My Safe Plan
Helping pregnant women overcoming substance abuse prepare for motherhood.
We designed My Safe Plan – a mobile application for pregnant women overcoming substance abuse to organize necessary information and items to prepare for their baby.
Background & Starting Challenge
In order to bring their baby home after delivery, pregnant women with a history of substance abuse are required to complete a federally mandated form called a “Plan of Safe Care” (PoSC). This document will ensure that the mother and baby will be safe after they leave the hospital and asks mothers to supply information about themselves, their medical history and providers, and their plan for taking care of their child.
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This paperwork is challenging to complete as it asks mothers to supply an overwhelming amount of information at a high-stress time, especially as many mothers are not aware of the existence of this mandated form until arriving at the hospital for delivery.
HMW empower women with histories of substance abuse to prepare to bring their newborn back home and safely care for their child?
Time
2 Weeks
Team
2 Product Designers
Role
UX Research, UX Design,
UI Visual
Deliverables
Design System,
Figma Prototype
Product
My Safe Plan helps pregnant women complete the PoSC paperwork and organize necessary information and items in order to prepare for their babies. Features include the ability to store all baby-related documents in one place, easily contact their team of family/friends and healthcare providers, stay on top of to-do lists, access support services, and learn about how to best take care of themselves and their babies.
We worked with Dr. Sarah Lord from the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health at Dartmouth with the Geisel School of Medicine to help her vision for this application come to life.
PROCESS
RESEARCH
2. Addiction Recovery Apps
We explored resources and features that were helpful for individuals navigating sobriety and recovering from addiction that might be applicable to our target user. Some of our early ideation included these features, but feedback from our client, Dr. Lord, pushed the focus of the application away from a focus on addiction and toward empowerment.
3. Apps for Mothers with Histories of Substance Abuse
We discovered only one app that covered this intersection, but it was not yet on the market. This application provided relevant features such as resources to encourage good habits and practices and connections to healthcare professionals. However, this application did not mention the Plan of Safe Care paperwork.
We conducted competitive research into three categories: pregnancy apps, substance abuse recovery apps, and apps for mothers with histories of substance abuse.
1. Pregnancy Apps
We drew inspiration from these applications for features such as the baby registry and baby shopping list, which inspired the "My Baby Needs" section of the "To-Do" feature. Our "Learn" feature was informed by chat forum features found in some of these apps and links to resources.
Competitive Research
After conducting initial market research, we began user research. Given the sensitive nature of this subject matter and the short time period of this project, we were unable to directly interview our target users.
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Fortunately, we were able to access the research conducted by Dr. Lord's research team, so we reviewed the transcripts of interviews with the target user group and their identified needs and suggested digital solutions. Additionally, Dr. Lord was an incredible resource as she is intimately familiar with the experiences of many women who fit this user demographic.
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Critical Needs identified from Dr. Lord’s research interview transcripts from our target user group​
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Connect women to resources
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Assist women with goal setting and steps to reach goals
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Promote networks of care and support
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Build proactive awareness and knowledge of what to expect
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Educate women about motherhood and the basics of baby care
6 Key Insights to Implement:
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Every feature on the app should be centered around helping mothers prepare for the PoSC
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Emphasis should be placed on empowering mothers
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Organization of information is the main objective of the app
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Purple should be the key color because it is the color of recovery
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The app should be accessible for users who do not have an extensive educational background
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The app should NOT focus on substance abuse
These insights and results are from Dr. Lord and her research team's Safe Care Poster where they summarized their findings.
User Research
DEFINE
Guiding Principles
Accessible to all women
Carefully chosen language and term definitions to ensure accessibility for range of education levels
Empower users
Focus on empowering mothers through self-care, de-emphasizing substance abuse
Helpful beyond PoSC
Provide support beyond the PoSC, such as through organization and resources for learning
Journey Maps
We then created a detailed journey map based on our user transcript insights to understand the situation a pregnant woman dealing with substance abuse might be in and highlighted potential opportunities to improve negative experiences for the mother and baby.
We sought to create features inspired by these opportunities that would reduce poached moments, such as enhancing feelings of support from providers, which led to the "My Team" feature.
Defining Pain Points
Pain Point #2:
Women find it difficult and stressful to complete the Plan of Safe Care because it requires an extensive amount of information without guidance on how to complete it.
Pain Point #3:
Women desire to take advantage of location-specific support resources but don’t know they exist or how to access them.
Pain Point #1:
Many women who have a record of substance abuse do not know that a Plan of Safe Care is necessary to bring their babies home and, therefore, must tackle this extensive document during the high-stress moment post delivery.
Based on these insights and pain points, we generated the following POV statement:
Pregnant women overcoming substance abuse need a way to prepare for motherhood and stay organized in order to complete the Plan of Safe Care form.
IDEATE
Brainstorming Key Features
After speaking with Dr. Lord and conducting preliminary research, we brainstormed all of the features that would help women prepare for the PoSC and motherhood.
MVP Elements
After speaking with Dr. Lord and conducting preliminary research, we brainstormed all of the features that would help women prepare for the PoSC and motherhood.
