Hatched
Hatched is a transition tool for empty nest parents.
Our team spent 10 weeks in a user centered design course determining the experiences, needs, and pain points of parents undergoing the emotional and lifestyle changes that occur when their children leave the home. Our application aims to guide, affirm, and inspire empty nesters throughout their transition.
September 2018
Duration: 10 weeks
Team: Olivia Oplinger, Robert Bennett, Cara Pangelinan
Roles: UX Researcher, UX Designer, Visual Designer
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch
Problem Space
How might we help empty nesters transition and embrace the changes they experience after their children leave?
Process
01
Research
User Interviews
Diary Study
Personas
User Journey Map
Competitive Analysis
02
Ideation
Storyboarding
Design Requirements
Information Architecture
Interface Sketching
03
Design
Paper Prototyping
Annotated Wireframes
User Testing
Experience Evaluation
04
Solution
Visual Language
High Fidelity Mockup
Reflection
01
Research
We began our research by conducting semi-structured interviews and a diary study with a variety of recently empty nested parents to uncover unifying needs and pain points. We also performed competitive analysis on products related to our problem to understand the scope of existing solutions. We analyzed Circle of Moms- an online parent discussion forum, MeetUp- an online group organizer, and 7Cups- an anxiety and stress management application.
Through our research, we found that our users had very different interests and day to day lives, but all acknowledged the surprising mixture of grief, pride, and re-identification of self they felt when their children left the home.
Full interviews:
“I guess I just hadn’t realized that [the] parent feeling never ends.”
-Parent 2, 50 years old with 3 children
Synthesis
Pains
From our interviews and research, we deduced that pains revolved around:
1. Coping with emotional challenges that accompany lifestyle transitions.
2. Connecting with and consulting other parents who understand their situation.
3. Getting inspired to utilize their new free time.
To better contextualize our user group, we synthesized our research findings into archetypal personas and a corresponding user journey map. This exercise helped us foster empathy for our users and highlight key emotions, touchpoints, and thoughts throughout typical empty-nester interactions.
Personas
Jennifer - the former stay at home parent
Susana - the full-time working parent
User Journey Map
A day in the life of a former stay at home parent
02
Ideation
The deliverables from our research helped us launch into brainstorming possible solutions and design requirements for our user's key pain points. We found that the scope of the empty nest problem is large and very personal. However, we were able to extract three equally weighted themes revolving around social, emotional, and lifestyle forms of processing transition.
Design Requirement Brainstorm
Design Requirements
After many rounds of iteration and refining broad ranges of solutions, we narrowed down to three main design requirements that each tackled one of the key transition pain points from our research. Our solution needed to provide:
A way to reflect on and process past experiences as a parent.
A way to connect with other empty nesters for parental guidance and support.
A way to go discover local events and opportunities to encourage spontaneity in freetime.
We created storyboards to convey the narrative for situations users might use our top solutions:
Storyboards
1. Consulting a forum to connect with parents for advice
2. Discovering and sharing activities to go utilize free time
We condensed our design requirements into three main features and built information architecture for a mobile application. We ultimately decided mobile was the best platform because our research indicated our user group was comfortable planning and messaging on mobile, and this solution would offer users accessibility on the go.
Information Architecture
03
Design
After iterating through possible interface sketches, we developed paper prototypes of key path scenarios and tested them members of our user group. We provided with a list of tasks to complete without any instruction and asked them to think-aloud about the confusing and clear elements of the design. See full experience evaluation.
Paper Prototype Takeaways:
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Users found inconsistent navigational cues challenging when switching between features
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Purpose of each transition feature needed more user guidance before attempting a task
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Users would benefit from a tutorial before jumping into transitional reflection
With the insight from our paper prototypes, we created annotated wireframes for each user pathway.
-Parent 1, 52 years old with 2 children
“It’s so valuable to have those close connections that you can be real with. Not try to be brave or pretend it’s all fine.”
04
Solution
In our final design solution, we aimed to create a holistic experience that enables our users to choose how to process the transition in a way that best suit them. Each feature--reflect, connect, and go-- addresses a distinct need from our pain points. Because our users vary in their relationship with transitioning, they may lean on some tools heavier than others, but the features are interconnected to the past, present, and future elements of processing emotional change.
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Reflect - A platform for users to honor their impact as a parent and refocus their new role through mood tracking and daily prompts.
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Connect - A discussion platform that provides users with a support network of other parents who can understand and empathize with the process they are going through.
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Homepage - A place for users to see featured elements of Reflect, Connect, and Go! tailored to their behavior and preferences.
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Go! - A suggestions hub with local, current activities revolving around eating, doing, and trying for our users to explore and inspire spontaneity.
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Profile - A central location for user information, activity history, notifications, and settings.
Reflection
Ultimately, the purpose of our app is to provide empty nesters with the choice of three tools based on the needs that we found in our research to help them transition to their new identity in the way that works best for them. Through our research and design processes we learned the transition empty nesters face is pretty complex. Without mental health expertise, we didn’t feel we had the authority to create a replacement for therapy or mindfulness practices. Instead, we wanted to provide them with autonomy and offer a place to start with their transition. With more time, we would consult mental health experts and perform more user testing to ensure these tools effectively help users with processing and well being.
As far as design process, I learned the value of refining research findings and narrowing the scope of a problem statement early on. Take away, grown empathy for user group and the complexity of their challenges.