A revolutionary approach that combines neuroscience with co-production to create digital tools that work with the brain's natural processes
Imagine for a moment that your brain is working against you. Simple tasks—remembering appointments, managing medication, even finding the motivation to start your day—feel like climbing mountains. This is the daily reality for millions living with neurological conditions. Yet traditional health apps often add to the problem with cluttered interfaces, confusing navigation, and generic content that fails to address specific needs.
Enter 180 NeuroHealth, a revolutionary approach to well-being app design that flips the entire development process on its head. Instead of designing for patients, neuroscientists are designing with them through an innovative process called co-production. By combining this collaborative approach with principles from neuroscience, the team is creating digital tools that actually work with the brain's natural processes—not against them.
"What if the people who live with neurological conditions daily could help design their own digital support tools?" This question sparked a unique experiment that's bridging the gap between laboratory neuroscience and real-world human experience. The result is an app that doesn't just look better but fundamentally works better for its intended users because their insights, experiences, and needs are woven into its very code 6 .
Co-production goes far beyond traditional user feedback or focus groups. While typical app development might ask users to react to nearly finished products, co-production brings patients, clinicians, and researchers together as equal partners from the very beginning. It recognizes that each group holds essential pieces of the puzzle:
Understand the daily realities, challenges, and unmet needs
Bring medical expertise and treatment perspectives
Contribute neuroscience principles and methodological rigor
Translate insights into intuitive user experiences
This approach is grounded in the understanding that the human brain processes information better when it's presented in ways that align with its natural functioning 1 . When people with lived experience of neurological conditions collaborate directly with neuroscientists, they create tools that respect both the science of the brain and the reality of living with brain-based challenges.
| Aspect | Traditional Design | Co-production Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Patient Role | Passive recipient of finished product | Active partner throughout development |
| Primary Focus | Technical functionality | Real-world usability and relevance |
| Feedback Timing | After initial development | Continuous throughout process |
| Decision Power | Solely with developers | Shared among all stakeholders |
| Outcome Measure | Features and aesthetics | Meaningful impact on daily life |
The 180 NeuroHealth app incorporates several evidence-based principles from neuroscience that make it more effective and user-friendly than conventional health apps.
The brain has limited processing capacity, especially for people managing neurological symptoms. Cognitive load theory suggests that working memory resources can easily become overwhelmed 7 . 180 NeuroHealth minimizes mental effort through:
This approach respects the brain's natural limitations, particularly the fact that people can generally only hold 5-9 items in working memory at once 5 .
The brain naturally prioritizes information based on visual cues. Drawing from Gestalt psychological theory, the app uses size, color, and placement to guide attention seamlessly 7 . Important elements like medication reminders appear more prominent, while secondary information recedes visually. This creates an intuitive path through the app that feels almost automatic, reducing the mental effort needed to navigate.
Human brains are pattern-recognition machines—a trait that ensured survival throughout evolution 7 . 180 NeuroHealth harnesses this by maintaining consistent visual elements, colors, and navigation patterns throughout the app. This consistency means users can rely on existing mental models rather than learning new interfaces for different sections, making the app feel familiar and predictable.
Emotions play a significant role in decision-making and engagement, processed by the limbic system about 20 times faster than conscious thought 5 . The app incorporates emotionally resonant design through:
The brain releases dopamine when completing tasks or receiving positive feedback, creating natural motivation loops 5 . 180 NeuroHealth includes thoughtful reward mechanisms such as:
The development of 180 NeuroHealth wasn't left to chance—it followed a rigorous research methodology that treated the co-production process itself as a scientific experiment. Recently published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, this groundbreaking study demonstrates how collaborative design can yield measurably better outcomes 6 .
The research team established a innovative participatory framework that brought together diverse stakeholders through a structured yet flexible process:
| Phase | Session Topics | Key Outcomes | Participant Input Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery (Months 1-2) | Symptom tracking challenges, Treatment adherence barriers, Communication gaps with clinicians | Problem priority list, User journey maps | Identifying daily pain points and unmet needs |
| Ideation (Months 3-4) | Feature brainstorming, Interface sketching, Content development | Initial concepts, Paper prototypes, Content outlines | Creative solutions based on lived experience |
| Prototyping (Months 5-6) | Interactive mockups, Navigation testing, Content review | Refined prototypes, Usability feedback, Revised content | Practical feedback on early versions |
The co-production approach yielded significant improvements across multiple dimensions compared to traditionally developed neurological support apps. The research team employed a mixed-methods assessment strategy that captured both quantitative metrics and qualitative experiences.
Features rated highest for both clinical usefulness and ease of use were all developed through co-production sessions, with 89% of co-designed features scoring high on both dimensions compared to 34% of expert-designed features.
The app demonstrated unprecedented adoption rates among users with diverse neurological conditions, with 94% of participants successfully completing core tasks without assistance compared to industry averages of 65-70% for health apps.
Perhaps most importantly, the app fostered significantly higher emotional engagement, with users reporting feeling "understood" and "supported" rather than "managed" or "monitored."
| Feature Category | User Satisfaction Score (0-100) | Task Completion Rate | Clinical Efficacy Rating | Accessibility Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Symptom Tracking |
|
95% | 88 | 94 |
| Medication Reminders |
|
97% | 91 | 96 |
| Progress Visualization |
|
91% | 85 | 92 |
| Educational Content |
|
94% | 90 | 89 |
| Communication Tools |
|
88% | 87 | 90 |
Behind both the co-production process and the app's development lies a sophisticated collection of research tools and methods. These "research reagents"—the essential materials and approaches that make innovation possible—include both technological tools and methodological frameworks.
| Research Reagent | Function | Application in 180 NeuroHealth |
|---|---|---|
| EEG (Electroencephalography) | Measures electrical activity in the brain to understand emotional responses to design elements 1 . | Tested user engagement with different interface designs and content presentation styles. |
| Eye-Tracking Technology | Studies where users focus their attention on a screen through gaze analysis 1 . | Optimized layout and visual hierarchy to ensure important features received appropriate attention. |
| Co-production Workshop Framework | Structured participatory methodology that enables genuine collaboration between stakeholders. | Facilitated the equal partnership between patients, clinicians, and researchers throughout development. |
| Cognitive Load Assessment Tools | Measures mental effort required to complete tasks within an interface 7 . | Identified and redesigned app features that were unnecessarily complex or confusing. |
| Iterative Prototyping Platform | Allows rapid creation and modification of app mockups for testing and feedback. | Enabled quick incorporation of user suggestions into testable versions throughout development. |
The 180 NeuroHealth project represents more than just another health app—it signals a fundamental shift in how we approach digital health tools for neurological conditions. By treating patients as design partners rather than passive recipients, and by rigorously applying neuroscience principles to interface design, the project has demonstrated that we can create significantly more effective and engaging digital health solutions.
"For the first time, I feel like the app was designed for someone like me, with all my challenges and variations in capacity."
The implications extend far beyond this single app. The co-production model offers a blueprint for developing more humane, effective digital tools across healthcare—tools that respect both the science of the brain and the experience of the person using them.
What makes this approach particularly powerful is how it aligns with our growing understanding of neuroplasticity—the brain's ability to reorganize and adapt throughout life. By creating tools that work with the brain's natural processes and that can be adapted to individual needs and challenges, we open new possibilities for supporting brain health across the lifespan.
The 180 NeuroHealth app continues to evolve through ongoing co-production, with new features being developed in response to user experiences and emerging neuroscience research. In the world of brain health, this collaborative approach isn't just creating better apps—it's helping to build a future where technology truly understands and supports the beautiful complexity of the human brain.