Mock-up of desktop and mobile screens
Brief
The brief for this project was to carry out a user research process to identify and understand real user needs, and to design a health care related responsive website on a subject of our choice. I chose to focus on women's health, specifically, post partum healthcare for women.
4th Trimester is a website aimed at new mothers who are looking to improve their mental and physical health postpartum. Carrying out a user research process, including user interviews allowed me to design a solution to postpartum health care that is relevant, sensitive and fills a gap in the market that is saturated with pregnancy-related support, but lacking in support for women postpartum.
User Research
The research phase of this project involved undertaking user interviews to grasp an understanding of how women feel postpartum and what they need from an online resource to help their mental and physical health. Working in a small research team of 3, with a focus on reproductive health, allowed us to share insights between our projects and develop a wider understanding of women's experiences with healthcare. From these insights, I developed three personas to derive my design of the website. Moving on, I developed user journeys and mental models to influence the sit map of the design.
Persona's I developed during the research stage of the project
Prototyping and Testing
Throughout the design phase, I designed with a mobile-first approach. However, I found it helpful to create sketches and wireframes for both breakpoints alongside each other so that I was considering both simultaneously. At first, I found designing for different breakpoints confusing but I found that looking at real-world examples and reading more about responsive design helped me with it.
I ensured to carry out user testing and respond to feedback from my tutors to improve my designs throughout the project.
Some early desktop wireframes
Visual Design
I chose fonts and colours for this project that I felt were calming and relaxing for the user as I wanted the user to feel welcomed by the visual design of the site. The logo I designed for the website consists of a 4 leafed lotus, with each leaf representing each trimester of birth. Lotus flowers also represent healing.
4th trimester logo
Final component library
Key Takeaways
This project taught me about how to create a responsive design and exercised my prototyping skills in Figma. It was a great opportunity to immerse myself in the UX process and carry out user interviews, and frequent user testing to design a solution that is relevant.
I also had the opportunity to work on my public speaking and presentation skills in the early stages of this project delivering a group presentation to my year group about our user research.
View my other UX projects here.