensity mild, type throbbing and stabbing, location eyes, symptom dizziness. Read how many steps are left. No worsening, no medication. Finish.
What came out of it
The participant called the flow of the pain entry self explanatory.
The first entry was not visible. She tapped the calendar first, the plus sign was not clear enough for a first time user.
The keyboard in the prototype got in the way.
At severe pain levels a number was picked automatically.
What I changed because of it
Done
The button now carries the word Entry instead of only a plus sign.
Done
The pain unit can be switched between numbers and words.
Still open
Onboarding with speech bubbles, rethinking the calendar design, testing specifically for red and green colour blindness.
I started NeuroNote in 2024, after my studies, as a project of my own, at first as a superficial attempt in Figma. In 2025 I started it again from scratch in the UX and UI bootcamp at Digitale Leute School, with research of my own, and have carried it on independently since. The goal is approval as a digital health application, which means a listing in the German BfArM register and reimbursement by the statutory health insurers. In Germany 8 to 11 million people would qualify. A senior physician at a pain clinic supports the project professionally.
What I measure the design against: 90 percent should complete a pain entry without help in under two minutes. The metric that matters after that is how many people are still active after 30 days, because without regular entries there is no therapeutic effect.
What is still open
Seven responses are too small a sample. The decisions above are reasoned, but they are not proven.
It is also open whether the report is sent from inside the app, which needs a server handling health data, or handed to the phone’s mail app so the data stays with the user. The current recommendation is the mail app. Equally open is which measures doctors expect, for example MIDAS, HIT-6 or headache days by the ICHD criteria.
Next step
A usability test of the clickable prototype with people who have migraine, ideally during an attack, and a second survey with a larger sample.