Approved A little help with a University project please folks - Libre 2

[r0wl4nd91]

Hi all,

I am new here, but not new to Diabetes. For this project through Open University I have to interview or gather some feedback from some fellow users of the device or application on your phone. Then, I am to take the feedback and write a report on how the physical device, interface on the Libre or app could be altered to accomodate this feedback.

I would like to know what aspects of the Libre 2 process you feel is good and what you think is bad, or not so good. I'm thinking along the lines of user interface.

Do you use the libre reader? Do you enjoy it? Do you have specific problems relating to your own circumstances? What could be done in terms of UI or the physical design of the device to help you?

I've been asked to gather some actual user opinions on the design of the device, user experience or Libre app freedback for a University project I am hoping to start soon.

Any feedback on the above and issues you come across when using the monitor or your phone would be appreciated.

Steven

 

[EllieM]

Hi @r0wl4nd91 and posting here both to wish you luck with your survey (as a dexcom user I can't help I'm afraid) and to bump your thread up the list of new posts/threads.

 

[r0wl4nd91]

Hi, thanks. I don't think Im going to get the help, opinion and information I need for this project, how can I bring more attention to my post? To now clarify, I could just take some forum post opinions on how users of the app get along with or have trouble with the app.

Anything will help, I'm just trying to hopefully get real experiences from real users!

Steven

 

[RoughcutAU]

Hi Steven if you aren’t in a hurry I’m happy to give my opinions. Though don’t know if they will be particularly helpful as i’m a relatively recent user and haven’t had many issues.

I am tied up with work now until after christmas.

 

[r0wl4nd91]

Hi Steven if you aren’t in a hurry I’m happy to give my opinions. Though don’t know if they will be particularly helpful as i’m a relatively recent user and haven’t had many issues.

I am tied up with work now until after christmas.

Very thankful for a message and kind offer, a newer user's feedback and thoughts would be very useful. I don't think I will have enough participants due to the permission to ask delay and, understandable, busyness of everyone

If you are happy to at your own leisure, provide me with a few opinions on how the LibreLink app works for you. Feel free to give as much, or little, detail as you have time to!

1 Does it help you at work, leisure, sports, day to day activities?
2 Does it allow you to get as much information as you feel you need from a blood monitoring tool?
3 Are you pleased with the layout? Can you find everything you need?
4 Are the alarms suitable for you? Are they working? Could they be improved?
5 Do you find it easy or difficult to scan your sensor with your phone? (I'm talking along the lines of contorting the arm the sensor is on so it is closer to the hand the phone is in)
6 The user experience describes the way the user interacts with a device, app, interface...to achieve a goal in an enjoyable and pleasurable way. Would you say the LibreLink app is a good user experience for you so far?​

If there are any other kind souls who can answer the above, maybe in a reply or quotation of the above, it would help get an idea of how to structure an informal questionnaire that I may create.

Steven

 

[Antje77]

If you are happy to at your own leisure, provide me with a few opinions on how the LibreLink app works for you. Feel free to give as much, or little, detail as you have time to!

1 Does it help you at work, leisure, sports, day to day activities?​

Yes.
(Your question is a closed one. If you want to tempt people to give you as much information as possible, it works better to make it impossible to reply with yes or no. Like "How does it help you at work, leisure, sports, day to day activities?")

I mainly use the app to keep track on my insulin doses and see trends and TIR and such. Helps a lot with deciding on dosing.
I use an unofficial app with the sensor to follow my blood glucose. That one can thankfully be calibrated and it send my numbers to my phone so I can see them without scanning first.

The reader is very useful when swimming, I can just leave it in a waterproof pouch on the edge of the pool so I can check if I'm already dropping without neediing to leave the pool.

2 Does it allow you to get as much information as you feel you need from a blood monitoring tool?

It would if I could calibrate!
The one thing (apart from calibrating) I'd love to have changed is the Logbook function.
I use it frequently to check how much I injected for something during the past couple of days, as this is one of the things that influences my current dosing decisions.
The easiest way for me to check them is in the graphs, not the list. But in the Logbook graphs you cant scroll between days for a quick comparison. Instead you need to go back to the list, go to the next date you want to check and then go to the graph for that day again.

3 Are you pleased with the layout? Can you find everything you need?

Yes, very happy with it.

4 Are the alarms suitable for you? Are they working? Could they be improved?

Not suitable at all.
Because my sensors always read between 0.8 and 2.0 mmol/l lower than blood, the low alarm would sound all the time as soon as I approached the low 5's.
The alarms also don't repeat. Didn't wake up from your high alarm? No getting a second alarm, no matter how high you rise.
In the unofficial app (with very useful alarms!) you can tell it to shut up for whatever length of time you like, and it will repeatedly go off until you're either back in range or tell it to have a break.

