C.
WellNest
A holistic app for parents of children with special needs to focus on their own physical and mental wellbeing.
Role
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UI/UX Design
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User research
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Information architecture
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Wireframing
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Prototyping
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Usability test
Tools
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Figma
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Otter.ai
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Zoom
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Lyssna
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Affinity mapping
The Challenge
Parents are experiencing burnout when trying to find the balance between working, managing daily life, and taking care of child/children with special needs.
User Research
Participants were interviewed in-person or through a phone call. Otter.ai was used to record and transcribe the interviews with consent. Interviews focused on in-depth understanding of participants' daily lives, pain points when navigating current apps, and features that could be beneficial for them.
Research Insights
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Lack of time for self-care
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Need to download different apps for different appointments
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Lack of user motivation with current health tracking apps
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Inadequate support and resources for parents
Lauren
Lauren wants to get back to being mindful of her mental and physical health - something she has always done prior to having children.
Obstacles
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Majority of the day spent on planning for children
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Current health and wellness apps are not motivating and don't have reminders
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Limited access to adequate resources for support
Needs
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Easy scheduling
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Streamlined communication with other caregivers
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Reminders & Motivation
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Access to resources when healthcare providers are not immediately available
How to help?
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Calendar that allows sharing with other caregivers
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All-in-one physical and mental health tracking
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Daily wellbeing checklist to decrease mental clutter and increase motivation
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Access to resources and forums for support
Prototype 1
Low and mid fidelity wireframes were created before this first draft of high fidelity prototype. Figma was used in the creation of all wireframes.
Usability Test
6 participants participated in usability test either in-person or virtually via Zoom. Otter.ai is used for recording and transcription of the session with consent. Affinity maps and rainbow spreadsheet were used to analyze usability test data.
Usability Test Insights
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Adjust information architecture for improved user flow
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Missing buttons, text input fields, and elements need to be added to enhance user experience
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Modify color scheme and UI elements for better usability
After gathering feedback from the usability test, I redesigned how users can access various features from the home screen, learned technical Figma skills through YouTube to create new elements, studied how some of my favorite apps look, and asked AI for a new color scheme and fonts to use for the second iteration of the app.
A/B Testing
I tested out the new design using A/B testing with Lyssna to find out which version users prefer more.
20%
80%
Developments
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New color scheme for higher contrast
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Larger and bolded fonts for readability
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Eliminated calendar icon in navigation bar. The calendar and clickable icons under "Today's Progress" in the Home page serve as the main hub to access health information.
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Higher contrast
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Larger fonts
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"Day" view only shows one day
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Added "Category" for easy categorization
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Added input fields for date and time
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Changed save icon to bolded text for readability
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Indicated y-axis
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Save button added under text input field
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Access to history with additional button
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Simple universal icons to decreased visual clutter
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Search, filter, saved icons are 24x24px and spaced with over 8px in between
Final Prototype
The Conclusion
This was my first end-to-end UX project and a valuable learning experience. While there are still many areas to refine, I gained a lot from the process—especially gathering usability feedback, analyzing data, and iterating to improve the design. I also reflected deeply on how to create compelling UI and effective information architecture, while recognizing the technical challenges of working in Figma. Moving forward, I plan to continue studying how other designers approach user flows and IA, while strengthening my own technical skills.