An Android medication reminder prototype designed to help people stay on schedule with treatments and give family members visibility into dose intake.
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Type | Mobile app prototype |
| Context | University project |
| Role | Developer on a student team |
| Year |
| 2019 |
| Status | Academic prototype |
| Main focus | Medication reminders, dose tracking, alarms, and family notifications |
Pillbox (Sistema de Gestión de Suministro de Medicamentos) is an academic Android prototype built at Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco. The project explored how a mobile app could help people remember when to take prescribed medication, track remaining doses, and notify family contacts when a dose is due or completed.
The work followed a prototype-driven software lifecycle over roughly three months, from analysis and UML modeling through interface design, implementation, and usability testing. The original vision included a multiplatform app, but the delivered version focused on native Android with Firebase as the backend. I keep it in my portfolio because it shows an early, hands-on combination of product thinking, mobile UX, and real device integrations like alarms and cloud sync.
Managing medication schedules is harder than it sounds, especially when multiple medicines run on different timetables throughout the day.
I worked on Pillbox as part of a five-person student team under faculty supervision. We shared analysis, modeling, UI design, and Android implementation. My contribution centered on building and wiring core app behavior: Firebase-backed data for users, medications, reminders, and family contacts, plus the Android alarm flow that launches dose confirmation at the scheduled time. The app shipped under the package com.giusniyyel.pillboxapp, which reflects my ownership of a major slice of the implementation and documentation.
Pillbox gives users a structured way to register medicines, schedule reminders, and confirm intake when an alarm fires. Remaining dose counts stay visible on the home list, and family contacts can be notified around medication events.
AlarmManager entryUsers add medicines with a name and pill count so the app can show how many doses remain. The main list surfaces time until the next intake and remaining quantity per entry.
Each reminder links a stored medicine to a chosen time and dose. Android's alarm APIs fire at the configured hour and route the user into a dedicated alarm activity.
@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Bundle bundle = intent.getExtras();
if(bundle != null){
name = intent.getExtras().getString("name");
quantity = intent.getExtras().getString("quantity");
}else{
Toast.makeText(context,"Algo salió mal",Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
Intent alarm = new Intent();
alarm.setClassName("com.giusniyyel.pillboxapp","com.giusniyyel.pillboxapp.common.interfaces.AlarmActivity");
alarm.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
alarm.putExtra("name", name);
alarm.putExtra("quantity",quantity);
context.startActivity(alarm);
}I used a broadcast receiver so reminders could wake the UI even when the app was not in the foreground, which matched how real medication alerts need to behave on a phone.
Users register family members with name, age, and phone number. The app can alert those contacts around medication events so someone else can help enforce the schedule when the patient does not have or cannot use a device reliably.
User pills, reminders, and family records live under per-user paths in Firebase Realtime Database, with Google Sign-In for authentication.
private void sendUserInfo(String[] pilldata, String user){
FirebaseDatabase database = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance();
DatabaseReference myRef = database.getReference("users").child(user).child("pills");
String pushkey = myRef.push().getKey();
myRef.child(pushkey).child("id").setValue(pushkey);
myRef.child(pushkey).child("name").setValue(pilldata[0]);
myRef.child(pushkey).child("quantity").setValue(pilldata[1]);
}I chose push keys so new medicines could be added without manual ID management, which kept the client simple during a short academic timeline.
Deleting a reminder cancels its pending intent and removes the Firebase record, so orphaned alarms do not keep firing after the user clears a schedule.
The app is a native Android project written in Java with Android Studio. Firebase Authentication handles Google sign-in, and Firebase Realtime Database stores structured data for users, pills, reminders, and family members. The data model was planned with an entity-relationship diagram covering four core entities (user, medication, reminder, family contact) and junction tables for user-family and user-reminder relationships.
Navigation was mapped early with hierarchy diagrams for medicines, reminders, and family flows. UML use cases covered viewing reminders, adding medicines, registering family, and confirming intake after a notification. Lists use custom adapters to bind Firebase downloads into list views showing medicine name, time, and remaining doses.
Reminder deletion coordinates Android AlarmManager, PendingIntent, and Firebase removal in one gesture:
@Override
public void onSwiped(@NonNull final RecyclerView.ViewHolder viewHolder, int direction) {
final int position = viewHolder.getAdapterPosition();
final ReminderClass object = adapter.getItem(position);
String reminderid = object.getId();
AlarmManager mAlarmManager = (AlarmManager)
getActivity().getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
Intent alarmf = new Intent(getContext(), PillReceiver.class);
PendingIntent mPendingIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(getContext(),
Integer.parseInt(object.getAlarmid()),
alarmf, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
mAlarmManager.cancel(mPendingIntent);
firebaseDatabase = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance();
data = firebaseDatabase.getReference("users").child(user).child("reminders");
data.child(reminderid).removeValue();
}I treated alarm IDs and database IDs as a pair so local scheduling state stayed aligned with cloud records.
Quality was discussed against ISO/IEC 25000 themes (functionality, efficiency, portability, usability). Usability was validated with a 30-person survey on colors, field clarity, navigation, alarm presentation, and family-notification usefulness. Most respondents found the flows understandable and the alarm pattern acceptable for a first prototype.
The interface was designed in stages: logical flow diagrams, graphic mockups, and functional navigation maps before coding screens.
AlarmManager, pending intents, and Firebase deletes required careful ID handling to avoid duplicate or ghost alarms.Building Pillbox taught me how medication adherence apps combine quiet UX decisions with strict systems behavior. A missed alarm cancel or a stale Firebase record is not a cosmetic bug; it directly affects whether someone trusts the reminder.
This project is no longer maintained and should be understood as an academic prototype from 2019. It was built for coursework at Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco, not as a published production health product. I keep it in my portfolio because it captures an early stage of my growth in Android development, Firebase integration, and user-centered design for sensitive everyday problems.