Parentpal
Case Study
Parentpal is my first passion project - it started with my passion for childcare and as I conducted user research I made several design decisions to pivot. I researched, designed and prototyped a design solution to raise awareness of accidental poisoning hazard-related injuries at home and give parents the support they need in finding a trusted community around them.
Duration: 5 Weeks (April-May 2022)
Role: End-to-End UX UI Designer.
Problem Statement
Infants and toddlers are curious in nature, and parents are occupied with balancing childcare, housework, and various other tasks. The problem lies in the level of support and awareness in providing parents with various preventive tools which provide timely insights in cases of accidental poisoning-related injury that happens within the household.
Finding a problem
Choosing a problem should be easy right? well, not really, my inspiration came to me as I was babysitting my little niece, and this particular item gave me my lightbulb moment.
Yes, this glue.
I ate this when during my days in Kindy in arts & craft class (sorry Mum…).
There were many moments I’m sure in our childhood where we touch, feel, or taste things that we weren’t supposed to, and I started to wonder if accidents like accidental poisoning or other potential hazard injuries occur often within the home.
Children in Australia between the ages of 0-4 have the highest rate of Accidental Poisoning Hospitalisation. Each year, 180,000 calls are made to Poisons Information Centres in Australia, with about half of these relating to children
User research
I sent out a survey to the wider Australian community, sending out surveys to parent groups/communities on Facebook and many smaller fragmented parent groups on WhatsApp & WeChat. The survey reached 82 responses within the first 24 hours, which shows the high interest that parents’ have in response to this problem space. The survey was separated into 3 clear parts:
Bio-demographic
Child-parent relationship
Healthcare-related.
Bio-Demographic
51% are of Asian descent
83% of participants are in a marital relationship
74% of participants are in the age range of 25-34 - with the median age range of 30
52% of respondents are employed on a casual basis
Child-Parent Relationship
The median age of children is 28 months
21% put their kids on a childcare service (1-3) days
67% leave their children at home with a nanny/family member
9 Parents applied for government grants
Healthcare Related
71% of parents rush to the emergency room during a case of an accidental poisoning
62.3% of parents felt confident that they have secured hazardous goods at home.
69% of participants access information from Social media platforms
I also conducted user interviews via phone, and contacted participants who wish to participate in further research, others were contacted through friends and acquaintances. I applied for a Working With Children’s Check (NSW) in order to make the participants feel comfortable as children may be involved. 7 participants expressed their views and I discovered that there are other areas of the problem space that I may have overlooked.
"I have my friends who are having babies at the same time as me, but they're back home, I don't know anyone in my area…I feel lonely after childbirth”
“I only found out about the group (WhatsApp) when my child was 1 year old…I wish I found this group earlier”
“I don’t feel comfortable mingling with other parents because I can’t speak (English) well, I’m scared I might be embarrassed and not understand”
Key Insights
Synthesising all the data received during the discovery helps me put into perspective who I’m designing this solution for, how they’re feeling, and their thoughts, which in turn helps me better understand their point of view and be able to empathise with areas that are of concern to them.
What’s really interesting to note -
The importance of having a community around them.
The reliance on family (if they are residing in Australia) - the amount of trust they have with family members, as most have to work part-time jobs with odd hours, often relying on family members to take care of their child.
Reliance on finding communities through word of the mouth, which leads them to join groups on WhatsApp, LINE, and WeChat - however, they have expressed that groups are difficult to find if they were not introduced to someone within the group, how would they be able to find them in the first place?
Pivot Problem Statement
Parents from the working-class experience limitations in their employment which prevents them from giving constant, undivided attention to ensure the wellbeing of their children.
With the emergence of social media platforms, parents proactively converge into online support groups. However, these online support groups are fragmented and lack visibility, especially for people who need them the most (immigrants who just settled in, segregated communities, and people who lack access). They also provide a hurdle to larger institutions seeking to assist them.
Soo… knowing all this, how might we?
How might we help better assist users in finding and creating a community that they can trust?
How can we support them to be able to make timely decisions in the case of an accidental injury that occurred at home?
The direction
I began to select and prioritise ideas and map them on an MVP Matrix. I made sure to analyse each idea and how they address each pain point that the user is experiencing.
Key ideas on the MVP Matrix were -
Parent 'on call' - people who volunteer to be called to discuss these topics
Profile & Interactive Map - show where they are located, their profile, interests, and groups around them.
Translator for important safety terms
I’ve decided to keep the user flow straightforward, focusing on 3 main features -
Forum - as a way for other parents to share their experience
Connect- as a way for parents to connect with groups nearby in the area
Quick Emergency Call - has a buddy feature who speaks the same language that will join the call. The purpose is not to give medical advice but to give mental support and translate any important information to the emergency hotline.
