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MILC
A medtech mobile application offering integrated social and technical breastfeeding support tailored for low-income Hispanic mothers.
Note : In the interest of transparency, I want to let you know I have made adjustments to the interface to comply with the clients privacy policy.
Overview
The working class low income hispanic mothers lack breastfeeding knowledge and social support and find it hard or almost impossible to seek information or social support due to their long hours of work, low income, cultural beliefs and differences, because of which breastfeeding rates among this minority group has gone down rapidly.
Problem
In 2017, the CDC's Breastfeeding Report Card revealed that while nearly 80% of Hispanic mothers in the US started breastfeeding, less than a quarter exclusively breastfed their infants for the recommended 6 months. Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF have stressed the importance of breastfeeding, saying that moms should exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months of life. Doing so leads to better outcomes for both mother and child, including nutritional, physiological and developmental health.
The breastfeeding rates in America have increased over the past 25 years, but my client, Benten Technologies noticed the overwhelming disparity in the breastfeeding rates for Hispanic women.
I got it from my mama.
My Role & Duration
UX designer
User research, interaction design, visual design, prototyping, and testing for the support feature encompassing virtual chatbot assistance, consultations with lactation experts, and 1:1 peer interaction capabilities.
5 weeks
Duration
Team Size
3 UX Designers and the client
Client
Design Challenge
How might we enhance the accessibility of breastfeeding resources and support systems tailored to the unique needs and cultural context of Hispanic mothers?
The goal of this project was to promote breastfeeding within the hispanic population through the development of a targeted mobile application, providing accessible support and education. Here, I led my team in the design response which was informed by our formative research. Our team looked to improve breastfeeding initiation rates and give support and guidance to the moms via easily accessible mobile resources. By providing them easily available education content ,Synchronous and Asynchronous support and help via community engagement.
Client Goals
Thinking about the client
For the last project in my Springboard bootcamp, I got paired up with two other students (Elizebet and Karen Black) and took on a 5 week-contract job with Benten Technologies based in Virginia. Upon our first meeting, the client gave us a rough site map and a list of resources they wanted us to include in the app to help us get started. The client wanted three main features in the app -
I took on the role of designing the support feature, recognizing it as the backbone of the entire application. It proved to be the most challenging aspect to develop. Below, I will share my research findings for the support feature.
Support
Education
Community
Key features for Support
Before calling out the design process, research findings and designs following are the key features of support in the MILC app.
AI Chatbot Companion - Experience a more personalized journey through knowledge with an AI chatbot companion that understands your unique context and interests. Receive tailored information that is directly relevant to your needs, ensuring that you gain valuable insights and discover resources that are most likely to benefit you.
Scoop on the final product
Virtual communication with consultants - Access real-time lactation support from certified and highly qualified lactation consultants through convenient messaging, phone calls, video consultations, or pre-scheduled appointments, ensuring you get the support you need when you need it most.
1 on 1 peer support - Navigate motherhood together. Connect individually with other moms to exchange stories, insights, and build a supportive community to build empathy and close support gaps
AI Chatbot
1:1 peer connections
Virtual Consultation
The chatbot feature provides personalized information for mothers based on their breastfeeding journeys. It asks questions to tailor the content, allows for image and voice note submissions, and offers an option to consult a professional if needed.
The peer-to-peer option allows mothers to choose their interaction partners, with the ability to approve or cancel connections. It also offers a detailed profile of each mother, including her breastfeeding duration.
The virtual consultation feature offers a curated list of consultants for audio or video sessions. Users can conveniently schedule appointments, view available consultants. Once an appointment is scheduled, the app offers a reminder option to help you stay organized.
Research
I gathered my research reflecting this problem space through forums like WHO.
Empathizing with the users
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83% of mothers attempt breastfeeding. By the time the baby is 28 days old the percentage of exclusive breastfeeding drops by 59%
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75% of Hispanic infants are ever breastfed.
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Hispanic women face a unique set of challenges when it comes to breastfeeding, including overcoming longstanding cultural beliefs, such as views on healthy baby weight, and dealing with language barriers.
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There are Limited Resources for Hispanic mothers regarding breastfeeding.
- WIC clinics
- Latina Chicana (LatCh) Lactation Taskforce
- BreastfeedLA
I also conducted 5 user interviews with minority moms, asking about their experience with breastfeeding and any hindrance's they experienced.
Tap the image to magnify
When compared to all other ethnic groups, Hispanic mothers are most likely to supplement breastmilk with formula within the first two days of life
Research Observation
From my research I gained valuable insights about the user group and the problem scope that demands to be highlighted:
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Hispanic mothers often feel isolated in their breasfeeding journey due to insufficient attention, as doctors, consultants, and loved ones frequently lack the necessary empathy to provide effective support.
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They struggle to find trustworthy breastfeeding information and guidance that reflects their cultural background and addresses their specific needs.
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They rely on Google and Community Platforms such as Reddit to educate themselves and share experiences.
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Hispanic women are subjected to low-income and less flexible jobs that usually offer shorter maternity leaves.
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Many Hispanic mothers experience a lack of peer support for breastfeeding, which can create barriers to maintaining this important practice.
