Tribe App
In 2020, while studying UX Design at CareerFoundry, I encountered a problem that had not been sufficiently addressed: designing an app centered around the needs of parents. During the process, I realized there was a market gap, no apps were dedicated to contemporary parents struggling with the difficulties of parenthood. Hence, I determined it essential to provide a platform for parents to nurture their emotional and mental wellbeing in order to cultivate a more resilient and joyful society for the future.
My design was consequently a proposal for a user-friendly app with an aesthetically pleasing UI, that fulfilled the authentic needs of today's parents.
Tools
Figma
Usability Hub
Optimalsort
Photoshop
Google Forms
Pen & Paper
Whiteboard
My role
UX/UI Designer
Tasks: Concept Development, User Research, Wireframing & Prototyping, User Testing, Interaction Design, UI Design.
Methodology
Design Thinking Process
Becoming parents
Where do we begin the challenge of becoming a parent while also tending to our inner well-being?
Daily Routine
Life for busy parents can be extremely taxing as lack of time limits their ability to take care of themselves and their mental health. This can lead to a variety of issues, both for the parents themselves as well as for their families.
01
Understand the problem
Too many info
There is no single "one-stop-shop" where one could find all resources pertaining to parenting.
Healthy relationships
Maintaining a strong bond between partners is essential for a blissful family life. Unfortunately, numerous connections collapse during the first years of having a baby.
Problem Statement
Parents need a way to track their inner well-being as they take on the challenge of parenting, so they can learn how to maintain a balanced lifestyle.
Possible solutions
Providing an engaging, multifunctional, and accessible app that allows the users to track their well-being and learn how to become healthy and happy parents.
Indicate to the users “all in one place” tool for a healthy and balanced life.
A product that helps them to cultivate inner well-being, with a focus on the family.
Competitor analysis
My UX competitor analysis revealed interesting insights into the parent app market and its design standards. While there was an abundance of mental health and wellbeing apps, there was a relative lack of apps specifically tailored to the struggles of parenting. After taking a closer look at one competitor, “Mello-Find Your Village”, I was able to form ideas and explore possibilities for my project.
This analysis covered profiles, marketing strategies, SWOT profiles, UX/UI, content, design, and performance quality. Afterwards, I identified key features that culminated in the Tribe App's design.
Swot profile
GOALS
Features tracking and improving well-being tools for parents that deal with family and busy day routine.
TARGET AUDIENCE
The minimum age demographic is 26. Tribe aims to target most parents who are conscious of their emotional and mental well-being.
COMPETITION
Flourishing market in mental health-related apps. The rapid rise of these apps is partly due to the potential of transforming a smartphone into a monitoring and therapeutic platform.
OPPORTUNITY
Stand out in a market that is flourishing in mental health and take advantage of the market gap to address parents’ needs.
How old are you?
GOAL 1: DEFINE TARGET AUDIENCE
Determine whether the hypothesis that a portion of the population who struggle with parenting require an easy, obtainable, and reliable solution for sustaining a healthy lifestyle is valid.
02
Observe
I surveyed 40 potential users and conducted 5 interviews from my network to validate/invalidate Tribe's provisional core features. My goal was to collect both quantitative and qualitative data to uncover which data was truly useful to my target users to focus on their well-being.
GOAL 2: DETERMINE FEATURES
Discovering what information and features will best serve our target users in their pursuit of being happy parents.
What are you most struggling with as a parent?
How often do you practice self-care (meditation, yoga, sport, journaling)?
What issues with yourself do you experience?
Key findings
Most parents: deal with stress and constant worries, feel isolated and lonely, struggle in their relationships, experience difficulties to balance work and family life
User Survey
Results from a Google Forms survey revealed that most users are female and are struggling to maintain a consistent mental health routine. Additionally, they reported feeling isolated and struggling with a negative body image, persistent worry, and a lack of time for self-care.
“I need an app that is focused on my struggle as a mother”
“Taking care of myself helps me to stay calm and cool”
“You are always in an unknown field: the pregnancy, then the birth, the child grows...a lot of different follow up”
GOAL 1
• Understand potential users’ pain points.
• Understand users’ attitudes and behavior around the activity of being parents.
• Understand their experience around well-being apps.
GOAL 2
• Identify challenges and difficulties when using similar apps.
• Collecting data on the context in which users would use a parenting app
User Interviews
Interviews with parents or parents-to-be challenged my preconceived ideas of what they need. These needs depend heavily on the age of their children, and can change as their children go through different phases in their lives. To cater to all these needs, an app that can provide support through each stage is necessary.
USABILITY
A tool that helps parents to reduce stress, easy to use, and not time-consuming.
CONTENT
Effective content, adaptable to different typologies of parents related to children's age and personal situation.
03
POV
I analyzed all the data by creating Empathy Maps and Affinity Mapping. I divided the information and for each, I wrote down the findings, insights, and possible solutions, defining the key objectives for the Tribe app.
PURPOSE
Adding values to users by providing a product where they can find all the info they need so that they have it all in one place.
TAILORING
Product that adapts to the variety of parents in the world and to their needs to ensure personal well-being.
Designing for the users
Based on the survey and interview results, I developed three personas and two user journeys to guide design decisions, prioritize features, and build empathy for potential users. The needs and goals of these personas serve to remind me whom I'm designing for, keeping me informed and mindful throughout the entire process.
04
Ideate
Armed with the data at my disposal, I sought a logical way to structure it. To accomplish this, I created the initial sitemap for Tribe and conducted a card sort with nine participants to validate and hone the architecture. This process lead to the formation of the app's information architecture.
Card Sort
Site Map
05
Prototype
I began to sketch my ideas, honing in on the most salient features – Onboarding, Masterclass, Meet, and Feed. Once content with the navigation, I transitioned to wireframing on Figma and generated a clickable prototype. I adhered to the iOS Human Interface Guidelines, a well-defined grid system, and an overarching mobile-first approach throughout the process.
06
Usability Test
I evaluated the design through 6 usability tests, combining moderated-in-person and remote methods. When performing the tests, I asked the testers to tell me what they were expecting, thinking, seeing, and feeling while taking part in the tasks. I obtained numerous insights regarding the app's usability, usefulness, and navigation. I then sorted out the results using affinity mapping and rainbow spreadsheets, categorizing the data into observations, errors, and quotes and assigning each point a severity rating on a usability error scale. With the findings in mind, I made the necessary changes to the prototype.
Design System
To ensure design consistency, I applied a grid and put together a style guide focused on the UI.
The result is a curated library of colors and components with an accessible color palette and a visual language system.
Learnings
The app Tribe was continuously improved for usability and usefulness throughout its development. Through this process, I learned the importance of Visual Design Principles, emotional design for user engagement, and the grid/spacing fundamentals in order to deliver a visually satisfying and engaging product. I also learned that strong research and testing must be conducted prior to the design phase.
What’s next?
I would like to implement the Meet feature in the app. Currently, users can only communicate through direct messages. I envision the app evolving in a way similar to social media, where users can share pictures, activities, and more about themselves, fostering a stronger connection within the Tribe parents' community. I also wish to research more into how the app can accurately represent the diverse circumstances and needs of families and their parents in the world. There are numerous heterogeneous families with specific needs that Tribe app could take into account to meet their peculiar requirements.