Low Fidelity
I relied on using wireframes and low fidelity to be able to quickly bring the concepts and features to life and to be able to iterate as quickly as possible.
Tested with 10 users using the System Usability Scale - (out of 10)
4.5 for ease of use - 6/10 they found that navigation is unnecessarily complex
5/10 users needs assistance to be able to understand the features & navigation icons.
“What’s this icon here? how do I see friends?…“What’s with the triangle on the phone”
6.2 for desirability - 7/10 users found that the idea was interesting and see the benefits of the product.
Medium Fidelity
Moving into Medium Fidelity, I made the icons more universal in terms of looks so that users can easily understand navigation and changes in the content hierarchy on the dashboard.
Tested again with 10 users using the System Usability Scale - (out of 10)
6.9 for ease of use - 5/10 found the navigation unnecessarily complex & needs assistance to explore
7.6 for desirability - 8/10 found the various function & features useful.
“How do I know if the other person spoke Thai too? I don’t want to embarrass myself”
“What’s this star thing on the map… How do I find groups? Is it on the map as well?”
Designing For User Needs
Looking through my user feedback and insights from iterations, I began to go back to the pain points and made changes based on the users’ pain points and the journey. This was my biggest lesson when iterations or a product isn’t working, always going back to the pain points and research.
Dashboard Content
The dashboard after the onboarding journey is the first thing they see and interact with.
“I want to see groups & people around me first”
This made me reflect on the order/hierarchy of importance of what they’d like to see.
Forum Page Erased
The solution itself is not a silver bullet that can solve all pain points - so I decided to focus on things that matter to the users. Going back, I realised that the biggest want was that they hoped to make a connection sooner with the other parents.
“I just want to just chat directly with other mums”
A forum is one-to-many rather than one-to-one. Therefore, I’ve decided to focus more on facilitating that 1:1 connection.
Onboarding Questions
In the previous iterations, I did not include a long onboarding process and thought of letting users skip the process. However, feedback such as
“I want to join a group close to me that has kids my age so they can have a playdate, how do I see that?”
I’ve decided to include a longer onboarding journey to facilitate the finding of groups with kids that are the same age.
Medium Fidelity (version 2)
Taking all the pivot moments onboard, I began to design a new version with iterations on the dashboard experience, onboarding journey, and erasing the forum page.
Tested with 10 users using the System Usability Scale - (out of 10)
9.0 for ease of use - 9/10 found the navigation is clear and able to navigate around without guidance/assistance
8.9 for desirability
“You can see the favourite contacts on the call page, I like this, you had a list before, thank you for changing that!
“I can see the friends, groups & events first, I like this!”
Typography & Colours
Following the WCAG 2.0 guidelines, I wanted to choose a font that is easy to read, and see and legible. Regardless of size, Inter maintains excellent readability due to its x-height - which helps to generate space between lines of text and makes it easier to distinguish between capital and lowercase letters.
A method I like to use when creating colours is to start with a concept and gain validation from users. Since this is a communication platform - I look at the logos of the most popular communication platform such as WhatsApp, Line, WeChat and even SMS using the colour green. I chose a colour that is familiar to the user, in this case, I chose dark green.
Design Solution
It’s time to put the pieces together - Here is the first look at the final product!
Onboarding Experience
“I want to join a group close to me that has kids my age so they can have a playdate”
Onboarding journey that is focused to enhance and facilitate parents meeting those with children around the same age.
Improving the experience to help parents build a community around them that they can trust and feel supported from the very first touchpoint.
Connect
“I wish I found this group (WhatsApp) sooner…I just want to chat directly with other Mums”
Supporting 1:1 interactions with other parents while also helping them establish a social network.
Given that smaller groups in social media networks are mostly fragmented and at times challenging to find, this feature makes it easier to locate a community in the area.
‘Buddy’ Call
“I can’t speak (English) well, I’m scared I might be embarrassed and not understand”
Our ‘Buddy’ is a parent on call who speaks the same language.
The purpose of our ‘Buddy is not to give medical advice but to give support and translate any important information.
Key Takeaways
Narrowing down ideas and concepts was challenging, however clearly understanding the scope and limitations that I have, helped me to shape a well-balanced solution that address the pain points within the limited time. I also learned that sometimes a design solution is not a silver bullet - there has to be a particular area to focus on, and this is done through understanding the user and re-interviewing my research participants.
sooo…how was my first ever design project?
Hope that wasn’t too long of a read! Thanks for reading through and I hope to see you in the next one!