CuteTalk
An AI-driven app to provide real-time guidance for new mothers to better soothe the baby
Role
Design lead
Tools
Figma, Protopie
Timeline
June 2022 to Feb 2023
A product designed for new mothers
CuteTalk utilizes video data to calculate the baby's body motion, facial expressions and sounds in order to provide real-time guidance on how to soothe a baby. This can help new mothers reduce stress and get more rest.
Help mothers identify baby status in the real-time
Live video stream: Real-time viewing of the baby.
Baby states: Algorithms analyze camera data to show users their baby's possible status, needs, and thoughts.
Find out why: Click to know how the system identifies the baby's facial expressions, body movements, and sounds on an immersive screen.
Enable mothers track their baby’s living patterns with ease
Baby log: Users can add events to the baby log, such as feedings, diaper changes, etc.
Auto-generated diagrams: The system generates a comprehensive baby log with diagrams, helping users understand the baby's living patterns.
Minimizing user friction: Segregate user-entered data from system-generated content for better transparency
Enable mothers to invite other family or caregivers to join
Invite family or caregivers: Mothers can invite other caregivers by providing their email addresses. The app sends invitations for them to join and view the baby.
Visit times: Family members’ and caregivers' visit times are displayed on the list, serving as a reminder for family members to provide support, share duties, and offer emotional assistance to mothers, reducing their burden and promoting a sense of support.
How did I get to the final design?
85% of new mothers suffer from depression
Originally, I thought motherhood equaled happiness and was filled with love and joy. To my surprise, nearly every one of my novice-mother friends has complained about feeling overwhelmed and lonely while caring for their babies. When I finished conducting the secondary research, I found that up to 85% of new mothers suffer from postpartum depression (Johns Hopkins Medicine, 2022).
Empathize with my users with the persona, Linda
By delving deeper into the experiences of some of my potential users, I gained a greater understanding of the challenges that new mothers encounter daily.
Further, to truly empathize with their needs and concerns, I created my user persona, Linda Woods, a new mom with a newly born baby, which would serve as a helpful guide throughout the project.
Selected Quotes
“The baby is screaming for the 100 times now, I really want to throw her out the window…”
“Normally, when my husband comes back home from work and I finally get a chance to ask him to hold the baby for just one second, I often find him engrossed with his phone before I even make the request…”
Linda’s frustration and anxiety grew as she listened to her baby's cries and felt unable to do anything to help her…
3 pain points lead to new mothers’ depression
After interviewing 5 new mothers, I conducted an affinity map session to analyze the data. Based on the results, I created a persona and user journey to empathize with the new mothers’ experiences. Finally, I distilled 3 concrete pain points for new mothers that can help me set the right design goals and inspire me efficient solutions to help my prospective users.
Pain point 1: having trouble figuring out how to calm my baby down
Pain point 2: Struggling to manage baby's feeding and sleeping schedule
Pain point 3: feeling helpless and don't know where to turn
Ideating & Deciding the MVP
To address the pain points for new mothers, first I conducted a brainstorming session for myself in order to generate as many solutions as possible. I first conducted five 8-minute Crazy Eight sessions. During each session, I sketched and wrote eight ideas on a single A4 sheet of paper. This resulted in 40 ideas after 40 minutes. Then, I conducted a working session with my mentor and on-demand mentor to vote, in order to select the strongest ideas.
Finally, I narrowed down my focus to a smart camera that can identify the baby's needs and emotions through its behavior. The camera will then send notifications to caregivers accordingly.
This functionality can not only address the pain point of parents being ignorant of their baby's needs but also reduce their mothers' worry and anxiety. Additionally, it is the foundation of the future perfect product.
Seek advice of computer vision experts
I consulted with 3 computer vision scientists and 2 senior developers to assess the feasibility of my MVP. I learned that the motion sensing technology available today meets the requirements for detecting the baby's movements. This gave me the confidence to move forward with my project.
“As a computer vision researcher with over 10 years of experience, I certified that the current motion sensory technique, thanks to the advancement in deep learning and low light sensing, definitely reaches the bar to reliably detect a baby’s versatile movement required in the App.”
Dr. C. Wan, Research Scientist at Reality Labs, Meta
Design Scope: Design a real-time app using camera data to analyze a baby's status
Goal 1: Support inexperienced mothers by informing them their baby's status in the real-time
“As a new mother, I need an effective method that can inform me of the baby's status and needs because I experience difficulty to soothe the crying baby so that I can win more time to rest.”
Goal 2: Provide new mothers with a reliable tool to track the baby’s living pattern
“As a new mother, I need to have a reliable tool to track my baby's daily living pattern because I always feel nervous about the baby’s hunger and sleep so that I can reduce my anxiety.”
Goal 3: Encourage other caregivers to support new mothers physically and emotionally
“As a new mother, I need a way that can encourage my family or other caregivers to take care of the baby, because I feel exhausted, so I will feel emotionally and physically empowered.”
Building the information architecture
Based on the core function of the MVP, I figured out the Information Architecture for my product which includes 5 major features: Live video, Video history, Baby log, Learning center, and Family.
Mapping the to-be user flow
Sketch important screens & Conduct 1st round of usability testing
Based on the user flows created in the last step, I sketched the critical screens in the flows and made them into a low-fidelity prototype. After testing the prototype with 5 users, I gained valuable sights from them and refined the user flow before developing them into wireframe flows.
Creating wire flows for red routes
Based on the feedback gained from the first round of user testing with the low-fidelity prototype with sketches, I refined the screen designs and created four wire flows.
Creating high-fidelity prototype & iterate design based on usability testing
After creating the wireframes, I refined and iterated on the design, resulting in the first version of the high-fidelity prototype. Subsequently, I conducted a second round of usability testing to gather valuable user insights, which allowed me to make further improvements to the design before developing the final version of the high-fidelity prototype.
What do my prospective users think?
8/10 & 7.75/10
Satisfaction & Recommendation
The app received an average satisfaction rating of 8 out of 10. Additionally, 6 new mothers gave a recommendation rating of 7.75 out of 10.
8/10 & 7.5/10
Usefulness in better understanding the baby
The efficacy in helping new mothers better understand their babies’ behavior and living patterns has received a rating of 8 out of 10 and 7.5 out of 10 respectively.
From 6.5/10 to 7.5/10
The enhancement of user trust through design
Users have rated their level of trust in AI at 6.5 out of 10. However, the data visualization design of the infant motion capture feature in this app has been rated 7.5 out of 10 in improving user trust.
What have I learned?
How to deliver a UX product from scratch
In this project, I executed the entire process of developing a UX product from problem identification to successful delivery. I take pride in my achievements.
The benefits of putting users first
By actively listening and observing, I gained valuable insights from users for shaping the continuous improvement of the product. I am sincerely grateful for their involvement in my research.
The importance of attention to detail
I've learned how detail enhances the overall product in this project. I gained valuable experience in maintaining a clear visual hierarchy, highlighting important information, ensuring legibility in dark mode interfaces, etc.