MAY
A thoughtfully designed app created to support individuals during pregnancy, serving as both a reliable information hub and a personal support system tailored to their unique needs. Unlike most apps that focus solely on the baby’s health, MAY prioritizes the well-being of moms, addressing the gap in resources designed specifically for them during this transformative journey.
The main goal of this group project is to provide first-time mothers a safe space to have honest conversations and open discussions about the struggles of pregnancy. Our final concept is an app that would provide support, information and guidance for all challenges regarding pregnancy. MAY is here to ensure that moms feel seen, heard, and cared for during their pregnancy, offering guidance and support every step of the way. By focusing on the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of moms, it fills a critical gap in a space traditionally centered around the baby.
DURATION
15 Weeks
ROLES
Design Research
UX Prototyping
User Testing
Why Do We Need This?
Pregnant individuals face a lot of physical and emotional challenges like morning sickness, headache, severe mood swings, self doubt and so on. Among them, one of the major challenge is morning sickness, which is nausea and vomiting. 70% of pregnant women experience morning sickness, that starts around week 6 and occurs throughout the day.
* 70% of pregnant women experience morning sickness.
* Morning sickness occurs throughout the day and lasts for month during pregnancy.
Design Process and User Testing
We conducted four interviews with individuals, each in a different trimester of their pregnancy journey, to gain a comprehensive understanding of their experiences and challenges. By synthesizing all the learnings from our interviews, we distilled them into four key insights that became the foundation of our project. These conversations provided us with invaluable insights, but one recurring theme stood out: the emotional struggles of the first trimester, particularly the overwhelming sense of isolation many moms-to-be described. This finding underscored the urgent need for a solution that fosters connection and support during this critical stage.
"And I definitely found that no healthcare providers or society, no one really talks about how truly bad the beginning can be for some people. And when they said it was morning sickness, it’s really not morning. It’s the whole day."
- Mrs. Caroline Zeizel, 36
We conducted a competitive analysis of the current app landscape and discovered that existing apps often overlook key features that moms need, such as the ability to stay anonymous—important for those who want privacy during this deeply personal journey—or the option to save content they find helpful for later reference. These gaps highlighted an opportunity to create an app that prioritizes moms' well-being while offering practical, user-friendly features tailored to their unique needs.
We conducted comprehensive user testing structured across three phases, each designed to evaluate key aspects of the app, including usability, accessibility, and overall user satisfaction. In the initial phase, we focused on intuitive navigation and interface design, analyzing how easily users could explore the app and locate features that mattered most to them. This stage provided critical feedback on layout, design flow, and user interaction, helping us refine the app’s structure. Our goal was to create an experience that felt natural and effortless, even for first-time users, ensuring the app met the unique needs of its audience with simplicity and efficiency.
During our second round of interviews, the interviewees had the opportunity to test our app prototype, allowing us to gather real-time feedback on its functionality and user experience. The feedback from these interviews was incredibly valuable, confirming that we were on the right track while also highlighting areas for improvement. Interviewees shared their thoughts on features they found particularly helpful and pointed out specific shortcomings that could be addressed to enhance the app’s usability and impact. This iterative process not only validated our approach but also gave us actionable insights to refine MAY further, ensuring it becomes a truly indispensable resource for first-time mothers navigating their pregnancy journey.
Learnings and Reflections
MAY is still a work in progress. Since our process was heavily focussed on research, the app requires a lot of refinement in terms of content, user interface and brand identity, which is the next phase for MAY.
* Enhancing the app experience based on user testing feedback.
* Expansion to physical objects/products to aid with emotional processing.
* Further user testing stages to ensure it caters to the needs of first-time mothers.
