Moms Connect - Helping stay at home moms connect with other stay at home moms in their area

Outcome Statement

The app helps stay-at-home mothers connect with other stay-at-home mothers in their area for socializing, networking, and sharing resources, fostering friendships, building supportive communities, and discovering new activities and resources through its various features such as a directory of local resources, messaging system, discussion forums, calendar of local events, groups based on interests, parenting styles and age of children, map view and a feature that allows users to share, buy and sell gently used children’s items and clothes and book, share and review local services like cleaning, laundry, and other household tasks.

Problem Statement

Stay-at-home mothers often face challenges in finding social support, resources, and activities in their local area. They may have trouble connecting with other stay-at-home moms and finding reliable and relevant information about local events, classes, and parenting support groups. Additionally, they may face difficulties in finding last-minute childcare, household help and selling or buying gently used children's items. As a result, they can feel isolated, overwhelmed and overworked. The "Moms Connect" app aims to address these challenges by providing an all-in-one community platform for stay-at-home mothers to connect, share resources, and make their daily life more manageable.

User and Needs

Helping stay at home mom overcome isolation and building lasting friendships

The "Moms Connect" app is designed to serve the needs of stay-at-home mothers by connecting them with other stay-at-home mothers in their local area for socializing, networking, and sharing resources. The app includes a variety of features to facilitate this goal, such as a directory of local resources, a messaging system and discussion forums for communication and support, a calendar of local events, groups based on interests, parenting styles, and age of children, a map view, and a feature that allows users to share.

The app aims to help stay-at-home mothers find new friends, build a supportive community, and discover new activities and resources in their area. The app also includes security and privacy features to ensure the safety of users' personal information. With all these features, the "Moms Connect" app is a one-stop solution for stay-at-home mothers to connect, share and grow together.

My role in the project

As a user experience designer and researcher, I planned, and interviewed kids and their parents; created affinity diagrams, persona, conducted data analysis and design requirements, created and designed the user interface of the app by creating wireframes, and prototyping and usability testing.

Constraints and Process

Constraints

Design constraints for the "Moms Connect" app include privacy and security regulations, compatibility with different languages and cultures, legal constraints, handling sensitive and personal information in a secure and compliant way.

The Process

As a researcher, I would begin by identifying the target user group for the "Moms Connect" app, which is stay-at-home mothers. The next step would be to determine the research goals and objectives, such as understanding their needs, pain points, and challenges. I would then create a list of open-ended questions that would allow me to gather qualitative data about their experiences, behaviors, and preferences. I would also create a survey or a questionnaire which would allow me to gather quantitative data about the same topics.

Phase 1: Planning

Phase 2: Interviewing

The interview process for the "Moms Connect" app involved conducting one-on-one interviews or focus groups with stay-at-home mothers to gather qualitative data about their experiences, behaviors, and preferences.

To come up with the open-ended questions for the interviews, I started by reviewing literature and conducting a thorough research on the challenges and pain points that stay-at-home mothers face, their needs and behaviors. I conducted a competitive analysis of similar apps to identify common features and functionalities. Once I had clear understanding of the target user group, their needs, and the app's goals and objectives, I then developed a list of open-ended questions that would allow me to gather in-depth information about their experiences, behaviors, and preferences. These questions were designed to explore topics such as their current social support systems, their daily routine, their challenges, and their needs for an app like "Moms Connect".

Phase 3: Creating User Requirements

The app includes features to facilitate connections with other stay-at-home mothers in the local area, a directory of local resources and activities, a messaging system and discussion forums for communication and support, a calendar of local events, groups based on interests, parenting styles, and age of children, and a map view. Additionally, security and privacy features to ensure the safety of users' personal information, easy and intuitive navigation, and an interface that is accessible for all users, including those with disabilities.