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Creating a Mobile-First Website for Parents with Disabilities
Work Summary
Overview:
The project highlights the extensive research, user interviews, and cultural studies conducted to understand the unique challenges and needs of Parents with disabilities. The Case Study details the iterative design process, concept validation, and testing methodologies to develop an accessible, community-driven platform.
My Role:
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Product Designer and Product Strategist
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7 Months (Capstone Research & strategy)
Research Question:
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What is the relationship between adaptive parenting techniques for parents with disabilities and their parenting style?
Professional Tools: -> Prototyping Tools (Figma) -> User Research Tools (Surveys, interviews) -> Usability Testing Tools (UserTesting) -> Collaboration Platforms (Miro)
Impact: -> Obtaining stakeholder buy-in and conducting effective product discovery. -> Identified key features such as curated resources, groups and events, which received the highest user interest, with a 75% engagement rate among test participants.
Users: -> Parents with disabilities | Caregivers | Family Members -> Secondary: Advocacy groups | Researchers
Team:
Shreyans Baid &
Camilo Lizarralde
Professional Skills: -> User-Centered Design -> Empathy and Inclusivity -> Prototyping and Testing ->Interface Design -> Research and Analysis -> Strategic Thinking -> Collaboration -> Problem-Solving -> Communication -> Project Management
Problem
Statement
Context: Parents with disabilities often face unique challenges in accessing support and resources tailored to their needs. Existing platforms do not provide a comprehensive and collaborative environment for sharing experiences and finding relevant information.
User Needs: Parents with disabilities need an accessible platform that offers community support, event information, and curated resources to help them navigate parenting challenges.
Objectives: The goal was to build a community that facilitates support through collaborative groups, provides information on relevant events, and offers a curated collection of resources.
Project at a glance:
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Research
User Research: Conducted interviews more than 15 parents with disabilities to understand their needs and preferences.
Key findings highlighted the importance of community support, easy access to information, and the ability to share experiences.
1. Method: Appreciative Inquiry | Thematic & Process coding
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Primary Research: Interviews & Auto Ethnography
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Tools: Interview protocol | codebook | Zoom | Google Docs and Sheets
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Sources: Interviews
2. Method: Mixed Research- narrative
and qualitative
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Secondary Research: Narrative inquiry through found documents; Understanding activities of daily living through narratives.
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Tools: Miro | Notion | Figma | Resource Libraries
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Sources: Social media listening | Vox Pop | Books on parenting with disabilities | Documentaries and films
Outcome:
Culture Study
Culture and Way forward: By deeply exploring the experiences and stories of the disability community, we could map out the current and emerging trends through the lens of parenting.
Theme from culture study
Note: The theme displayed on the right significantly influenced our approach to this project
Community as a way of knowledge: Information is Freedom Emphasizing the value of collective knowledge and peer support as tools for empowerment, encouragement and education among disabled parents.
Other Learnings from Research
Considering & New Parents: These users have a high urgency for features related to expert match, Expert led webinars and guided search.
Parents of teenagers: These users have a greater need for features like stories that resonate with them, personalization and support new parents
Developing Mindsets
We utilized mindsets to deeply understand and cater to the diverse needs of parents with disabilities. By identifying distinct mindsets, we were able to focus on their unique motivations and challenges enabling us to effectively define our target audience.
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Our Audience
Landscape
Analysis
Analyzed existing support platforms and parenting websites, identifying gaps in accessibility and collaborative features.
Also understand what is the position and relationship of every player in our project.
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*Important
Insight
Learnings:
Analyzed existing support platforms and parenting websites, identifying gaps in accessibility and collaborative features.
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Most security verification methods fail to be accessible for people with disabilities.
