Roles
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Product Designer
Graphic Designer
Tools
Figma
Clip Studio Paint
Pencil and Paper
Project duration:
March 7, 2024 - March 15, 2024
In America, 30% of households are single family households while almost 15% make less that 125% of the income needed to survive. There are resources out there to help families in both of these situations however everything is spread out and convoluted.
Hearthfire was designed to consolidate and clear up any confusion for these resources.
I was inspired to conduct this research when I asked what people thought the community needed. After the initial interviews I began doing secondary research by going on message boards to see just how bad the problem was and what could be done to solve it. After doing several surveys and a few key interviews I was able to come up with a plan.
The Script
In order to make sure all of my finding were accurate, I complied a script with a list of questions. I was trying to make sure I hit all of the key points while not being to intrusive on peoples personal lives.
I would like to ask you a few questions that might be hard to answer. If any of the answers are off putting to you then you do not have to answer. I will not be sharing your name or any other information with anyone else. If at any time you would like to stop, just let me know and we will stop immediately.
As a single parent, what are some things you wish you knew at the beginning to help you out?
Is there any assistance that you specifically remember being more helpful than others? Why?
Is there any assistance that you would or would like to have had? If so, what would that be?
Is there any language you would like to avoid due to the way it would make you feel? If so, what words? You do not have to explain those words.
If you had access to it, would you participate in a forum / chat type discussion for parents who either need help or would like to help? If so, how would you like that to be portrayed in an app / website?
Would you be interested in having a forum based app that would allow you to be able to give and trade baby / child items that would no longer be of use to you or another parent?
After going back over the interviews, I managed to consolidate the information down to a few key pain points.
1
Resources are too spread out.
2
Information is convoluted nor is it easily found.
3
Hard to find support groups for single parents or parents of low-income households.
Persona
In order to help me better understand and create an app for the users I made a persona to think through when I am dealing with troubles and what should go into the app.
Trish
Age: 21
Education: Highschool
Hometown: Owasso
Family: Single 1 child
Occupation: cashier
Tish recently had a child, and is currently working two jobs. She has been having a rough time dealing with being a single mom as well as trying to find resources to take care of her child.
Going through a hypothetical scenario for the app, I was able to mitigate some of the pain points that were not brought up in the initial interviews.
Using various programs, I was able to come up with a low fidelity design to let users test what they did or did not like about it.
After a few iterations of the mock up I found one that the users could agree on.
After I found the design that the users would like I started adding in some of the actual resources that I found during my initial research.
I also included the ability to direct talk directly to people or in a forum to help build the community.
After the mockups were completer I began to string the frames together. Using Figma, I linked the buttons I made to the corresponding pages.
Should this app be made I believe this could help small and large communities thrive. The ability for single and low-income households to be able to get the assistance they need would help them make a better life for themselves thus raising the entire community.
Having to step out of my comfort zone and having to ask people hard questions made me realize that doing the initial research and usability studies are extremely important. had I not done those things I would not have been able to eliminate some of the problems the users are having.