DESIGN CHALLENGE
TOPIC
Empower pregnant individuals with immediate, personalized assistance during their perinatal journey.
View the prototype
PROCESS
EMPATHIZE
Designed research strategy
While our team was interested in pregnancy as an underserved area of healthcare, none of us had actually experienced it. Our first step was to gain an understanding of perinatal care through secondary research. Together, we established research questions that would guide our search and inform the unmet need our app should address. We discovered some staggering figures:
Fewer than ⅓
Women of childbearing age who know the benefits of folic acid
– March of Dimes, 2010
6 months
Average wait time for an OB/GYN appointment in rural areas
– Friedman, 2023
10x as high
U.S.’ maternal mortality rate compared to other countries
– Simmons-Duffin, Wroth, 2023
Conducted 2 generative interviews
Although these statistics were alarming, we learned that pregnancy-related complications can be greatly reduced with proper medical intervention. We drafted a research plan involving 30-minute semi-structured interviews that would collect anecdotal evidence of what perinatal care looked like for currently or previously pregnant individuals.
Eligibility criteria
A person who has given birth in the last 2 years, or;
Their partner, or;
A social worker with access to someone who has
Demographic information
Late 20s - early 40s
2 East Asian; 1 Southeast Asian, 1 Indigenous
1 social worker who supports pregnant individuals
Overcoming challenges
Despite planning to supplement having no pregnancy experience with participants who did, it proved to be more difficult than expected to find them. We started with our immediate networks first, (mistakenly) doubtful that public recruitment would attract much interest.
We were fortunate to have a faculty supervisor we consulted for help, who facilitated an introduction to a social worker. In addition to our interview script, we asked this participant questions such as, "How did individuals start their process with working with you?" This session reinforced the value of diverse perspectives. For later rounds of research, we eagerly opened our recruitment strategy and sent cold emails to organizations who could offer similarly unique insights.
DEFINE
Identified 3 major pain points
I used affinity mapping to identify themes that emerged from more than one participant. We were curious about patterns in the participants' experiences with medical professionals and whether this varied by the type of provider (e.g. OB/GYN vs. midwife). In addition, we sought to understand how participants supplemented their perinatal care through other means, and their helpfulness.
This clustering revealed 3 pain points we wanted to design a solution for:
Lack of compassion in clinical settings
In all 4 interviews, participants referred to their doctor or clinician appointments as "impersonal" or "too general". There is an evident pattern of dissatisfaction with medical professionals, especially when treating unique symptoms. For example, a participant recalled that when they had difficulty breathing, emergency service was unable to determine the source. To the participant, this issue was not resolved.
"I felt that there could have been more tests that could have been done, but the dismissal by doctors made me initially question my concerns…"
– First-time mother
Difficulty adjusting to appointment cadence
Across 3 participants, monthly appointments with an OB/GYN seemed to be standard for most of the pregnancy, until the final month when appointments became weekly. 1 participant mentioned that they would track all their questions to prepare for their checkup and look for information online until then. They also mentioned knowing other mothers who needed answers even sooner.
"It was challenging to find answers for everything only seeing my OB/GYN once a month...I got a lot of other information from other sources."
– First-time mother
Minimal consideration for non-Western perspectives
In North America, hospital births are the most common form of delivery. Though this is standard practice in the region, more than one participant expressed interest in alternative methods, such as home delivery with a doula or midwife, in retrospect. Our interview with a social worker also revealed that pregnant individuals may feel more comfortable with specific practices from their own culture – though doctors typically offer limited information in these areas.
"I went through with the Westernized practices and I was disappointed with some of my experiences…they were just imposed on me because I just didn’t know better."
– Social worker
Defined key characteristics for user groups
Using the uncovered pain points, I established 3 key characteristics that defined our target audiences. This included individuals with:
Hesitancies around doctors
Not every pregnant individual has the confidence to self-advocate. Our app should help them keep record of important information to present during appointments.
Limited access to healthcare
Finances and proximity can, and do, pose as barriers to regular checkups. Our app should be able to support pregnant individuals in between appointments, and even post-partum.
Interest in community support
Because pregnancy is a unique experience for every individual, it can also be isolating. Our app should enable pregnant individuals to build local and engaged support networks.
IDEATE
Scoped product features
We proceeded to design the product features that would be central to Peri - what would become our perinatal support app.
Journal
Documents patterns of symptoms or questions for healthcare practitioners for convenient reference during an appointment
Tracker
Identifies changing symptoms and displays information on whether they align with what to expect at the current stage of perinatal process
Community
Grants access to other users in the same city to facilitate the support network often cited as crucial throughout pregnancy
With Peri, my team and I passed two rounds and placed as finalists! This case study focuses on the work done for round 1. If you would like to see the full case study, please request it by email.
LESSONS LEARNED
Don't reinvent the wheel
Since there are existing apps in the market that support individuals before, during and after pregnancy, we discovered that some users may not use similar Peri features separately. Where possible, we tried to integrate existing tools into commonly offered features. For example, we added an "Import calendar" button to the journal and a share button to specific entries, so that users did not have to abandon their established routines on other apps they may already use.