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90% of the websites in our list of companies have issues related to visual and motor skill accessibility
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Most of the community management websites we analyzed tend to focus on punitive moderation rather than conscious facilitation
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Content and Connection Gap Some websites provide valuable connections, while others deliver substantial information. Despite these positive aspects, the overall user experience remains fragmented
Concept
We came up with Penguine to create a virtual safe space for parents with disabilities to design a sustainable support mechanism by bridging the Content and Connection gap amongst other opportunities
Our concept
one pager
We sent this out to various stakeholders
to validate the concept
What Our Stakeholders
Had To Say
Through discussions with our stakeholders, we identified key best practices and potential pitfalls, gaining valuable insights into what is beneficial for our business.
Concept
Testing Protocol
1.
Business model testing
Method: Social media profile tied to a landing page and a sign up form.
Testing Question: Willingness to pay.
Target: Parents with disabilities, partners of parents with disabilities.
2.
Feature prioritization
Method: In person feature Workshop, Online meetings, google form.
Testing Question: Prioritize features based on their importance and frequency of use.
Target: Parents with disabilities, partners of parents with disabilities, disability Advocates, accessibility experts.
3.
User flow test
Method: Figma prototype testing,
testing questions: ease of use, intuitiveness, testing for concerns and wow factors during the process
Target: Parents with disabilities, partners of parents with disabilities, disability Advocates, accessibility experts. partners of parents with disabilities.
4.
Accessibility test
Method: Conduct an accessibility test and report on the figma prototype
Testing Questions: Color contrast ratios, Spacing used, use of different formats, guided search filtering
Target: Parents with disabilities, partners of parents with disabilities, disability Advocates, accessibility experts.
Business Model Testing
Overview: Aim was to gauge interest in the concept and the features
Channels used: Social media marketing to inform drive traffic to the landing page.
CTA for Users: Fill out a form on the landing page to validate our concept
Impressions: 843
Followers: 22
Amount Spent: 18 USD
Days: 6
Brief Overview: The aim was to gauge interest in the concept and the subscription model.
Channels used: Social media marketing to inform drive traffic to the landing page.
CTA for Users: Click on the proposed pricing model and fill out a form on the landing page to validate our concept.
Page views: 39
Site sessions: 16
Sign-ups achieved: 2
Observations: 75% of the followers fall in this category
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Mothers with a disability
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Fathers with a disability
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Mother- sci c7
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Mothers of children with disability
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Mother- sci t12/l2
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Mother with fibromyalgia stinks
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Women-based content got more female engagement
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Men-based content got 2x male engagement along with a majority female engagement
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Women-based content got more female engagement
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Men-based content got 2x male engagement along with a majority female engagement
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Popular features: resources and events (from subscriptions)
Feature Prioritisation
By mapping our user personas to their respective parenting stages, we gained valuable insights into the relative urgency of different features for each segment.
Feature Choice Architechture
Our Strategy
Shaping Strategy
Penguine is about creating a new ecosystem rather than just adapting to existing conditions. It builds a supportive community by integrating formal and informal support mechanisms, innovating new tools and interactions to redefine user expectations. Penguine also engages with stakeholders like non-profits and healthcare providers to influence and enhance the broader support network for these parents.
Influence and Partnerships
Innovation in Support
Community Building
Our Approach
Our research insights and strategic approach have informed the design of the user experience we aim to deliver
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Curation of features
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Iterate and Test
Designing for people, not disabilities:
Our focus on accessible web interface
Designing for dexterity
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Designing for Cognitive Flow
Designing for Visual Clarity
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Business Model
Learnings from the Project:
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Inclusion is a Journey: Through our exploration, we recognized that inclusion is not a destination but a continuous process requiring empathy, adaptability, and ongoing effort.
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Power of Appreciative Inquiry: Employing appreciative inquiry uncovered unique insights that traditional methods may have overlooked, highlighting the importance of positive questioning in revealing deeper understandings.
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Tailored Approaches for Unique Challenges: Each project brief presented distinct challenges, emphasizing that research design is a critical initial step. Customizing our approach ensured we addressed specific needs and complexities effectively.
