The Roo -
Prenatal Heartbeat Tracker
What is Roo?
Roo is a portable and easy to use pre-natal heartbeat tracker that allows the user to hear, track, save and share the unborn baby's heartbeat.
It is a non-invasive tool that listens and records the fetal heartbeat that can be saved and shared at the comfort and convenience of the user. The device is powered by Hubble Connected's system and can be easily connected to a smart device.
Project Summary and
Challenge
Discover user pain points and struggles of the users in using the app and to define the main issues that users experience. To redesign the outlook of Roo app to make it more intuitive and improve on the ease of use for users. Additionally, create a content page that connects users of different devices to the main Hubble Connected app.
Client:
Hubble Connected
Timeline:
4 weeks
What I Did:
Lead the User Interview and Usability Testing
Created Wireframes
Competitive Analysis
Desk Research
Business Goals:
Build out a seamless end to end user journey and experience for Roo users so as to increase user retention through:
Understanding the way users are moving from point A to point B - is it intuitive?
Understanding user’s mental model and journey - is it easy to use?
Research and Design
Main App Issues
Five major issues that are the most problematic features of the app,
these will be the focus of the redesign of the app.
1. Main CTA
The main landing page disrupts the user with overload of content and features. There was no clear indication of the main feature to be used nor the main call to action, this created confusion and prompted a longer cognitive load for the user.
2. Unclear Value Proposition
App values and benefits weren't clearly presented and explained
3. Unintuitive
Confusing functions and features crowd the pages, while disruptive user navigation created additional anxiety and stress
4. Inconsistent and Unclear Icons
The icons weren't clearly defined and explained as some graphic elements were unrelated and unnecessary that brought more confusion to the overall experience
5. Lack of Personalization
The app didn't provide any customization to a product that is lifestyle focused, a feature that would provide a more relatable and personal experience for the user.
Based on the client's data:
2368 users tracked the heartbeat in 13,552 times.
388 users tracked the water input in 1551 times.
The client hopes to achieve higher user retention not just through the use of the heartbeat tracker, but other content features such Pregnancy FAQs, Pregnancy exercises, water and kick count, etc. to showcase a complete and full user experience of the app.
Competitive Analysis
Using Heuristic Evaluation
Direct and Indirect Competitors
Studying and discovering apps that are directly and indirectly competitive with Roo presented substantial information on features, content and interface design. Knowing what the other brands are doing, the study has shown clear indications on features and functions that Roo needed to adapt or implement.
Apart from the user journey of these apps, a big factor of intuitive user experience complemented with modern and clean UI provided better advantages over Roo.
Focusing on Baby Tracker Apps
Narrowing the analysis with the main competitors and evaluating each based on four factors:
Ease of Use, Clarity, Findable and Desirability. These factors showed clearer and more concrete execution that showed a basis and a guide for the overall redesign of the Roo app.
All apps had easy and accessible ease of use with features that gave clear functions and navigation. They presented content in uncluttered manner that made features and app functions findable. Intuitive, clean and modern UI stood out amongst all the competitors.
Where does Roo stand?
The other competitors rated high in the chart of Intuitiveness and Ease of Use. The goal of the project is for Roo to achieve a high standard that the competitors achieved or even go beyond the expectation.
User Interviews and
Usability Testing
Objectives:
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To find out users’ motivations for going to the gynae and using prenatal apps
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What’s their job to be done?
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Users’ pain points & challenges when using Roo app
Interviewees' Profile:
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Currently pregnant or just given birth
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Based in US
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Using prenatal or baby apps
Key Insights from User Interview and User Motivations for Using Pre-natal Apps:
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Assurance of baby’s health
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Share the experience with partner
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To get expert insights on what’s going on in her body
What did the users think?
User Comments:
“It’s just more information, and good to track how far along the pregnancy journey has been. Being able to track day by day is good as well.”
“Seeing the baby during ultrasound made the whole pregnancy experience " very real" - was really great seeing the heart beating so fast”
“When I first saw the baby moving and saw the ultrasound, I wished my husband could be there to see it too.”
Key Insights from Usability Tests and Pain Points from Using the Roo App:
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Trouble trying to start listening to heartbeat the first time
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Unsure what to make of the heart rate displayed
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Confusion in format to be shared
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Difficulty in finding saved recordings
What did the users think?
User Comments:
“Does the share button share audio file? Or what kind of format?”
