BIRTH STORY
Micro App Design
The App is designed to help mothers and their birth team document, reflect, and share the labor and delivery journey. With multimodal journaling, real-time collaboration, and soothing support, it captures both the emotional and practical sides of the experience without adding extra stress.
The Birth Story App is designed to help mothers and their birth team document, reflect, and share the unique journey of labor and delivery. By blending multimodal journaling, real-time collaboration, and soothing support, it empowers users to capture both the emotional and practical aspects of the birthing experience.
It is created as the micro app adjacent to and supplement the Myana, a birth app addressing maternal and child health equity needs in Pennsylvania. It specifically focuses on the labor and delivery process, a critical area not covered by Myana.
Duration
6 weeks
(Feb -Mar 2025)
Tools
Figma, Google
doc, Zoom
My role
User Research, UIUX Design, Prototyping
Team
Rui Ying,
Kevin Lorenzi
Challenge
Emotional & Physical Overload
Birth is emotionally demanding.
Tracking emotions and physical changes is difficult for moms during labor and delivery process.
Time Sensitivity Experience
Labor and delivery are intense and quick, making it hard to document in real-time.
Moms and their support teams may not remember details accurately.
Complexity of Collaboration
Many support people want to contribute, but it is hard to coordinate everyone.
People not present want to be updated on what is going on in the hospital.
Objective
Empower mothers to document their birth journey with ease and flexibility.
Support the birth team in offering emotional and practical assistance.
Facilitate collaboration between all members involved in the birthing process.
Provide calming support through curated music and comforting stories.
Organize and preserve memories in a structured and meaningful way.
FEATURE
01
Collaborative Support: A Shared Journey
A shared space where all team members can contribute.
Keeps everyone involved and informed through shared checklists, notes, and real-time updates.
Offer an album as a collection of all media automatically compiled from journal entries.
02
Timeline View: Unfold Birth Journey in Real Time
Visualize the birth story laid out as a clear, time-focused timeline.
Get updated with who contributed to each entry.
Quick previews by swiping through text, images, and audio at a glance.
03
Multimodal Entries: Capture Your Story Your Way
Offer the flexible options of:
Quick check-in
Open-ended prompt-based entries
Unstructured free writings
Media uploads
Spontaneous voice entry
04
Soothing Sound & Guidance: Calm in the Chaos
Integrate curated playlists to create a soothing environment during intense moments.
Birth team members can be invited to join into the playlists as a collaborative process.
Offer tips that are easy to access and simple to follow to provide quick and meaningful support.
View Final Prototype
THE PROCESS
Research
Context
Labor and delivery is a short yet intense experience, making it challenging to capture meaningful details in real time. To address this, we needed to gain a deeper understanding of the birthing process, focusing on how to break it down into manageable stages for documentation. This led us to conduct extensive research and interviews with mothers to better understand their needs.
Research Findings
We examined credible sources like Cleveland Clinic and Mt. Sinai to gain a thorough understanding of the labor and delivery process. Our research findings showed that labor and delivery involve four main stages: early labor, active labor, pushing and delivery, and placenta delivery, each with specific signs and management techniques.
User Interviews
We prepared some questions and conducted 7 preliminary interviews with mothers, listening to their birth stories to gain more insights.
Interview questions
Olga-Mother of 16-year-old
Jess-Mother of 2-year-old
Caroline-Mother of 4&7-year-old
Zuozuo-Mother of 1-year-old
Xi Yao-Mother of 1-year-old
Katryne-Mother from Birth Hour
Insights
Every experience is unique
Flexibility is appreciated
Need for ease of use
Desire for guided timeline
Limited bandwidth during labor and delivery
Interest in inviting others to share the experience
Pain points and Design Opportunities
Through preliminary research and interviews, we identified the following pain points and corresponding design opportunities, gaining an understanding of how to better enhance the birth story documentation experience and support mothers and their birth teams during labor and delivery.
