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MILC
Making breastfeeding support and resources accessible to marginalized groups
INTRODUCTION
MILC is a bilingual app that empowers hispanic moms on their breastfeeding journey with culturally relevant resources, expert advice, weekly bite-sized- videos, and a supportive community. Plus, get extra help anytime from an AI chatbot!
Note : Details have been modified to respect confidentiality agreements.
This was a project I worked on at Benten Technologies. I independently led the entire design process for MILC. I have worked on the product strategy, branding, design systems, and designing the full product experience.
MY ROLE
TEAM
Product manager, 2 Developers
5 Mins
6 Months
READ TIME
PROJECT DURATION
PROBLEM
Hispanic mothers are breastfeeding less, creating a growing health disparity
Breastfeeding is vital for maternal and child health, as emphasized by the WHO and UNICEF.In 2017, the CDC's Breastfeeding Report Card revealed a stark disparity in breastfeeding practices among Hispanic mothers in the U.S. While nearly 80% initiated breastfeeding, fewer than 25% exclusively breastfed for the recommended six months. However, cultural barriers, inadequate resources, and lack of community support have contributed to low exclusive breastfeeding rates among Hispanic women.
OUTCOME
An increase in early results and a 30% rise in user engagement have secured new funding for Phase 2 development.
GOALS
For the prenatal period: Increase the rates of breastfeeding initiation.
For postpartum: Provide useful information and access to support.
KEY SOLUTIONS
Solving Peer Support Challenges
In the early stages of my engagement with mothers I determined that peer support was very valuable to users. How could I make it more engaging for mothers was the real question. I designed a Community Corner, where mothers could share their stories, select topics that were interested in and also start their own topic to discuss with other moms!
Can’t find what you’re looking for? Start your own topic!
Learn and grow
The challenge was to present educational content in a way that felt engaging and fun, rather than clinical or overwhelming. To make the breastfeeding journey more exciting, the app introduced a reward system where moms can earn points and receive rewards. I also organized the content into three categories: Topics, Prenatal (week-specific), and Videos.
A treasure trove of articles and videos designed for every step of your breastfeeding journey!
Journey Adventure
Moms score rewards by tuning into videos and crushing quizzes
Support Line Connections
Mothers mentioned that workplace challenges often lead to early weaning. In response, we as a team at Benten collaborated and committed to providing as many resources as we could to these moms, including a directory of breastfeeding-friendly locations near you, to make breastfeeding work, wherever you are.
Hotlines and local breastfeeding support at your fingertips
What about multilingual support?
Given that the entire application is designed for Hispanic users, what better way to support mothers than by providing the app in the language they are most comfortable with?
The settings page lets mothers switch between two languages, updating the entire app automatically
DEFINING RESEARCH GOALS
Identify mothers primary feelings/attidude towards breeastfeeding
Identify any apps or solutions that help mothers to do this
Understand what may motivate mothers to breastfeed
Identify any actions mothers are taking to solve this problem
Identify habits that may block mothers from feeding their baby
Assess how much mothers prioritize proper nutrition for their babies.
USER INTERVIEW DISCOVERIES
Through user interviews, I discovered that these mothers struggle to find trustworthy guidance that reflects their cultural background and meets their specific needs.
PRIMARY USER NEEDS
To contribute to the goal, mothers with long working hours need to establish a routine ( feed time etc)
Routine
Peers from the same culture who are aiming for the same goal are a huge help
Community
A source that gives trustworthy information keeping their culture and barriers in mind
Culture relavant help and information
PRIMARY USER PAIN POINTS
Mothers lack the motivation to make changes to their habits
Motivation
Changing habits means changing
routine, which challenges users
Disruption
Language barrier has limited their resources, so users don’t feel connected to the issue
Languauge
Did you know?
When compared to all other ethnic groups, Hispanic mothers are most likely to supplement breastmilk with formula within the first two days of life
BREAKING DOWN THE PROBLEM
Having done my research, I wanted to break down all the existing challenges users were facing. To achieve this, I created actions and thoughts, relating each one to a specific user needs and problems. I took it a step further and related each user need to a corresponding ‘Oppurtunities?’ statement to postulate potential ways to address each need with the app.
User problems and wants
How might we?
How can we bridge the gap in breastfeeding rates among Hispanic mothers through an effective online presence?
CHECKING IN AND PRIORITIZING
Once the ideation was done, I was constanlty checking in with the developers and my manager to ensure we all felt aligned and on the right path. I still wanted to make sure we all prioritized what we felt was needed, what was possible from developers stand point in the short term and what could come later.
KEY DECISIONS
One of my main ideas for the app was to incorporate gamification, enabling mothers to earn rewards. With limited time and budget, the company agreed to a simplified version. We also debated on whether to keep the onboarding brief or personalised, but ultimately decided to include a personalized onboarding experience in the MVP.