When narrowing down which features to include, we
identified the following 3 key aspects to include in the app:
1. Break down PoSC into more digestible parts
2. Connect users to support services
3. Help women stay organized
We honed on the following 6 features:​
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To-Do List
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Services
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Learn/Resources
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Calendar
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Plan of Safe Care Form
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Team of Support
Site Map
After determining the key features, we mapped out the site structure.
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After many iterations, we decided to put the calendar on the homepage and structure the navigation bar in the order that we would want the user flow to be completed.
Sketching It Out
As we were mapping out which features we would use, we used the "Crazy Eights" technique to begin to brainstorm what screens could look like.
Here are initial prototypes of some of our final screens, the My Team and Services pages
PROTOTYPE
Visual Design System
We aimed for a feminine, approachable design and carefully selected colors, form elements, and typography to create a friendly user experience for our target user group. To achieve this, we used rounded corners for all buttons, text boxes, and check boxes.
Color of Recovery: Purple
Based on the insight from Dr. Lord that purple is the color of recovery, we based our visual design around a deep purple color and psychologically calming accent colors.
Friendly Typography
The rounded, simple feel of the Sans Serif font, Quicksand, provides a modern, simple feel.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
From our sketches, we built out high-level low-fidelity wireframes to visualize our idea and evaluate its feasibility. Through these low-fidelity wireframes, we identified our key navigation bar features and experimented with possible interface layouts.
High Fidelity Prototypes
Calendar
Designed to motivate women to practice self-care and mindfulness and help them stay organized by keeping track of upcoming events.
My Plan
The My Plan tab was designed to store all the information needed for the Plan of Safe Care in one easily accessible place that can be exported into a pdf.
My Team
Serves as a direct link to and a visual representation of the user's support system, aka "Circle of Safe Care."
To-Do
Consolidates all the action steps women must take to prepare for the Plan of Safe Care.
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Self-care is often overlooked for new mothers, so the “Mama Needs” tab reminds mothers that their own needs are also important.
Services
Serves as the connector between women and location-specific support services, listing contact information for each service provider so women can easily contact them.
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Learn
We designed a space for guided conversation by creating a feed filled with relevant articles and videos that would provide information and spark important conversations.
TEST
User Testing & Usability Insights
With our high fidelity prototype, we conducted usability testing online through the site Usertesting.com. Through screener questions, we were able to access a user testing pool of women who were pregnant or have young children and have struggled with substance abuse.
Based on the insights we gathered, we made the following changes:
More Prominent Calendar Function
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In a previous iteration, the calendar function was hidden from users so that it was not easily accessible or obvious to users how to access the calendar.
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By changing the button from a home icon to a calendar icon and restructuring the page itself so that it is centered around a daily calendar and “looking ahead” calendar page, the calendar function is more prominent for users.
Version 1
Version 2
Info Button for Confusing Terms
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Some users found terms confusing, especially more technical medical professional titles such as “MAT Provider”
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To mitigate this, we added an info button next to more confusing terms that would provide definitions and additional information. As demonstrated below on the primary doctor screen, an overlay appears when you press the info icon.
Make Adding Team Members More Intuitive
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Users were confused because there was no way to add team members on the “My Team page.” Although this had been an intentional design decision because we wanted entering information to be consistent and all in one place – the My plan tab – we recognized how this was confusing for users.
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To resolve this, we added the “add to team” button, which was stylistically consistent with the “add to list” button under the To-Do tab. This button acts as a shortcut to a blank add team member contact page.
Clarify Purpose of the Plan of Safe Care​
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We found that some users were confused because they were unfamiliar with the PoSC and therefore did not understand its purpose. Because of this, they did not understand why there was so much information to complete and why it was all condensed into one tab: My Plan. While most actual users would probably be familiar with the PoSC and download this app with the intention of using it to create their plan, we created this info icon and explanation page to help unfamiliar users understand its purpose.
REFLECT
Takeaways & Next Steps
We developed My Safe Plan in conjunction with Dr. Sarah Lord to empower pregnant women with opioid use disorder to develop a Plan of Safe Care for infants. Dr. Sarah Lord and her team at the Dartmouth Center for Technology and Behavioral Health conducted essential research that laid the foundation for ​My Safe Plan. Her team conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups with women in community medication-assisted treatment programs to understand what features in a mobile application could be most useful to them.
Our goal was to convert these insights into a thorough prototype that could be passed on to developers who would create this digital tool to empower these women. Through conversations with Dr. Lord and reviewing interview transcripts, we developed a more nuanced understanding of our target user group and their needs. These insights guided our designs as we maintained a focus on accessibility and emphasized organization and self-care, keeping our users in mind at all times. After releasing the beta testing, My Safe Plan would benefit from conducting more user interviews with our target group in order to cater to these women’s specific needs.
This project tackled a large scope and a sensitive subject that neither of us has prior experience with, and we are extremely satisfied with the extensive mobile application we have designed. We have learned so much and honed our understanding of the unique challenges these women face. We have also gained insight into how a digital solution can support users like them in difficult circumstances by connecting them to essential support services and information resources. We are excited for the next development phase of this project that will bring this prototype to life, and we look forward to seeing it positively impact the lives of women across the country.