bump APP
Developing an app for maternal mental health education
Team
Project coordinator, frontend/backend developers, healthcare professionals, patient representatives
#uxresearch
overview
aim
Design a patient-centered informational tool to accelerate early detection and treatment of maternal depression, balancing clinical accuracy with an intuitive, empathetic user experience.
core contributions
1. Led end-to-end UX research from discovery to MVP validation
2. Strategically translated user needs into actionable product requirements
3. Built a scalable, modular content system for future expansion
4. Delivered insights that improved product clarity, trust, accessibility
strategy and goals
1. Uncover real informational needs and behaviors through mixed-methods research
2. Prioritize high-value, high-impact features to maximize user benefit
3. Co-create a trust-building experience through design and content
4. Validate MVP effectiveness through rigorous, user-centered testing
core contributions
Mental health support for pregnant and postpartum women was fragmented, inconsistent, and often inaccessible, creating barriers to early intervention.
The project needed a trusted, easy-to-use solution that could:
1. Deliver reliable, action-oriented information
2. Empower users to self-identify symptoms and seek help
3. Serve diverse needs across literacy levels, languages, and cultural backgrounds
process
kickoff & alignment
● Clarified project vision, success criteria, and stakeholder expectations
● Mapped user segments and recruitment strategy
Strategic Impact
Set a clear shared vision early, ensuring research outputs would be directly actionable for design and dev teams.
exploratory survey (n = 148)
● Identified preferred information formats and barriers to access
● Uncovered demographic-specific needs (low SES, language support)
Key Outcomes
● Digital-first formats preferred, but paper fallback required
● Trust, readability, and accessibility were top concerns
● Clear demand for symptom tracking and community features
Business Impact
Prioritized feature development on critical user needs, minimizing development of low-value features.
Participant preferences for information format.
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Affinity map for key survey outcomes regarding pain points and gaps in current resources.
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stakeholder interviews (n = 15)
● Deep-dive interviews with women, midwives, and psychologists
● Mapped user journeys, barriers to help-seeking, and emotional triggers
Deliverables
● Detailed personas
● Pain-point driven journey maps
Strategic Impact
Informed content tone, feature focus, and critical trust-building touchpoints.
Personas were created representing interview subjects. We included a stress case, which is especially important in healthcare.
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For each persona, a journey map was created to break down their experiences throughout their information seeking process.
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interaction scan
● Rapid comparative analysis of 100+ existing tools
● Identified UX/UI best practices and critical content gaps
Business Impact
Brought cross-sector innovation to healthcare design, ensuring BUMP offered a unique, value driven experience.
feature ideation & prioritization
● Facilitated co-design workshops to brainstorm and cluster features
● Applied impact/effort matrix to refine MVP scope
Prioritized MVP Features
● Symptom tracking
● Personalized educational content
● Multilingual and accessible UI/UX
● Notes, bookmarking, progress tracking
Business Impact
Focused resources on the highest user and clinical value, reducing scope creep and development costs.
To decide on the features to integrate into an MVP prototype, I sketched various ideas in collaboration with the research team for how the main features and flows could be developed.
Feedback was gathered from end-user representatives to inform further prioritization and design.
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content analysis & categorization
● Audited, mapped, and curated trustworthy mental health information
● Created adaptive content branches for different maternity experiences
Strategic Impact
Built a modular, scalable content system, future-proofing the app for growth and updates without major redesigns.
content development
● Collaborated with healthcare professionals and patients
● Optimized language for clarity, trust, actionability, and inclusivity
Business Impact
Improved comprehension and credibility, supporting higher engagement and reducing liability risks.
prototype development
● Developed low- and high-fidelity prototypes
● Organized resources based on user needs, not institutional silos
● Prioritized UX for high accessibility (low literacy, multilingual readiness)
Key Innovations
● Dynamic symptom tracking dashboard
● Contextual help resources tailored to emotional states
● Microcopy to encourage engagement and reduce stigma
Strategic Impact
Increased likelihood of sustained user engagement and behavior change, critical for health outcomes and study success.
results
results & outcomes
● Uncovered critical user needs early through a rigorous mixed-methods approach
● Delivered an MVP prototype ready for pilot testing within tight academic timelines
● Streamlined MVP feature set to maximize user value and minimize development waste
● Built user trust through co-designed content, UI, and interactions
● Created a future-proof information architecture ready for multilingual, adaptive expansion
reflections
By embedding participatory UX research at the heart of BUMP, we ensured the product was not just usable, but meaningful, scalable, and trusted. Our outcome-driven, insight-led approach delivered immediate value to users, and strategic foundations for the research group’s long-term vision.