MAPPING IT OUT
Reward Implementation Area
DESIGN
The design process for the entire app was executed rapidly, as the company faced time constraints and needed to bring the app together quickly. With a clear vision of the app's features, I moved forward with creating the wireframes.
My plan was also to use my low-fidelity wireframes to conduct user testing, so users would be focused on the function of the app & placement of its features rather than it’s branding.
TESTING THE ITERATIVE DESIGNS
Although I wasn’t able to be with the mothers to observe their navigation, I received a document from the company detailing which features worked well and which didn’t, along with their feedback on missing elements and aspects they liked.
RESULTING REVISIONS
HOMESCREEN
When asked to log a feeding, users were unsure where to click. I considered adding a floating log symbol for interactivity, but it confused users. Instead, I removed it to focus on the essential information they found valuable.
Before
The (+) log floating icon on the homepage confused users.
Mothers struggled to find the support feature, and even when they did, they were unsure of its purpose.
After
The word "add" was implemented to all the log boxes.
Support feature was renamed to "expert".
Users loved the daily encouragement section and suggested it would be even better if it appeared above the weekly guide section.
The log floating icon was removed and was replaced with the chatbot hint pop up.
LOG SUMMARY FOR FEED
I designed the summary to be clear and included a bar chart to help mothers understand the information. While the bar graph was well-received, mothers wanted a way for summary to show both breastfeeding and pumping sessions. It needed to be simplified further for better clarity.
Before
After
This option to choose summary for a day or a week confused mothers
This information overwhelmed the mothers.
The numbers needed to be simpler to understand
A more info button was
added to give users more details of their logs
Broke down feed into two categories
Reduced confusion by providing an option to switch between weeks.
Average # of feeds/day info was provided to help users better understand the graph
FINAL DESIGNS
ONBOARDING
Why we asked user to go through longer onboarding?
Since our target users—mothers—are at various stages of their postnatal or pregnancy journeys, a longer onboarding process is crucial for understanding their needs and tailoring their experience with the app.
Why we provided an option to skip the onboarding ?
1. Improves user’s onboarding experience : Allowing users to skip personal information requests can reduce feelings of invasion and time consumption, leading to a more positive interaction with the app.
2. Gradual trust-building - Allowing users to skip onboarding and complete it later helps build trust. Users can first experience the app's value and functionality, making them more likely to share personal information later.
To address the drawbacks of a skippable onboarding process, I added an option in the settings to fill in personal details later.
HOME PAGE
For user convenience, we positioned all the logs at the top of the home screen, making it easier for users to quickly locate and access them every time they wanted to log.
The information displayed on the home page changes depending on whether the mother is in her postpartum or prenatal journey.
Mothers who have not yet delivered can choose to hide the log section, allowing them to focus solely on notes and rewards.
Pop-ups will remind mothers who have passed their due date to inform us if they have delivered, allowing the app to tailor information to their needs.
EXPERTS
This page enables users to easily find and connect with specialists, such as lacting experts. It also provides essential information about each specialist, including the languages they know, availability, years of experience and where they practice, helping mothers make informed decisions when selecting a consultant.
EXPERTS
CHATBOT
EXPERTS
EXPERTS
The chatbot provides information tailored to each mother’s breastfeeding journey, ensuring inclusivity. If it cannot answer a question, it directs users to the consultant page. Additionally, the chatbot features an avatar, adding a human touch to the interaction.
The floating icon for chatbot on the homepage makes it easy and in the fore front for mothers to ask questions anytime.
TRACKING
Tracking helps monitor baby's feeding, sleeping, and diaper changes, and generate a weekly summary for mothers. This will help establish a routine and provide valuable information for upcoming doctor visits.
REWARDS
I created a rewards system that encourages seeking information and education. Mothers earn points for each quiz completed after watching educational content, with accumulated points leading to four different badges based on their achievements.
NEXT STEPS
The app is continually evolving, and with new funding for Phase 2, we’re excited to enhance the consultants’ side of the application. We’re closely tracking key metrics. Currently, the app is being utilized by a select group of Hispanic mothers, and the early results are very promising.
CHALLENGES
Of course, there were some challenges while working on this project. As I said before, my inability to observe mothers testing the app, limited my insights beyond Excel data. Additionally, BENTEN's collaborator wanted to include all her research findings as external links, which I believed would reduce user engagement. I recommended integrating the most essential elements directly into the app, and we ultimately adopted this approach.
TAKEAWAYS
✨
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Learned how to prioritize features that were most important to users
I conducted user research and interviews to create a prototype that combined many desired features, learning to prioritize the most important ones based on user feedback and pain points.
Learned how to effectively communicate my design thinking to the client
It's important to show the purpose behind the designs. I did this by sharing research findings and stats from user interviews and usability tests to highlight how user feedback influenced the designs.