Abiyé

Providing a supportive "village and community" for new and expecting mothers, helping them thrive in motherhood.

The Team: Anaise Adul and Ying Tian
My Role: Brand and UI Designer

Project Overview & Scope

Project Description

Abiyé, meaning "thrive after birth," aims to support mothers by providing free services that help them grow successfully in motherhood, raise healthy babies, and enable volunteers to assist both moms and expecting moms.

Project Goals

The goal is to offer mothers opportunities to seek support from volunteers, allowing them to find individuals who can provide the specific services and guidance they need.

Competitor research for strategic understanding

To gather initial insights on competitors, I researched companies offering similar services in parallel industries that the client identified as direct competitors. The analysis of both competitor sites revealed that they offered paid services, limiting their user base to families with higher incomes. Care.com's costs varied by provider, while almacare.ca charged a significant fee but offered extensive services for families seeking a retreat with care services.

View almacare.com

Preliminary Research

Operating within a strict four-week timeframe, this project posed challenges for research preparation. However, the client's proactive approach in gathering insights through Google Form data collection from new and expecting mothers, as well as potential volunteers, proved invaluable. The quantitative data provided a comprehensive overview of mothers within the targeted geographic location where Abiyé plans to offer services, particularly in Ontario, Canada. As part of the research team, we were greatly appreciative for the preliminary data.

The survey aimed to collect particular data related to:

What types of support are they looking for or offer?
What is their current family situation?
Do they have a physical or mental impairment?
Where are they located?

We developed two personas that allowed us to target the specific goals of the platform.

We formulated a series of 'how might we' questions to develop and support the MVP (Minimal Viable Product):

How might we offer streamlined support for new and expecting mothers, ensuring they receive the assistance they need efficiently and effectively?
How might we empower volunteers to offer their support to new and expecting moms, allowing them to contribute meaningfully to the community?
How might we create a vibrant community for new moms, providing both virtual and in-person support and advice, fostering connections and sharing experiences?
How might we offer incentives to volunteers who want to provide support, encouraging their participation and dedication to helping others?

Solution Sketching

After my team synthesized and analyzed the preliminary research, we developed sketches of user flows, critical screens, and wireframe brainstorming to explore possible visual solutions.

The primary objective of these sketches was to closely collaborate with the client, gathering feedback early in the process to ensure that the functional aspects of the platform maintain the MVP (Minimal Viable Product) needed for its initial product launch.

Client Feedback of Preliminary Ideations:
How can we provide volunteers with professional development and maintain open communication, thereby increasing our recruitment opportunities?

Establishing Brand Criteria

As the visual designer tasked with creating a brand identity, logo, user interface, and component library, possible options were generated based on client feedback, market research, and our competitive analysis.

When crafting potential concepts, these criteria were considered:

Script fonts for Abiyé
Incorporation of a mark and subheader
Implementation of pinks, yellows, and gold in the color scheme

Crafting a Visual Identity

01. Solution Sketching
02. Marketing Trend Analysis for Mood Board
03. Color Scheme Concepts
04. Converting Logo Concepts to Digital Format
05. Logo Concepts Presented to Client
06. Component Library Creation

Branding Strategy and Execution Summary

Combining client feedback, design team insights, user interviews, and market trends revealed that users were looking for an approachable and trustworthy design. The color palette was chosen to reflect the maternal nature of Abiyé's offerings.

When creating logo and style guide concepts, these findings were implemented:

The Abiyé font was difficult to recognize in a script style, so a font that mirrored their current look was chosen for cross-brand consistency.
While the abstract and bird marks were fun and whimsical, the maternal icon effectively carried out the company's vision statement.
The organic pattern was customized to reflect a subtle color scheme, incorporating a West African vibe that ties in with the founder's heritage.

Prototype Development

Collaborating with the founder of Abiyé, we moved into high-fidelity prototyping in the third week of our tight four-week timeframe. We focused on developing key screens for the initial release.

While other pages were discussed with the team and client, our priority was to get the prototype functioning with the essential pages needed for launch.

We rushed to prepare a prototype for usability testing, which may have led to using an incomplete version for testing. This made implementing feedback challenging, as the prototype was not fully developed from the start.

View figma prototype

Usability Testing Report

The objective of my team’s usability test is to evaluate the user experience of Abiyé and gather feedback to enhance its functionality and usability.

Testing Overview

Participant Criteria: 3-6 new or expecting mothers and volunteers, willing to support new and expecting mothers.
Participant Recruitment: Using leads provided by the Abiyé founder, we gathered participants from their Google Form demographics to ensure compatibility and align schedules with our timeline.
Testing Method: Task-based testing method for mothers and volunteers to streamline interviews and successfully gauge desired outcomes.
Project Timeframe: Participants will be recruited by the end of the first week of the intensive 4-week project to ensure interviews are lined up when the prototype is ready to test.

Test Findings

The first task of signing up and creating an account was successfully completed 100% of the time.
Users faced challenges when asked to navigate to other pages such as community, search for support, or edit profile information.

Project Summary

Working under an accelerated 4-week timeline offered valuable learnings for crafting successful products within a limited timeframe. Focusing on the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) should be the priority throughout the entire project. Providing an end-to-end user experience should come first in each step.

This project’s MVP was offering support to new and expecting moms. While we considered this throughout our process, it wasn’t the focus of every decision. I feel we stretched ourselves thin by focusing on microinteractions when we should have clearly defined our goals to create a site with fewer pages, allowing us to develop a positive user experience and deliver a final, polished product to the client.

Learnings

Decide on MVP (Minimal Viable Product) in preliminary product stages
Audit each step of the UX process ensuring you are addressing product goals
Work closely with team members to ensure each is on the same page to eliminate rework and duplicate design work

Client Testimonial

"I had a great experience working with Anaise, Denice, and Ying. Their professionalism, experience, and expertise were stood out throughout the project period. The volume and quality of work they delivered within a short timeframe is exceptional. I was very impressed and I would work with this team again, hopefully soon."

Seun Adetunji, Inclusive Healthcare Innovator