Peri, Your Perinatal Partner
As part of the HFES annual Mobile Health Applications for End Users Design Competition, students are prompted to design a mobile health app that applies human factors and ergonomics (HF/E) methods to improve patient outcomes.
My team proposed a solution that empowers pregnant individuals with immediate, personalized assistance throughout their perinatal journey – and made it to finals!
Sector
Healthcare
Design competition
Timeline
Round 1: Oct. - Dec. 2023; Round 2: Jan. - Feb 2024
Tools
Google Drive
Miro
Figma
Team
Justin Abando
Kelly Bang
Annie Chen
Project Scope
Our very first step in this process - selecting a topic - proved to be the most difficult thus far. We wanted to select an area within healthcare that was underserved while still experienced by many. I eventually proposed pregnancy as our area of focus: an experience that can be incredibly varied depending on the quality of support they receive from healthcare practitioners.
For our submission, we decided to center our research and product around individuals living in the United States, where:
Fertility rates and maternal mortality rates have increased year-over-year
Birth defects affect one in 33 babies each year
Insurance (or lack thereof) greatly impacts access to and quality of perinatal care
Research
To get a better sense of the American landscape, we gathered secondary data across 14 web articles and published research studies. From this, we identified insufficient perinatal care as a major barrier to successful pregnancies.
While we did not have direct access to U.S. citizens, I conducted one of three interviews with people who have been pregnant within the last 2 years to better understand how they have received perinatal care. I also interviewed a social worker who supports pregnant folks belonging to one or more marginalized communities, as they may have unique insight into navigating healthcare institutions during pregnancy.
Relevant objective outlined by Healthy People 2030 plan
I identified three pain points that the team wanted to address:
Lack of compassion in clinical settings
In all four 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.
"When I first met with my OB/GYN, I was given a package of information and sources to look into if I had any questions…"
Participant 3
Unclear value of mobile apps during different stages of pregnancy
Our participants were split on whether they used apps during their pregnancy. Three of them used Flo as a period tracker tool, one of whom stopped usage once they conceived. Similarly, the participants who used apps during their pregnancy stopped once they gave birth as they no longer found a use for it. This was important for us to consider - how could we design a mobile app that is relevant and useful to expectant parents, even during the prenatal or postnatal stage?
"After pregnancy, I got a different app to measure food intake and diapers. Around 4 months post-partum, I also did sleep training with its help."
Participant 2
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."
Participant 4
User Groups
How could we design a mobile app that was differentiated enough from similar apps in the market? I used the uncovered pain points to identify three key characteristics that defined our target audiences. This included individuals with:
Hesitancies around doctors
Limited access to healthcare
Interest in community support
Product Features
Justin and I assigning each teammate a specific feature or screen to sketch
Based on our user groups, we came up with three central features that would define 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
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
Round 1 necessitated a low-fidelity wireframe for submission, but our team advanced to mid-fidelity in order to become more familiar with Figma outside of class. The following screens outline Peri's central features to demonstrate the app's unique selling point as a support solution that is just as involved as the pregnancy experience. This starts with a comprehensive onboarding process that uses entered information to display articles relevant to the user's stage of pregnancy and other health conditions.
Onboarding
Home Screen
Journal
Tracker
Community
Heuristics Evaluation
Average scores across all team members for each task flow
Usability Testing
I participated in three out of five think-aloud usability tests, in which I facilitated two and took notes for another. Eligibility criteria for these tests were the same as our user interviews.
In total, we tested with five participants over 2 weeks (from January 29 to February 9, 2024) through 1-hour sessions over Zoom.
Methodology
Collected demographic information with questionnaire
Recorded observational notes on Miro board
Asked post-test debrief questions on business viability
Takeaways
On average, participants gave Peri a score of 83 out of 100 in intuitiveness and 86 out of 100 in usefulness
4 out of 5 participants were curious about integrating tools they already use into Peri
2 out of 5 participants expressed interest in a feature that contained educative pregnancy information
Snippet of participant quotes during a specific task flow
High-Fidelity Prototype
Finally, my teammate Annie developed a design system to evolve our prototype. We incorporated participant feedback with defined typography and a colour palette that evoked warmth and trust.
See the prototype
Check out the high-fidelity version of some screens from the mid-fidelity features outlined earlier:
See my prototype
Onboarding
Home Screen
Journal - Specific entry
Tracker - Contractions
Community
Lessons Learned
It's important to test run your script
During our usability tests, there was one task that our first couple of participants struggled with: "View the purpose of the journal". The phrasing seemed to confuse them. As a result, they were unable to complete the task. In a later interview, I rephrased the task to, "Find more information on how to use the journal" - of which the participant completed successfully. Since it's important to consistently follow a script, we should have ran the script with test participants prior to the actual study in order to catch this.
You don't need to reinvent the wheel
Since there are existing apps in the market that support women 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.