This was a recurring thought of mine ever since I saw Family
YouTube channels. They document their child's growth and are
able to share the memories with the world. While I didn't want
to reach that extent - I wanted to always look back on my
childhood and I often find myself asking my parents, "When was
my first step?" or "When did I start talking" and they tell me
but it's not captured in photos or videos explicitly.
Solution
I created an application that parents can use to add, store and
share memories of their child easily. They can build their
child's story as they will be adding milestones throughout to
cherish and eventually share with their child when they get
older!
Timeline
4 weeks
Team
Solo Project
Roles and Responsibilities
I worked through the design process as a sole designer.
Cherish what matters most
DISCOVER
The Process
DISCOVER
Initial Interviews
How many couples would want to document their child's early years
and growth? These interviews allowed me to gauge the parents this
really could be for, and if I should really be solving this exact
problem.
Here are the main questions I asked:
1. How old are you?
2. Are you married?
3. Do you have kids? And if not, do you plan on having them in the
future?
4. Would you want to document milestones of your child's early years
of growth?
5. What functions of the application would you expect?
Here's what I discovered:
1. Parents would find value in having a single go-to place to easily
store their memories over other social media applications.
2. Most would trust the application to keep their data private.
3. All would like the option to have a private network feature to
share specific memories with their families.
4. Most would welcome a feature to celebrate milestones and also
have timely parenting tips along the journey.
5. Most of the answers fell into my assumptions while some were out
of my expectations. I was really happy about how intuitive and
genuine the answers were.
DISCOVER
"How do we create an experience that empowers parents with the
functionality to create memories of their children in one
application?"
DISCOVER
Sketching Ideas
These series of sketches helped identify and generate different
ideas, this is just one of my favorite scenes that I sketched.
DISCOVER
User Personas
Based on my interviews, 67% did not have kids and 33% already
had kids. The time allocation to kids were obviously vastly
different but I wanted to empathize with the two main groups I
was going to focus on - couples who are planning to have kids in
the future and parents who already have kids. Using these
personas, I was able to understand how busy life can be
sometimes and it's important to capture the moments for the ones
that are not able to experience it live. These two groups were
in completely different stages of their life, but I knew that
marketing to them with the right message was the key.
DISCOVER
Competitive Analysis
I studied dozens of applications that revolved around capturing a
baby's growing moments. Many provided the same basic features but
none provided a seamless experience to store and capture moments. In
addition, none provided on-demand tips and information on parenting.
In general, applications like these can play a big part in parenting
so I thought about positives and things to look out for after
researching competitors.
DISCOVER
Content Research
Which stage of a baby accounts for the most growth? To understand
how feasible including parenting tips was and help cater my goals
for the app, I needed to learn accurate information about the growth
of a baby to make the experience complete.
DEFINE
A Newborn Confidence
After gathering all of my research and collecting my thoughts, I
took some to to organize my insights for problem diagnosis. After
synthesizing my research, I redefined the problem space. Photo
storing applications are great tools to document your child's
journey, but the majority lack the structure and support to create
lasting memories and celebrate milestones - as well as providing
useful tips that can help parents and help with the stress.
DEFINE
Synthesizing the Problem Spaces
To explore potential solutions, I mapped out the information
architecture to highlight the key problems that were communicated by
the couples and that I was going to tackle. Through this exercise, I
was able to solidify the structural principles that would satisfy
the needs of all stakeholder groups.
DEFINE
The Solution
DEVELOP
Prototyping and Testing
DEVELOP
Concept Testing
After going through creating the mid-fidelity prototypes, I wanted
to test it with users so I can receive feedback, understand better
how they interact with the UX and test out the app's features. Based
on the testing and feedback, I defined problem areas and action
items for improvement.
Problem Space 1
Make the calendar navigation easier.
Action
Made year and month two separate boxes so users can navigate
between different years easier. Also added a weekly timeline
interface to make navigation even simpler to the day.
Problem Space 2
Need more information for memory tiles.
Action
Added date and number of pictures to tile. In addition, added
how many people the memory is exactly shared with.
Problem Space 3
The nav seemed a little cluttered.
Action
Although many apps have 5 elements at the bottom, this was a
recurring thought. As a result, I decided to move the tips and
profile to the top as they were used less in comparison to the
other 3 elements, which I chose to leave at the bottom to
emphasize them.
DELIVER
The easiest way to add your favorite moments
It's really simple. Just select the photos to add - then click and
edit each field with whatever information your heart desires.
DELIVER
The Explore page provides an overview and suggestions of events to
view
Tagging your events with collections allows you to view events that
are within the same genre.
View and organize events easily for any day through the Timeline
page
It's your one-stop-spot for memories organized in a user friendly
way.
DELIVER
Your child's profile page has everything you need
From their age, height, milestones achieved, favorite events and
much more - you can track your child's growth completely.
Tips to help parents
They update in accordance with your child's age so it's everlasting
guidance to help reduce stress and know what to expect.
DELIVER
The full Timeline
Prefer chronological? View the full timeline to endlessly scroll
through each event you've ever added. Whether you decide to view a
year's or week's worth of events, you'll always have your memories
right at your fingertips. The complete details such as the dates and
locations will always be there too so you don't have to argue over
them.
Share your favorite moments with your family and friends
Your family and friends can leave comments and view what you choose
- establishing a seamless path between the ones you care about the
most.
Learnings, Reflections and Outcome
This project was a perfect example of how UI/UX can truly help
parents cherish the moments that matter the most. The goal of
creating an application that stores memories, and making that
experience as simple and intuitive as possible for parents is what
really mattered to me. There are still many features that could be
implemented as parenting is an everlasting joy of discovering new
things. The biggest learning I took from this project was the
importance of conducting thorough and engaging user interviews to
get the most out of the interviewee. The way to do that is to be
completely genuine with your intentions and project so they feel
comfortable and provide you with the most accurate information. As
this was a passion project, I hope it ignites ideas and encourages
app creators to implement features that are sought out by many
parents.
