Apple wants to improve research study user interface for ResearchKit

Apple has been granted a patent (number 11,266,330) for “research study user interfaces.” It likely involves the company’s ResearchKit.

About ResearchKit

ResearchKit turns an iPhone into a tool for medical research by helping doctors, scientists and other researchers gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants anywhere in the world using iPhone apps. Participants enrolled in these app-based studies can review an interactive informed consent process, easily complete active tasks or submit survey responses, and choose how their health data is shared with researchers, making contributions to medical research easier than ever.

About the patent

Users of electronic devices can provide information to research studies that gather data for use in investigations involving multiple users across multiple electronic devices. Such information can be provided to such studies using user interfaces that include one or more graphical elements adapted for use with research studies. 

However, Apple says that some techniques for interacting with research studies using electronic devices, are generally cumbersome and inefficient. For example, some existing techniques use a complex and time-consuming user interface, which may include multiple key presses or keystrokes. 

Apple says that existing techniques require more time than necessary, wasting user time and device energy. The company wants to overcome such issues with ResearchKit

Summary of the patent

Here’s Apple’s summary of the patent with technical details: “The present disclosure generally relates to techniques and user interfaces for interacting with research studies. In some embodiments, an electronic device displays a user interface that includes a task view with active tasks from multiple research studies. In some embodiments, an electronic device, while displaying a research study user interface, displays an indication of a problem that prevents enrollment in the research study when enrollment problem criteria are met. In some embodiments, an electronic device, while performing a hearing test, suspends the test and displays a restart affordance when the ambient noise level exceeds a threshold.”