My Role
market research / user research / evaluator / designer
What is Doola?
The application's name is a play on the word, doula. Many moms suffer from postpartum depression but cannot easily get help.
Doula aims to provide a solution for those that need a support to those during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period (where postpartum depression hits most).
Problem and Goal
Create an app that helps alleviate the experience by providing resources and create a safe space without judgment for mothers suffering from post-partum depression.
Research
Participants felt they needed help but finding help is inconvenient and feared judgement. This result was consistent with the survey results, which showed that 60% of the applicants shared the same feelings.
Research shows that moms suffering from postpartum depression lacked a social circle where they could share their thoughts and get resources.
Which meant the app had to do at least 2 things:
- Create a safe space for moms and expectant moms to share their thoughts/questions
- Provide some resources
Personas, summarized from my findings:
User quotes fulled from affinity mapping and surveys:
"I thought to myself like, how could I not handle it? Maybe I'm just not good at being a mother or something..."
"I didn't want to be that person to ask a stupid question....I didn't want to be judged you know?"
"Honestly? It's a luxury to be able to get help in-person. I just accept my fate because I don't have the time. I have to put things aside and bring the baby around, it's just a lot to do to."
Sketches
Sketches are based on keeping things simple for the onboarding. The goal is to make it reliable, safe and familiar for users.
I included a stage in the sign up where we asked for double verification to ensure users were real humans, since one of the points participants parted out that was important was trustworthiness
Quick Wireframes
Onboarding process
Feed and Scheduling Appointments
Final Mockups
I wanted to create an app that users were familiar with style-wise to lessen their cognitive load, while allowing them to build a profile and news feed that fit their needs while being welcoming.
One of the biggest issues users noted that help takes way too long, and this app allows them to book appointments with specialists virtually while also allowing them to connect socially with other moms.
Lastly, another issue users had were that currently, resources seem to be "all over the place." This app enables users to ask their questions, view others' questions, and also read recommended articles all within one space.
Results and Constaints
Users breezed through the final testing of the application, with little to no concern. Noting that they mentioned it was "intuitive, so simple to use" and that "I like that everything is all in one place."
How did users benefit?
Some of the biggest issues for users was the availability of resources and the idea of a welcoming space and privacy option. This application was able to cater to their main needs.
If there was a 2nd phase to this project, I believe it would be beneficial to add more features.
Another interest users had were baby tracking abilities, due to time constraints this was not added to the application as it wasn’t one of the top priorities but considered a quality of life (QoL) addition.
Constraints?
1. COVID-19 Restrictions
This project started a little before the pandemic, so the original line up of users and I had to change our plans and ways of testing.
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