PAINPOINTS
Labor moves fast, and key details could be forgotten
Journaling can feel like an extra burden during labor
Moms feel exhausted
Moms need both emotional and practical support
DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES
Quick, flexible entry options
Team collaboration
Audio
Key Stages
Soothing Features
Further Research and Brainstorming
Building on these insights, we conducted brainstorming sessions to explore potential solutions. We conducted further research on each design opportunity for relevant knowledge and context, sketched potential app structures, conducted concept development, and gathered inspiration for potential layouts.
Ideation
Wireframes
We began creating low-fidelity prototypes, and initially divided the app into five main features:
Homepage - Birth journal displayed through stages.
Education - Informative content.
Soothing Music and Stories - Calming audio content.
Profile - Personal information and collections.
Add Button - New entries.
Client Check-in & Second Round User Interview
We conducted a round of client check-in and a second round of interviews with two mothers who had given birth within the past year to gather feedback on our progress. The main feedback indicated that many parts of the app felt overly complicated, with some elements appearing redundant and burdensome.
As a result, we decided to:
Simplify the homepage by removing user prompts and entry displays, keeping only stage access points.
Merge the homepage into the sidebar menu, saving space and allowing easy access.
Turn the education section into light tips for relaxation and pain management.
Add a floating add button at the bottom right of each section for quick access.
DESIGN & PROTOTYPE
After careful consideration of user needs and feedback, we ultimately decided to design the Birth Story App with features that prioritize flexibility, collaboration, and emotional support. Our final feature set includes multimodal journaling, real-time collaboration with birth teams, comfort and relaxation resources and memory preservation tools to ensure a supportive experience throughout the labor and delivery journey.
Information Structure
Visual Identity
Designing Interface
Home - Access to Stage Entries
Home screen provides quick access to entries for Labor, Delivery, and Postpartum. Users can easily navigate between stages to view and manage their entries, keeping their journey organized and easily accessible. The side bar menu is designed for easy navigation and collaboration.
Saved Entries - Slideshow View
The Saved Entries section displays favorite entries, organized for easy viewing and management. Entries are shown as visual cards with key information and media previews.
Side Bar Menu - Checklists, Notes, Album, Collectables
Checklists & Notes: Keep track of important tasks and key information.
Album: View an automatically compiled collection of all media uploads.
Collectables: Track meaningful keepsakes moms can take from the hospital.
Timeline Entry View - Birth Story Tracking
The Entry Timeline View presents recorded entries in chronological order, emphasizing time rather than date to capture the fast-paced nature of labor and delivery.
Creating an Entry - Guided Steps
To start capturing a moment, simply click the Plus Button (+) located at the bottom right of any screen, and there will be comprehensive yet flexible steps guiding the users to complete an entry.
Comfort - Soothing Music and Stories
Comfort feature provides curated playlists, soothing music, and birth-related stories to support relaxation and emotional well-being.
Top categories
Recommended music/story categories
In each created playlist, birth team members can be invited to join
Play list title
Play list intro
Recommended playlists
Tips - Practical Support for Labor and Delivery
These tips are easy to access, simple to follow, and designed to provide quick, meaningful support without overwhelming users.
Birth Team Hub - Support and Document the Journey
Tailored screens, prompts, and guidance are designed to help the birth team stay involved, document important moments, and offer support throughout the labor and delivery journey.
Onboarding - Introducing App Features
The onboarding experience has been crafted with a focus on clarity, encouragement, and role-specific guidance, ensuring that both moms and birth team members know what to expect and how to get started.
Project Reflection
What’s Next?
Snapshot Export Feature:
Develop the feature of exporting entries that allows users to customize their entries into unique, visually engaging images and preserve on their phone. The exported images will look more like creative, storytelling posters rather than plain text or static pages.Client and Moms Follow-Up:
We will conduct follow-up sessions with clients and moms to see how well the current design meets their expectations and needs, helping us fine-tune features and ensure the app delivers a satisfying experience.