Conceptualizing a micro-app to help parents capture birth experiences
THE BIRTH STORY CASE STUDY
ROLE
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Interaction Designer
Researcher
SKILLS
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Health Design
Mobile UI UX
Visual Communication
Prototyping
User Research
TEAM
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Eindra Lin (Co-Designer)
CONTEXT
The Birth Story explores how parents can easily capture the details and emotions of childbirth in real time
The Birth Story is a Carnegie Mellon University interaction design studio project created as a micro-app concept for Myana, a postpartum support platform by Dezudio and is based on research from the University of Pittsburgh.
In collaboration with Eindra Lin, I contributed to wireframing, prototyping, and testing with new mothers. While we received client feedback, the work was not done professionally with Dezudio.
PROBLEM SPACE
Our client's generative research showed that parents often struggle to remember and share their birth experience
Intense emotion and medical urgency make it difficult for parents to capture details in real time, resulting in key memories and context becoming lost. With this, we asked:
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
Simplified, emotionally sensitive experience that allows new parents to capture their birth story on their own terms
Our final concept makes documenting birth stories simpler and more personal, offering an easy-to-follow timeline alongside an at-a-glance overview.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Centering the app on clarity, emotional resonance, and ease of documentation
We began with a competitive analysis of health, self-care, and journaling apps, then reviewed client research to surface key insights. The app was organized around three core needs, with an information architecture supporting event tracking, reflection, and logging medical details.
PROTOTYPING
Our early wireframes explored how to capture the pace and emotion of childbirth
We created a timeline that combined journal entries, medical details, and quick “moments” for memory capture. These prototypes helped us test how parents might document their experience naturally, without interrupting the flow of labor and recovery.
EVALUATIVE RESEARCH
Testing revealed that even well-intentioned features can overwhelm users in moments of vulnerability
Feedback from two new mothers revealed that the experience felt too demanding during labor, underscoring the need for a simpler, more intuitive, and motivating design. This insight guided our next iterations toward reducing cognitive load and streamlining interactions for real-world use.
KEY ITERATIONS
Refining to better support emotional expression, simplify documentation, and motivate consistent use
Freeform Journal
We condensed the journal into a more freeform format, making reflection faster and less structured during intense moments. Instead of structured prompts, the journal allows open-ended reflection.
Emotion Colors
We introduced a color system for emotions, giving the app a cohesive visual language and helping users quickly express feelings. Our color palette is based on the colors we used with the emotions found in the journal.
Motivating Features
Added motivating features to encourage consistent use, such as a visual “full story” in circles to track completed entries. Using our color circles from our timeline, we created the Birth Story.
FINAL SOLUTION
A cohesive experience that lets new parents tell their birth story their way
Timeline
Parents can add journal entries, medical information, and moments, quick captures of thoughts, feelings, or milestones, to a chronological timeline of labor and delivery, helping them see events unfold in context.
Freeform Card-Based Journal
A card format that allows parents to jot down reflections immediately or flip cards to write later.
Medical Information
A structured list for key clinical details, enhanced with smart suggestions based on user entries.
Moments
Quick captures for photos, thoughts, or milestones.
View Your Birth Story
Entries are visualized as circles, representing the journey in one glance.
NEXT STEPS
Focusing on making our designs ready for development, delivery, and evaluation
We would focus on making our designs ready for development. Our next steps include refining modular components and documenting interactions and states. We would evaluate impact through metrics such as ease of use, engagement, and completeness of birth stories.
REFLECTION
Creating across perspectives
This project challenged me to design for real-life complexity, considering not just what users need but when and how they can engage. Anticipating development from the start was key—drawing on my experience with HTML, CSS, and basic JavaScript, I learned that understanding technical constraints early helps guide design decisions and sets the project up for smooth implementation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to my project collaborator, Eindra Lin, for collaborating on ideation and bringing the wireframes and prototypes to life.
Grateful to our mentors, Ashley Deal and Raelynn O’Leary, for guidance throughout the project.
Thank you to our clients from the University of Pittsburgh Research, Sarah Burns, MSW, LSW, and Tamar Krishnamurti, PhD, for their valuable insights.
And to everyone who participated in user testing or shared feedback, thank you.
NEXT PROJECT
Developing a hospital-integrated ecosystem of support and well-being for oncology staff
Groundswell – End-to-end, Live at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital