ParentPro is a responsive web app to answer parents’ questions and concerns in raising their children because as they say “It takes a village to raise a child”.
Humans create a path for themselves, but in life plans change and for the better! That is how my app came to fruition. The project I chose was designed for parents to access experts in regard to their children for questions or assistance.
Introduction
Overview
As it is, raising a child can be complex - there is no “one size fits all”. I wanted to build a responsive web app that would help parents benefit from an application where experts can be available to answer their questions. Online information can be mistrusting, so I wanted to create an environment that’s stress free, judgment free, and trustworthy. As I began the initial steps in research, I realized parents would benefit from an app where experts can answer questions that are inevitably bound to come up. Not all parents have a community where they feel comfortable asking for assistance.
The Challenge
Parents were frustrated by all the mommy blogs providing their opinions through their own experiences and instead wanted facts. As one parent I interviewed stated, “What works for one parent’s kid may not work for other kids”. That made me realize 3 key points. First, that parents want advice from trusted experts, but don’t always have the time to schedule an appointment to visit their pediatrician. Next, the problem they are encountering may not grant for a full appointment with a doctor, and finally the issue at hand may need to be addressed quickly. I wanted to understand the problem and the level of assistance parents require in order to have a better parenting experience.
The Solution
I developed a mobile web app to cater to parents’ busy lives. The app connects trusted experts to parents along with articles written by trusted professionals so parents can educate themselves and best advocate for their children’s needs to navigate their precious journey.
DISCOVER
Before beginning the research, I developed a problem statement based on a hypothesis and a list of possible problems and solutions I came up with.
Competitive Analysis
I began my research by conducting a competitive analysis on two competitors. Once completing the SWOT profile, marketing profile, and UX analysis the main issue that arose was that both competitors’ experts and responses to users’ questions came from unverified individuals.
Surveys & User Interview
To delve deeper into the research, I created surveys hoping to obtain the information I needed to begin to ideate my designs. I found that conducting interviews was highly informative. This was the stage where I let my curious mind run free. Human minds are complex, and I was able to ask questions and listen to their pain points and motivations. Once I gathered the responses from the surveys and interviews, I revisited the problem statement and revised it to accurately portray the users’ needs and thoughts.
Affinity Mapping
Once I gathered all the data derived from the interviews, I was able to get a better overall picture of recurring trends and themes.
User Personas
By consolidating the insights I gathered from the user interviews, I identified common themes and two key user personas transpired. I developed two user personas - the first as an “experienced” mother and one as a new mother.
User Journeys
To gain a better understanding of the personas, I began developing journey maps. This was to help create a clearer picture of the user’s experience in working towards accomplishing a goal. The journey maps helped me identify how my users thinking, feeling, and doing . The process helped me empathize the user’s goals and how I can help them achieve that goal.
These are the 2 key major points I discovered from the journey maps:
Users (the parents) don’t always have spare time and need options to either - to read informative articles or quickly book an appointment with an expert to solve problems they encounter.
Most users don’t have a support system they can fall back on and it can be difficult to find.
Task Analysis & User Flows
I created user flows to determine the actual steps a user would take in completing their goal. Based on the frustrations, behaviors and motivations I discovered in the user interviews I outlined 3 major task flows.
Booking an appointment with an expert
Find and read an article
Create a new post in the discussion forum
IDEATE
Sitemap
Once I established the foundation of my research, users, and tasks, I created a sitemap to structure the experience for my users. I included points I found would be important to the users based on what the research participants mentioned numerous times such as a community forum for emotional support, verified experts, and credible articles. The organization of the app was just as important as the content, so I wanted to create a simple flow.
Before laying out the structure of the app, I went ahead and conducted a card sorting exercise. This was an iterative process with multiple exercises and here is the outcome:
Wireframes
Once I established three main functions that were crucial to the users, I began sketching out low-fidelity wireframes. I continuously looked back at the information architecture as a guide to ensure the screens I was sketching flowed together. I was able to brainstorm different designs without having to focus on the details. I then used Balsamiq to create mid-fidelity wireframes.
Prototype
In the last step of sketching I used Adobe Xd to create high fidelity wireframes putting together the user flows and created an interactive prototype to test on users.
TESTING
Usability Testing
Using my interactive prototype, I conducted 6 moderated remote usability tests. 3 of the participants were experienced mothers and the other 3 participants were new parents. I wanted to ensure I interviewed a broad range of parents with different experiences and a different number of children so I would gather diverse feedback.
Goal
The goal of this study is to learn how users would use ParentPro to connect with experts and utilize the community within the app to give and receive advice with other parents.
Test objectives
1. Determine if the user understands quickly and easily what the purpose of the app is.
2. Observe how users navigate and find an article to read.
3. Observe how easily users can book an appointment with an expert.
4. Observe what path users would take to post a new thread in the community forum.
Findings and Insights
After collecting the feedback, I created an affinity map to help me sort the responses and identify what iterations I need to make next.
When it came to completing the user scenarios, all the participants stated that it was very easy to accomplish the tasks and the app was easy to navigate. However, there were some issues with the designs. In particular the layout and text in the app was not clear which is why it took them slightly longer to complete some tasks. The following were some areas that were highlighted in the testing for improvement:
The participants struggled with the log in/sign up screen
The bottom navigation bar was ambiguous
The participants weren’t able to find the search bar
Preference Testing
A lesson I learned is that the beauty of iterating is even if I “fail” I alway have another opportunity to make it right with the users.
I conducted 2 preference tests using UsabilityHub to discover which onboarding screens users preferred. In the first round, it was clear most users liked Version #2, however some comments stood out that impelled me to run another round of testing. In the second round, I tested Version #2 (which most users liked) against an updated version I designed based on the comments. Surprisingly, round two came to a tie so I chose to stick with the original design (Version #2 in Preference Test #1). The understanding here is that sometimes one must conduct multiple testings in order to discover what the users want.
VISUAL DESIGN
Design Language System
I compiled the colors, iconography, typography, and UI Elements to create a Design Language System so it could be referenced and ensure that the look and tone of the app remains consistent.
UI Design
Reaching the final steps of the project, I was able to bring the app to life by adding color and UI elements. The app went through 2 changes of colors. In the first iteration I chose blue as part of the main color palette because it is associated with trust, stability, and loyalty. All characteristics of which I want to portray to the user while using the app.
Final UI Design
Once completing the UI elements and colors of the app, I delivered the prototype to several peers for feedback. There were small changes to be made based on the feedback, however the main issue was concerning the colors. Using a dark blue background made it difficult for peers to focus on the text because there was too much contrast. Therefore, I decided it would be best to keep the color palette the same. However, to make it easier on the user’s eyes I changed the primary color and modified the look of the UI elements to ensure the focus of the app was on the service (and text) rather than the colors.
