New moms often don't know where to look for advice during their pregnancy or the birth of their child and may not be aware of helpful resources. While many turn to family and friends for guidance, a professional opinion can provide personalized, crucial information as well as up-to-date industry solutions. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, traditional in-person appointments have been limited and less accessible which creates the need for an online platform.

In order to provide necessary expertise to new moms, SimpliFed connects new moms with IBCLCs who can provide support and guidance during preganancy and the first months of the child's life. In addition, SimpliFed is a virtual platform, making its service accessible to new moms who are often on the go, whenever and wherever.

• Implement designs and prototype for On-Demand booking feature

• Conduct user research to understand the needs of our target audience, new moms

• Conduct usability testing to find any pain-points with the current interface of the platform

• Improve the user experience of the site to increase customer engagement

• How many kids do you have and how old are they?

• Tell me about your feeding experience when they were newborns.

• How do you decide which feeding options to choose?

• Did you encounter any challenges with feeding your babies? If so, what were the top challenges and what did you do to overcome them?

• What did you do (if anything) during pregnancy to prepare for when your babies were born surrounding infant feeding?

• Did you speak with anyone about those decisions?

• Which sources did you pay attention to and why?

• Which sources did you use and which sources did you sources on a recurring basis?

• Why did you continuously go back to that source?

• Where do you typically go to learn about new information when they were babies?

• What suggestions would you give other new moms that you wish you had known?

• Can you introduce me to 1-2 other people to interview?

• Breastfeeding is preferred but formula may be necessary due to certain medical conditions (acid reflux, insufficient glandular tissue, tongue tie, colic etc.)

• Talked to family members and friends

• Buying breastfeeding pillows and pumps

• Read online sources and books

• Took birthing classes

• Talked to lactation consultant and doctor

• Online reviews

• The Science of Mom

• The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

• Babycenter.com

• What to Expect When You’re Expecting

• Facebook Mom Group Chats

• Not enough supply

• Outdated solutions to lactation problems

• Not having help in the wee hours of the night

• Outdated industry solutions to breastfeeding (formula, pumps etc.)

• Physical discomfort

• Unfamiliar lifestyle and clothing

• Difficulty maintaining consistency and collectedness throughout the process

• What is the first thing that catches your eye?

• What is the first thing you read on the website? From that, what do you understand about us?

• Show me how you sign up for an appointment. As you do this, could you speak out loud your steps?

• Read through the appointment options and choose one. Why did you choose that one? Walk me through how you sign up for that type of appointment. As you do this, could you speak out loud your steps?

• What are IBCLCs? Where can you find information about them?

• If you were interested in becoming a provider at SimpliFed, how would you find a place to sign up to work with SimpliFed?

• You want to find out information about your upcoming appointment. How will you contact us? Walk me through how you find this information.

• If you wanted to find us on social media, how would you find us through this page?

• Any other feedback or observations surrounding our site?

• How long is it taking the tester to do said action?

• How many questions do they ask us while navigating?

• Do they find themselves scrolling back and forth too often?

• How long did they take to pick an option from the scheduling page?

• Mailing list stands out - could be distracting

• Users wondered if they had to sign up to the mailin list before using the site

• Users would like to know more information about the IBCLCs they are signing up for before they actually sign up in Simple Practice on the Schedule Page

• Users are presented with all options once they already chose the type of appointment they want which could be confusing

• Some users prefer email over a contact form

• Social media and email should be included on the contact page

• Users wondered why they had to put their card information in if they aren’t being charged

• Users wanted more information about how to get reimbursements from insurance

Based on the user research and usability testing, my team and I made several changes to improve the user experience of the site. A drop-dwon menu with subpages was added to improve the SEO of the site. In addition, four pages were redesigned: Schedule, Telelactation, Breastfeeding Complications, and Breastfeeding Support.

Pain-point #1 - Lack of text information when the displayed to the user when he/she first opens the page

In addition to creating solutions to the two pain-points listed above, my team and I added a fourth schedule type option to implement an On-Demand calling feature that will be available shortly. I designed different user flows, placing the call to action in two different locations. In the first flow, the user is presented with two options on the homepage: Schedule an Appointment or Talk to a Consultant. In the second flow, the user is not presented with the option to talk to a consultant on demand until he/she clicks on the Schedule an Appointment page. Ultimately, my team and I decided to go with the second flow because in this flow, the user must view all available options before making a decision. This provides the user with more information and prevents them from potenitally missing an option that works better for them.

In the final implementation of the schedule page, we decreased the height of the banner decreased (which becomes consistent across all pages) in order to provide more context for the user. In addition, we added an Available Schedule Options header which provides more details about the content of the page for the user.

We decided to go with the second option with the four boxes displayed vertically in order to demonstrate equality between all the options. In our usability testing, we found that user were confused about why there were three separate buttons that lead to the same pop-up box appearing on the screen once clicked on. The request appointment button applies to the three types of appointments because of the pop-up box in Simple Practice, so we decided to only include one button instead of three separate buttons leading to the same link to avoid confusion for the user.

In our usability testing, we found that users wanted more information about the people they are signing up for appointments with on the Schedule page so we included a section called Our IBCLCs to help users understand who they will be talking to.

Pain-point #1 - In the design of this page, the text is center-aligned which decreases reability for the user.

Pain-point #2 - In addition, the information in the Why Should I use telelactation section is difficult to read as there is too much information creating an overwhelming experience for the user. Because the information is stacked in rows, this signfies that some sections are more important than others.

In the final implementation, the banner added for consistency with other pages and text is left-aligned to increase readability.

In the redesign of the Why Should I Use Telelactation Section, several changes were made to improve the readability of the text. We decided to use columns instead of rows to signify equality across all sub-sections and decrease the width of the text across the page. In addition, we created titles to emphasize key points of each box.

In the original design of the page, the text is center aligned and the images too large which could be jarring for users.

In the common questions section, the questions are left aligned and responses are right-aligned which could be confusing for the user.

In the final implementation of this page, the banner is added for consistency with other pages and the graphics are smaller. Text is left-aligned to increase readability.

Finally, the text in the common questions section is all left-aligned.

Following the same usability principles as the other pages employ, the breastfeeding support page was modified.

Over the course of August 15th to December 15th, 2020 the following metrics were recorded.

• 1.88k users

• 2.64k sessions

• 1.85k new users

• Avg session duration: 1:34

• Bounce rate: 36.44%

• Pageviews: 7.2k

• Pages/Session: 2.73

• Number of Sessions per User: 1.4

I enjoyed working collaboratively with the design and development teams as well as Andrea and the rest of the SimpliFed team to help enhance the site. Reflecting on my research, I think that the usability testing was the most useful part of the research, resulting in actionables I could take to improve the site. However, understanding the users' motivations, desires and challenges was essential in thinking about the product vision and the purpose of the On-Demand calling feature. I think that I could have spent more time in understanding the users and brainstorming other potential features to improve their experience on the site.

In terms of the user interface designs, I think much progress was made in improving the readability and making content more accessible to the users, as indicated by the user research. As a product management intern, I think I should have investigated metrics more, specifically tracking and analyzing metrics relating to calls to action on the page such as when the user clicks on a button or signs up for an appointment, as those metrics would be more telling of our progress and what needs improvement. Overall, my favorite part of the experience was acting as the intermediary between the design and development teams and planning our goals and course of action to achieve them. I'm excited to see how SimpliFed evolves in the future!