Milkit
The Need
Moms nowadays often look for new technological ways to keep better track of their baby's development and growth. However, most solutions add more work and stress to an already exhausted and extremely busy mom.
Tracking the baby's feeding habits specifically is important to make sure that the baby is eating, and growing enough. Tracking gives you answer to questions like when did they eat last, how much they ate, what are their hunger patterns, and so on. This can also help in case there is an issue, for example, if the baby isn't gaining the recommended amount of weight for his age.
When a baby is being fed by bottle, one of the issues is that many people can take part in the feeding (mom, dad, grandparents, other family members, etc.) and this makes it harder to keep track on every feeding, and often the data you get from others might not be exactly accurate.
The Idea
An IoT sleeve that can be used on every baby bottle you have at home, and helps you measure the baby's feeding habits, including how much he ate, the hung patterns, length of feedings, and it can also make sure the bottle temperature is correct.
The sleeve comes with a matching mobile application, that gets the data automatically directly from the sleeve. This will save the mom time and work and will let her collect the exact information even when someone else is feeding the bay. The app will also have an option to manually add data and a historical look on the baby's feedings.
Since being a new mom can be stressful and can bring up many questions, the app will also include a commune section for moms to ask other moms or experts about anything that might be going on with their baby.
Main Research Questions
What are the characteristics of new moms? Why do moms track their babies? What do moms want to about their baby's feeding habits?
Insights from Research
83% of new moms in the US are millennials, giving birth to about 9,000 Alpha babies a day, and more than 1 million millennial women become new mothers each year. These millennial moms grew up in a time of rapid technological advancement, and technology has become a major theme in parenting. The millennial moms are tech-savvy, fashionable, and conscious. Millennials also have children later than previous generations, which often make them more mature and conscious parents.
On average, 56% of newborns drink from bottles immediately after birth according to data collected from 180 countries. During bottle feeding, mindless feeding tends to result in overeating and lower awareness of the infant's signals. New parents deal with constant feedings and losing lots of sleep, which makes it very difficult to pay attention and keep track of the information.
I didn't realize how important data tracking would be when taking care of a newborn. When last did my daughter eat -- and how much? Has her diaper been changed recently? And did she nap enough today? Knowing the answers to all these questions is essential for every new mom and dad.
Tracking your baby's feeding helps you to see patterns that emerge in the baby's schedule, and to make sure that your baby's weight is exactly on target.
We'd already noticed a few patterns, and we had allowed the data to dictate our parenting style; She seemed to eat most around 11 a.m., 4:30 p.m., and 8 p.m., so we kept at the strict feeding schedule.
Being a new mom is extremely stressful, and often new moms feel overwhelmed and they have many questions and concerns. Often the main reason to track the baby is to compare the data with other moms or online statistics to get some of those questions answered.
Tracking stuff eased my anxiety. I didn't care if it wasn't worth my time.
Since babies can't communicate beyond crying, taking is extremely important, especially in the beginning. Through data, you can create a new way of communicating with the baby in an attempt to optimize the baby's development.
The Users
The users of this app are moms, both new moms or more experienced moms. Although the app connects to a bottle sleeve, it can also be used by breastfeeding moms using the manual option.
The app targets moms specially, because it is meant to also be a platform to build a community for moms to ask questions and get support from other moms.
The target audience are moms with young babies, they are usually between the ages of 18-38, and include Millennials and Gen Z. I created three personas, new young mom, new mom in her mid 30th and an experienced mom with three kids.
Mapping The Screens
Wireframing
This app is used during a very busy and stressful day of a mom, and its purpose is to make her life easier. That was the idea that I cantered my wireframing process around, how can this simplify things rather than making it feel like more work. I wanted it to be minimal, but to give enough information, and making the important information as clear and easy to find as possible. I also wanted to have flat and simple navigation, so that everything can be done quickly and without putting too much effort or thought into it.
Visual Design & Branding
I wanted the design of this app to promote the following concepts: charming, playful and calming. I chose a colourful pallet that promotes the feeling of joy without being overwhelming or too bold. This color pallet also help to convey that this is indeed a baby related app. The design of the whole app is very clean, minimal, and straightforward, making it calming and easy to use and navigate. The fonts I choose are both playful and modern, and the gamification elements of the design and interactions throughout the app make it more playful and enjoyable.
Fonts
Color Palette
Design Tools
The Final product
Baby Bottle Data
This is the main screen of the application, where you track the current bottle's data.
Since it is used during a sometimes a bit stressful moment (especially for new moms) or in a moment of complete exhaustion, I wanted the screen to be clean, clear and calming.
The animation adds a playful element, that makes a simple screen a bit more enjoyable and not so technical. I used the blue color pallet to create a relaxing and soothing atmosphere.
Feeding History
This screen lets you get an overview the feeding data history by date. I placed the calendar at the top, since it's the main navigation of this page, and I wanted the user to be able to quickly scroll through the dates. I also wanted to add a visual overview of the daily feeing status, and I chose the loader because it is a clear graphical element, but also I think it gives the feeling that it's not final, you can still fill the needed amount. Each feeding card clearly presents the main feeing information and can be edited.
Community Chat
This part of the app contains two screens, the 'Ask an Exper' form tab, where the user can send messages to baby experts, read their answers and see the message history.
The second part is the community chat, where moms can bring up topics and questions that they want to discuss with other moms like them. I wanted it to be easy to find exactly what they are looking for so I added a search, as well as the option to save topics.
Add Data Manually
The app also includes an option to add data manually, this helps in situations where the IoT device wasn't on the bottle or if the baby was breastfed. However it also opens the app to user who do not own the IoT device, therefore making it more inclusive and useful to all moms. Which is why I wanted this option to be noticeable and prominent in the design of the app.
Takeaways From This Project
I feel like I've learned a lot from this project, both from the product development and from the UX/UI process. The need to keep things very simple and minimal was challenging and forced me to really focus on the important features and optimize the data hierarchy. Also because I searched for ways to keep the app interesting, and keep the tired mom engaged and motivated I played with the concept of gamification, and I truly believe that it is an important concept to use in most projects.