Converging business and User goals
I had another discussion with my team and the client to reassess the business goals and ensure that I incorporate user goals into the design process for a balanced approach.
Team up business and user goals for a win
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Ideation
Let’s get those creative juices flowing!
From the interviews, I found that a big factor in the initiation of breastfeeding is the presence of a support system. I started brainstorming ideas where I aimed to:
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Help discover effective information quickly
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Facilitate interaction with peers in the same journey
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Provide personalized support from experts in real time
Story board
Also created some storyboards and User Story to illustrate how mothers would benefit from the support feature.
Tap the image to view it in full size
User Story
Tap the image to view it in full size
Sketches
Now that we had an idea from my minimum viable prototype, I sketched out some ideas and thought about what the Support feature and user interface might look like. My idea was for users to find different forms of support all in one place.
Tap the image to view it in full size
Initial Designs
In order to build on and test early prior to adding the UI details, I created wireframes with greyscale color palette. These served as the blueprint for the support feature and helped me focus on the visual hierarchy and interactions within the site before designing in color. A prototype was created to measure the effectiveness/usability of the product design.
This enabled me to validate my design decisions with the team and assess how the features being developed by other designers would align with my designs. This collaborative approach ensured we made informed choices before dedicating additional time to refining the final prototype.
Chatbot
L Consultation
Peer to Peer
Tap the enlarge on each mockup
Design uncertainty
Design chaos? Let’s sort it out!
During the design phase of the support feature I encountered confusion if I should place the peer-to-peer conversation feature in the community feature of the app since it also fits well in that section, allowing for broad connections among users. Whereas placing peer to peer in support was a good way to increase engagement and make users return to the app, as it enables moms to choose peers to talk to away from the community which would make connections more enclusive . Also, when I interviewed mothers they indicated a strong preference for more personal and exclusive interactions.
This conflicting input created uncertainty about whether to integrate the feature into a wider community space or to offer it as a private option for intimate discussions. To resolve this confusion, I decided to move forward with the design and create a prototype. I believed that gathering feedback directly from mothers would provide clarity on their preferences.
User Testing
I conducted usability study involving 5 participants from the focus group provided by the client.
Study Goal
Determine if users can complete core tasks within the prototype of the support feature in MILC app. Some of the questions I was seeking answers to were -
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How long does it take a user to find the support feature in the app?
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What can we learn from the user flow, or the steps that users take to schedule a meeting or seek information from chatbot
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Are there parts of the user flow where users get stuck?
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Are there more features that users would like to see included in the app?
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Do users think the app is easy or difficult to use?
Iterations
Testing with mid fedility prototypes and initial designs with participants, I quickly gained more insight into our user group's mental model. Because of their need for explicit instructions, peer-peer experience, simple distractions, and vague visuals hinder usability. From this feedback, I reassessed our design response.
1
Participants were unable to locate the support feature. They preferred an easy icon to symbolise the feature.
Refine: Change the icon to something more easy to recognise.
Participants were mainly familiar with the bubble icon with a question mark so I wanted to keep the experience within their comfort levels.
Participants loved the fact that they could easily find help in different forms all in one place
2
The participants wanted an option to delete the meeting right after booking an appointment .They mentioned that it was a overwhelming and a long process to go to the profile section to cancel a meeting.
Refine: Create options under reminder with the ability to delete or schedule another meeting
They appreciated the ability to schedule a meeting with an LC at their convenience, rather than having to wait for the LC to be available.
3
The participants hoped to find as much information as possible about their peers .They wanted ways to validate that the peers that they were connecting with had the same journey as them
Refine: Create a content library with information about peers along with their age, their breastfeeding duration and a short bio about them.
Mothers were pleased that, unlike other apps, chatting with peers wasn’t a feature of the community. They felt that having this option categorized under support made it feel more genuine to them.
I added a fun feature for mothers to choose whether to chat with a mom or skip to the next one.
Final Designs
Finally, after iterating on the feedback I received from user testing, I moved on to prototype the final concept into app designs. And in our final solutions , we as a team made sure to address a wide spectrum of hispanic users and meet their needs.
Senario 1: Peer contribution
Drumroll, please! It’s showtime!
Support home
Peer choosing process
Match User
Senario 2: Chatbot Guide
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Question promt
Question promt
Information
User Voice option
View options
Senario 3: Call for help
Consultant library
Message
Scheduling
Reminder promt
Set Reminder
What about the 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 includes an option for mothers to switch between two languages, automatically updating the entire application to that language.
Reflections
I found that these features were really useful to the user base I tested with. It gave them a sense of trust and guidance at every step of their breastfeeding journey.
Most importantly, I had the opportunity to work with a very different set of user base and this really expanded me as a designer to work on inclusivity.
Impact
Towards the end of this project — I was offered a the role of a full time UI/UX designer for Benten Technologies where I was the only UX designers working along with developers.
I found that these features were really useful to the user base I tested with. It gave them a sense of trust and guidance at every step of their breastfeeding journey.
Most importantly, I had the opportunity to work with a very different set of user base and this really expanded me as a designer to work on inclusivity.
Impact