Motherhood Beyond Bars
Duration
Jan - Apr 2022 (3 months)
Team
Product Manager, Engineering Manager, 2 Designers, 4 Developers
Role
UI/UX Design
Tools
Figma
Motherhood in Georgia's prisons
When babies are born to women in the Georgia prison system, the mother is only alloted a 48-hour stay in the hospital, after which a chosen caretaker will come to the hospital to pick up the baby and bring it home.
Helping Motherhood Beyond Bars support caretakers
Motherhood Beyond Bars (MBB) is a Georgia-based nonprofit that works to support the infants, mothers, and caretakers in the situations above. Part of their work involves calling caretakers about resources and supplies, but the organization was concerned about the amount of time required for calls as they continued to grow.
For one semester (and counting), MBB partnered up with my team at Bits of Good to develop a scalable solution to improve communication with caretakers.
A mobile app to get caretakers ready for their role.
An admin portal to manage information about caretakers.
Setting requirements
The leadership team—the product manager, engineering manager, and us two designers—had a two-week headstart before developers joined our team. During this time, we consulted with MBB and met up several times to speedily establish a roadmap for the product.
Identifying product needs
To get a better understanding of MBB’s main goals and requirements, our team held a meeting with Amy and Vanessa, two of the leaders of MBB, to establish a list of product needs and points to keep in mind throughout our development process.
Separate platforms for caretakers and admins
After this meeting, we began drawing out features for a caretaker mobile app based on some of the needs Amy and Vanessa had listed. We also realized we needed to develop an accompanying admin portal that allows MBB admins to view caretaker information.
We organized the features with two user flows, which we reviewed and updated with Amy and Vanessa.
Incorporating MBB’s branding in our design system
During our meeting with Amy and Vanessa, they asked us to incorporate aspects of MBB's recently revamped visual branding. We created a basic style guide to ensure a both accessible and consistent experience.
Getting wireframes from 0% → 100% in two weeks
Our team's first sprint was a little daunting—because developers began working shortly after designers started, we had about two weeks to mock up the entire onboarding process. We had to find an efficient way to roll our design in phases to Amy and Vanessa, our leadership team, and the developers.
Part 1: Caregiver Onboarding
The first pages we started working on—the onboarding workflow—help collect caretaker information when they first start working with MBB. By automating this process, we reduce the amount of time MBB spends on menial tasks as the organization continues to grow.
Part 2: Item Requests + Support Page
After onboarding, caretakers can reach out to MBB for additional help through a support page. This page lists the organization’s contact information and leads them to a form where they can request baby supplies from MBB.
Don't over-automate the process
We initially visualized the item requests feature as an automated online store. But MBB explained that requesting items was not a formal process—they planned to call caretakers individually about their requests.
Calling caretakers about item requests gives MBB a chance to maintain person-to-person interactions with caretakers and catch up on how they're doing. So instead of a store, we decided the item request feature should be a simple form on a support page, listed with MBB's contact information.
Part 3: Baby Book
The baby book, a photo-uploading portal, allows caretakers to add photos and descriptions of their children on a regular basis, which admins can print out and share with mothers. This tool helps MBB ensure that caretakers are documenting regularly and simplifies the process of collecting and printing photos.
The second screen above will also be shared with mothers once they are released, so they can have an album of old photos when they are reunited with their children.
Part 4: Resources
MBB also wanted a way to share and update links and FAQs to caretakers, which is especially helpful for new caretakers.
Part 5: Settings
The caretaker app and admin app both have a settings page to edit account information. MBB also requested that admins be able to edit liability waivers.
Future considerations and the sustainability of the app
I had an amazing time working with my team and Motherhood Beyond Bars on this app. Our team rolled out a good number of features in one semester, and we noted factors we needed to consider for the sustainability of the project in future semesters.
I’m excited to see where this project goes, and to see this app creating real impact for a really impactful organization.
