Glow Mama App
Click the link below to interact with the app on your own!
https://xd.adobe.com/view/83fc0a42-f884-4f8a-8b32-7f5d69d4b3e3-d6af/?fullscreen&hints=off
The Problem
First-time mothers deal with a lot of stress, but the needs of the mother can sometimes be ignored. Many pregnant moms have a whole new set of worries but they don’t always have ways to help them cope in a healthy way.
How can I create a resource to help educate on the topic of emotional intelligence for first-time pregnant mothers living in Ohio and Indiana 20-30 years old that will help them cope with stress during their pregnancy?
Success Statement
I will know the design solution is successful when I am able to test it on participants within my target audience and receive positive feedback and be able to record a reduction in stress or utilization of better ways or coping from users in my target audience.
Target Audience
My audience for my research are pregnant moms aged 20-30 years old as that is the average age for pregnant mothers. Indiana and Ohio because I have connections to participants within those areas.
Research
For the Competitive Analysis, I looked into Pregnancy and mental health apps. Looking at reviews of the apps to see negative and positive features of the apps. I noticed that there currently isn’t a “pregnancy mental health app,” being offered to moms which made me realize that there is a need for this. I also learned that I should implement a source for community in my app where moms could have support from other moms due around the same time. I also found inspiration in some apps to develop a style and tone of voice for my app.
Surveys:
55% of moms don’t use any kind of meditation/mindfulness/journaling exercises
Which reassured me that there is a need for a pregnancy mental health app.
I also discovered that the main pregnancy stressors fall within physical/body changes, life changes, planning, and uncertainty
I completed a Content Analysis to further look into resources to help with healthy coping of stressors. I came across Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, also known as CBT.
Thefreedictionary.com states that CBT is,
“a type of psychological therapy that assumes the individual seeking treatment has maladaptive, or counterproductive, thinking patterns, which in turn cause maladaptive behavior and “negative” emotions.”
With that said, CBT could offer pregnant mothers positive and mindful techniques to change negative behaviors so they can more successfully cope with their stressors.
Next, I completed Interviews to gain a deeper understanding of stress experiences from the moms who completed my survey. I gathered some interesting insights from these interviews.
One mom said, “Moms get overlooked. You’re not really doing things for yourself, you’re doing things for the baby.”
Another mom said, “It helps to reduce stress by having a circle that encourages you and doesn’t make you feel like birth is a scary thing, but that it’s natural and normal and you’ll be fine.”
Another said, “Having educated people tell you that you’re going to be fine, it helps calm your nerves.”
And lastly another mother said, “Getting reassurance and knowledge really brought [my] stress down.”
Community, Preparedness, and Mindfulness were the most helpful coping techniques. These insights helped drive my next steps in developing my project.
Design Process + Testing
The Main features of my final design needed to include CBT in the form of:
- Coaching
- Techniques
- Community with other moms practicing CBT
My final design solution is called the Glow Mama app. I felt that an app would be the most accessible and efficient way to reach my audience
My design and testing phase were accomplished in unison. I conducted user testing throughout the design phase to test the content and flow of my app, so that I could make changes to my project as I continued to develop it.
Design Solution
Click the link below to interact with the app on your own!
https://xd.adobe.com/view/83fc0a42-f884-4f8a-8b32-7f5d69d4b3e3-d6af/?fullscreen&hints=off
When conducting testing, I received a lot of positive feedback regarding the app.
One mom said, “I wish I could have used this for my last pregnancy! This would have been so helpful for me. I would use it even now.”
Another mother said, “As a first time mom, I would definitely use this app. There are so many things you stress about when you’re pregnant, so this would be perfect”
And lastly, another mom said, “I would have loved to use this when I was pregnant. I like that everything is in one place, too. I could have learned how to deal with the stress which would have been great!”
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed learning about my process through designing the Glow Mama App!