If Abbott was smart, they would spend their time studying the various unofficial apps developed by users instead of fighting them. They might learn some things they could use to improve their own product so we wouldn't need to use the alternative apps they hate so much.

5 Do you find it easy or difficult to scan your sensor with your phone? (I'm talking along the lines of contorting the arm the sensor is on so it is closer to the hand the phone is in)

Easy.
Although since the latest update you need to remember to keep it against your arm until after the second tone/vibration has sounded, it's only at the third it did the scanning.

6 The user experience describes the way the user interacts with a device, app, interface...to achieve a goal in an enjoyable and pleasurable way. Would you say the LibreLink app is a good user experience for you so far?

Yes and no, see above.

 

[EllieM]

Any feedback on the above and issues you come across when using the monitor or your phone would be appreciated.

Have you had a look at the numerous threads on the libre in the forum? Seem to be some current issues with connection loss?

 

[Glucobabu]

Yes.
(Your question is a closed one. If you want to tempt people to give you as much information as possible, it works better to make it impossible to reply with yes or no. Like "How does it help you at work, leisure, sports, day to day activities?")

I mainly use the app to keep track on my insulin doses and see trends and TIR and such. Helps a lot with deciding on dosing.
I use an unofficial app with the sensor to follow my blood glucose. That one can thankfully be calibrated and it send my numbers to my phone so I can see them without scanning first.

The reader is very useful when swimming, I can just leave it in a waterproof pouch on the edge of the pool so I can check if I'm already dropping without neediing to leave the pool.

It would if I could calibrate!
The one thing (apart from calibrating) I'd love to have changed is the Logbook function.
I use it frequently to check how much I injected for something during the past couple of days, as this is one of the things that influences my current dosing decisions.
The easiest way for me to check them is in the graphs, not the list. But in the Logbook graphs you cant scroll between days for a quick comparison. Instead you need to go back to the list, go to the next date you want to check and then go to the graph for that day again.

Yes, very happy with it.

Not suitable at all.
Because my sensors always read between 0.8 and 2.0 mmol/l lower than blood, the low alarm would sound all the time as soon as I approached the low 5's.
The alarms also don't repeat. Didn't wake up from your high alarm? No getting a second alarm, no matter how high you rise.
In the unofficial app (with very useful alarms!) you can tell it to shut up for whatever length of time you like, and it will repeatedly go off until you're either back in range or tell it to have a break.

If Abbott was smart, they would spend their time studying the various unofficial apps developed by users instead of fighting them. They might learn some things they could use to improve their own product so we wouldn't need to use the alternative apps they hate so much.

Easy.
Although since the latest update you need to remember to keep it against your arm until after the second tone/vibration has sounded, it's only at the third it did the scanning.

Yes and no, see above.

I would agree with every word you have said. Thank you.

 

[Melgar]

1 Does it help you at work, leisure, sports, day to day activities?
Yes, I am prone to lows so when I’m engaged in physical activity I make sure my BG is raised before I start. And just a quick scan makes it much more likely I’ll check my BG whereas if I have to draw blood, less so. I tend to be economical with my strips due to them being a finite resource.

2 Does it allow you to get as much information as you feel you need from a blood monitoring tool?
I am happy with it. It would be good if it could be calibrated using a blood monitor. I am never 100% confident with the CGM readings. Yes, a blood draw will always be slightly different because of the time lag but at times the difference makes you feel less confident with the Libre.

3 Are you pleased with the layout? Can you find everything you need?
Yes, I am okay with it. I use the ‘daily graph’ to compare how my BG’s are doing from day to day. ‘Time in Range’ is a positive so too is the ‘Average Glucose’ graphs. I rarely use the ‘logbook detail’.

4 Are the alarms suitable for you? Are they working? Could they be improved?
I am very pleased with the alarms, especially the low alarm. I can sleep through when my sugars start dipping. I feel confident that I will not wake up with a pounding heart, panicky and sweating. I set my low alarm at 4.5. The arrow feature will tell me if I need to consume carbs.

5 Do you find it easy or difficult to scan your sensor with your phone? (I'm talking along the lines of contorting the arm the sensor is on so it is closer to the hand the phone is in)
Depends where I put the sensor. I sometimes put the sensor at the top pf my chest, which makes it easier. When I place the sensor on the tops of my arms I do have to move my phone around a bit to get the reading. Physically I don’t have a problem. It can be a pain when your phone doesn't pick up the signal from the sensor and you have to jiggle your phone around to pick up the vibration or tone.

6 The user experience describes the way the user interacts with a device, app, interface...to achieve a goal in an enjoyable and pleasurable way. Would you say the LibreLink app is a good user experience for you so far?
Yes, I much prefer it to all the finger pricking which leaves your fingers sore. I am an illustrator so it is very important for me (as I am sure it is for everyone) to not have sore finger tips.