The What
For the 2020 AIGA SHINE program cohort, we had about 8 weeks to complete a project centered on civic engagement, to create a tool to get people involved and informed about a major issue facing DC. Being pregnant during this time, I knew I wanted to create a tool to raise awareness about the maternal mortality crisis in the District.
My Goals
The maternal mortality crisis in Washington, DC is twice as high as the national average. Black birthers are especially affected by this, making up 75% of maternal deaths between 2014 and 2016. I felt specifically affected by this data and was extremely excited to work on this project. My goal was to create a prototype of a website to shed light on this problem and provide resources and information to improve childbirth outcomes for expecting moms of color in the area.
The Process
Discovery
To begin the Discovery Phase, I researched scholarly articles and organizations focused on the maternal mortality crisis in DC to understand the scope of the problem. I found that between 2014 and 2016, Black mothers made up 75% of maternal deaths in DC. There are many factor that contribute to this statistic, including economic disparities, lack of access to healthcare and support systems, and systematic racism which can be linked to pre-existing health conditions that affect prenatal and postpartum health outcomes. I decided to focus on resources that highlighted organizations and tools that empowered expecting mothers to combat these factors.
From my research, I defined 3 clear target audiences:
Current and expecting African-American mothers in the DC area.
Medical providers and birth workers looking to support these mothers.
Family, friends, and other community members who want to learn more about this problem and advocate for mothers.
Qualitative Interviews
To learn more about these audience groups, I conducted 2 qualitative interviews to dive into the experiences of an expecting mom and doula (a birth worker and advocate). From these in-depth interviews, I gained amazing insight into what mothers, birth workers and advocates feel is currently lacking in the landscape of maternal care.
Mothers needed to feel empowered with tools and information for how to advocate for themselves should they feel neglected by doctors. They needed information about how pre-existing conditions could affect their birthing journeys.
“It’s really important to research and understand your body before we conceive. Doctors should provide much more empathy and proactive care to their patients.”
The birth worker I interviewed felt mothers should be made aware of what alternatives they have to birthing in a hospital should they have that choice. It’s important to know your rights and do your own research.
“The best way to advocate for yourself is to know your rights, don’t just believe your doctor...you have the right to have a full understanding before you give consent.”
Read the full transcripts of the interviews here.
Key Findings:
Mothers should have access to a wide range of resources spanning pre-natal to postpartum care as well as navigating finances and employment on top of physical health.
Resources should come in multiple content types (podcasts, printables, websites, etc).
There were many organizations working on a national scale to support legislation and provide resources locally, they should be cited as well.
Branding
After concluding my research, I focused on creating the brand for the platform. Of all the logo sketches I explored, I chose the direction that incorporated the “+” symbol to honor the moment when a mother first finds out that she is pregnant. I chose my color palette based on the desire for the appearance to be light and feminine, since the subject matter could feel very heavy as users navigate through the tool. My branding words were: trust, informative, and authenticity.
Wireframing & Prototyping
Based on the timeline of the mentorship, there would not be a lot of time to iteration. I chose to focus on 4 key pages for the wireframes and mockups:
The homepage, to introduce the tool
A page dedicated to sharing the statistics around the issue
A resource library for users to browse though different tools and digital resources
A page dedicated to organizations and peers that users can visit to find more information and support
Key Features:
On the “Issue” page I walk users through my research findings and created an infographic to showcase the disparity in access to healthcare depending on where you live in the District. On the 'Resources' page, the intended functionality is to have a filterable list of resources for users to browse through to empower themselves and others. I prioritized the categories of content based on the results of my qualitative interviews and research.
View the Prototype
Next Steps
For future next steps, I would invest in user testing to explore how intuitive the prototype is and if there are any gaps in what the prototype offers. We unfortunately had to skip this step because of the shortened timeline of the project.
Explore another case study: Greenbook