Beginnings
app redesign and extension
How a “new coat of paint” birthed a modern product development ecosystem
How a “new coat of paint” birthed a modern product development ecosystem
Allina, a nonprofit healthcare system in Minnesota and Wisconsin, recognized the value of providing clinically-reviewed information and resources to expecting parents, to support them from pregnancy through childhood and for the rest of their life. What they needed was a strategy to guide building and delivering an app and other digital services
This discovery phase gave us an intimate look into people’s experiences, both at home and in the hospital. This led to greater empathy among our team for the needs of parents, caregivers, and medical staff. Empathy is the key to compelling features the business can deliver
We generated a TOOOOOOOOOOON of ideas, then prioritized features based on their value to parents, value to Allina, and the amount of effort to deliver. This helped us focus on our first major release. Bonus: we had a generous list of features to consider for the future
Once we see everyone’s ideas, UX/UI designers create the wireframes that will eventually become high-fidelity screens. We build regular feedback cycles into the process, including UX testing with people outside our team. (This is my favorite part; people always bring up new ideas to think about, and they are often unexpected.)
When a parent first opens the app, we give them a brief introduction to available features and prompt them for the minimal amount of information to get the most out of the app. This flow (often called onboarding) introduces the voice of the app—a friendly, calm, professional here to help you out
Parents can add photos of themselves and their children. While pregnant, moms get weekly guidance and daily information, from recipes to self-care tips and encouragement
Each trimester includes activities for moms and partners to take care of themselves and plan for the birth experience they want. These comprehensive lists take the burden of remembering everything off of parents and gives every parent access to the same breadth of services
We reformatted existing educational manuals, organized the content by topic and trimester (by age for early childhood) and formatted it for phone screens. We made the content searchable and added a bookmark feature so parents can come back to helpful information
The biggest challenge was how to make miscarriage resources accessible without scaring someone whose pregnancy was progressing. We accomplished this by adding a Get Help option to the main menu with a general help hotline and a section specifically for people who have experienced a loss. Within this section is affirming and supportive messaging, as well as options to connect with a specialist or find a support group. We also included a button to stop notifications from the app, which could be a painful reminder of the loss if left on
We authored the business strategy that now supports an ecosystem of apps, including guidelines for “when to app” and supporting resources like a lean business canvas to define the opportunity
We defined the team structure that included in-house and contractor resources and along the way fostered a culture that made future work efficient, effective, and fun
We defined a work flow grounded in user research and empathy to connect business leaders, the design team, and the development team; to create shared understanding across the organization; and to drive delivery of high quality digital products