"I don’t know what normal is" - what is the normal fetus heartbeat?”
"Not sure if she should click on the top right sharing button or the bottom sharing buttons"
User Persona (Katie)
Identifying a persona helps the client understand the profile, needs and motivations of the user. Knowing these will provide better knowledge on how and where the product stands in the needs of its audience and the market.
Goals / Motivations
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Makes sure she goes through a smooth pregnancy journey
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To see her baby healthy and safe
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To share pregnancy experiences with partner.
Needs
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To get her pregnancy concerns addressed via professional advice (Content)
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To get assurance that her baby is healthy (Recording)
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To know what to expect at every stage of the pregnancy (Personalised content)
Summary of Findings
Paint Points:
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Trouble trying to start listening to heartbeat the first time
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Unsure what to make of the heart rate displayed
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Confusion in format to be shared
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Difficulty in finding saved recordings
Solution:
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To make CTA for listening prominent, clear clutter on screen.
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To provide credible reference for what’s normal
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To make clear what is shared
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Make saved recordings findable
"How might we make the app more intuitive and easy to use so that the end to end user journey is seamless for the users?"
Job to be Done
"When using a prenatal device and mobile app, I want to get assurance of my baby’s condition so that I can minimize stress and anxiety."
Design Proposal and Recommendations
Focusing on the main issues and user pain points, these recommendations were guided by the analysis of the user interviews and usability tests. The designs were developed and improved with Peter Morville’s User Experience Honeycomb as the main design principle.
1. Making the CTA more findable
Research Insight:
Users were unsure of where to click to start listening.
Solution:
Making the Home screen less cluttered with a clear “Listen Now” CTA. The indication of a bigger and more noticeable CTA prompts the user to use the main feature of the app. This allows lesser cognitive load for the user to interact with the product.
2. Improving Ease of Use
Research Insight:
Pregnant mothers tend to experience water retention which would result in swollen fingers. Hence they would require bigger buttons to allow ease of use.
Solution:
Enlarging the size of the “Start” CTA and removing unnecessary information. By understanding and being empathetic to a basic pain point of the user, a simple solution of increasing the scale of a CTA button provided an answer to the needs of the user.
3. Making Viewing of History More Useful
Research Insight:
Based on quantitative data on users’ behaviour, users usually track their baby’s heartbeat on a weekly basis.
(13552 times heartbeat tracked by 2368 users in the span of one month = 5 times a month per user)
Solution:
Removed the mood or emotion indicator to reduce confusion and make information clearer to understand. Standardized viewing of past recordings to be in weekly view rather than having both day and week. This design showed more clarity of data presentation thus giving the user less cognitive load.
4. Making content more desirable and useful
Research Insight:
Users want to have customization on relevant topics and information. Users want to be able to save related information and to be able to access the content.
Solution:
Created a filter function where users can select topics and categories that would provide related information that would cater to their questions and needs
5. Making saved content more useful and findable
Additional Recommendation:
Provided a “Saved” or library function where the user can access all the saved information - grouped in article, video, podcast or blog formats. This created a more personal and curated library that suits the user more specifically.
Comparing Before and
After States
Mapping out the before and after User Journey and Site Map flows allowed a clear, detailed and objective comparison between the different stages of user experience.
Final Recommendations and Suggestions
Community
Based on our user insights, users want to have a sense of community to share experiences, to have the knowledge that they are not alone in facing the challenges.
“Nice to connect with a community of mothers…”
“Post questions on forums anonymously”
Content Page
To conduct a further user research and testing to validate the proposed recommendations, which was based loosely on the first user testing done as well as through the competitor analysis.
Learnings
The Sum of All Parts
Redesigning an existing app could be thought of as easy, we all had that perception at first, but going through the process needed for us to achieve our goals, it dawned on us that we have to go through a lot of steps -research, user interviews, analysis, usability testing, etc. As we dig deeper into the problem, more small details are being unturned and as much as the team wants to solve them all, we had to prioritize and focus on our scope. We knew we can’t do everything all at the same time.
The team struggled most on getting users for the interview as the profile asked for US based expecting mothers. The time difference for the interviews, teammate’s individual schedules and tight deadline were all part of the challenge - but we’re glad that we’ve risen above the struggle.
Client Feedback
“I was super surprised and satisfied with the ownership that the group took and how organized, proactive and committed they were. The process was so smooth and the coordination impeccable.”
-Swati (Hubble Connected)
