Culturally Grounded Wellness App for Postpartum Mothers
For our master's capstone at Georgia Tech, we designed a holistic wellness app to support low-SES postpartum mothers by centering culturally grounded, community-based features that promote mental wellness, self-advocacy, and accessible care.
Timeline
Sep 2024 - Apr 2025 (8 months)
My Role
Product designer (UX research, UX design, prototyping, evaluation)
Team
1 designer (me), 2 researchers (Swathi Ram, Leesan Sun)
01 / Project Overview
Postpartum mothers in marginalized communities face serious wellness challenges, but existing systems often fail to listen and provide culturally connected care.
02 / Background & Motivation
To understand the problem, we examined the maternal health landscape for postpartum mothers from low socioeconomic status (SES) and minoritized backgrounds.
What specific challenges does this user group face, and why are existing systems falling short? Here’s what we found:
Disparities in Health Outcomes
Around 1 in 7 women experience postpartum depression (PPD), with mothers from low-income backgrounds facing higher risks of PPD and poor health outcomes. Financial strain, inadequate support, and chronic stressors all add to their vulnerability.
Systemic Barriers for Black Mothers
Black mothers face compounded challenges shaped by systemic barriers, including medical dismissal, cultural disconnects in care, and a legacy of reproductive harm. These experiences often lead to deep gaps in trust and access to treatment.
Gaps in the Continuity of Care
For many, care is fragmented and hard to access, with structural barriers such as limited providers, transportation issues, and reliance on Medicaid creating gaps in support.
Our findings led us to our core research question:
How might we better support the wellness needs of postpartum mothers in socioeconomically vulnerable groups?
03 / Final Solution
We designed a holistic health app that helps postpartum mothers navigate emotional challenges, access community support, and make informed decisions through culturally grounded guidance.
Meadow offers three flows that are designed to meet postpartum mothers where they are. It includes a guided check-in that encourages emotional awareness, a story-sharing space that fosters community connection, a partner integration tool for task delegation and support, and a virtual doula offering personalized, culturally relevant guidance. Together, these features address critical gaps in traditional postpartum support systems while honoring the lived experiences of low SES and minoritized mothers.
Mood Flow
Feature 1:
Mindful Check-in
Problem Addressed: The "superwoman persona" framework affecting Black women from low SES backgrounds, characterized by perceived obligations to project strength, resist vulnerability, and succeed despite limited resources, leading to under-utilization of mental health services.
Solution: A guided check-in that enables users to identify patterns in their thinking and pinpoint what is causing negative or positive stimuli. Users indicate their general feeling, specify the particular emotions, and respond to contextual reflection prompts.
Key Impact: Facilitates deeper emotional self-awareness and pattern recognition to support mental health advocacy.
Feature 2:
Community Sharing
Problem Addressed: Social isolation and lack of emotional support during vulnerable postpartum periods, particularly among underserved communities.
Solution: A story-sharing feature where users' written experiences transform into interactive dandelion visualizations, creating a digital community garden that serves as a safe space for mutual connection.
Key Impact: Fosters belonging and emotional reassurance through shared experiences and peer support.
Task Flow
Feature:
Delegation & Partner Integration
Problem Addressed: Difficulty requesting help during postpartum recovery due to isolation, vulnerability, and varying comfort levels with asking for support, despite family and friends wanting to help but not knowing how.
Solution: A partner integration system that allows users to create "wishes," aka delegated tasks, with automated suggestions for additional support actions and facilitated communication options.
Key Impact: Reduces barriers to help-seeking through low-effort, actionable support requests and enhanced collaboration.
Doula Flow
Feature:
Knowledge Base & Conversational Assistant
Problem Addressed: Limited access to culturally relevant doula care among low-income, diverse women, despite research showing significantly better health outcomes when doula support is available.
Solution: A conversational assistant and knowledge base offering verified postpartum wellness articles and personalized guidance through an accessible virtual doula character.
Key Impact: Democratizes access to doula expertise and promotes self-advocacy through culturally centered, evidence-based support.
04 / Research Methodology
We implemented the Double Diamond model to ensure a user-centered approach from problem identification through solution delivery.
Research
Discover → Define
To explore our problem space, we conducted a literature review, qualitative data analysis, competitive analysis, and expert interviews to build a contextual understanding of our users' needs.
Design
Develop → Deliver
As a summary of our findings, we synthesized
→ user needs and motivations → design requirements → ideation activities → design implications
Phase 1: Discover
1. Literature Review
2. Qualitative Data Analysis
To gain insight into the lived experiences of postpartum mothers beyond academic literature, we analyzed both primary and secondary accounts shared on Reddit. Using an inductive coding approach, we identified the recurring themes:
Importance of a Doula
Willingness to Ask for Support
Need for Self-Advocacy
Personal Advice
3. Competitive Analysis
4. Expert Interviews
For our last research method, we conducted 2 semi-structured interviews with 3 subject matter experts to bridge our research findings with expert knowledge. These interviews helped us better understand how to design effective behavioral health interventions, conduct informed and inclusive user research, and identify effective features and engagement opportunities for our solution.
We spoke with two clinician-researchers at a major Atlanta hospital, and a psychologist who leads a digital health startup focused on pediatric mental health in low-SES populations. Our goal was to understand how technology can be leveraged to support mental and physical wellness, and how to design for vulnerable populations while accounting for cultural nuance, medical mistrust, and practical constraints. We gained several critical insights:
04 / Research Synthesis
Phase 2: Define
Summary of findings → user needs and motivations → design requirements → ideation activities → design implications
User Persona
Design Requirements & Implications
05 / Design
Design
Prevalence & Impact of PPD
~1 in 7 women experience postpartum depression (PPD), a condition that can adversely affect both the mother and child.
Socioeconomic Barriers to Care
Mothers from low-income backgrounds face higher risks of postpartum depression and poor health outcomes. For many, care is fragmented and hard to access, with structural barriers such as limited providers, transportation issues, and reliance on Medicaid creating gaps in support.
Disparities in Maternal Health Outcomes
Black mothers experience additional challenges shaped by systemic barriers and cultural disconnects in care. Their concerns are more likely to be dismissed or misunderstood, resulting in critical gaps in trust and treatment.