MamaMingle
MILESTONE 2
INSPIRATION
For this milestone, our group was inspired by Akunyili Crosby’s piece Still You Bloom in the Land of No Gardens. Tasked with creating a prototype to meet one of the pictured people’s needs, we were struck by the mother’s relaxed expression amidst surroundings that were simple yet teeming with life, rife with nature and small, artful details. The setting of the piece is the artist’s native Nigeria, and given that themes such as racism, oppression, and discrimination are prominent in her work, we started thinking about motherhood, depicted in Still You Bloom, in the context of a larger environment that may offer limited resources to mothers from marginalized communities, in poverty, and/or dealing with the physical or mental health issues that often affect new mothers. This was how we interpreted the piece: we wanted to create something that would help new mothers bloom and thrive “in the land of no gardens.”
INSPIRATION
For this milestone, our group was inspired by Akunyili Crosby’s piece Still You Bloom in the Land of No Gardens. Tasked with creating a prototype to meet one of the pictured people’s needs, we were struck by the mother’s relaxed expression amidst surroundings that were simple yet teeming with life, rife with nature and small, artful details. The setting of the piece is the artist’s native Nigeria, and given that themes such as racism, oppression, and discrimination are prominent in her work, we started thinking about motherhood, depicted in Still You Bloom, in the context of a larger environment that may offer limited resources to mothers from marginalized communities, in poverty, and/or dealing with the physical or mental health issues that often affect new mothers. This was how we interpreted the piece: we wanted to create something that would help new mothers bloom and thrive “in the land of no gardens.”
INSPIRATION
For this milestone, our group was inspired by Akunyili Crosby’s piece Still You Bloom in the Land of No Gardens. Tasked with creating a prototype to meet one of the pictured people’s needs, we were struck by the mother’s relaxed expression amidst surroundings that were simple yet teeming with life, rife with nature and small, artful details. The setting of the piece is the artist’s native Nigeria, and given that themes such as racism, oppression, and discrimination are prominent in her work, we started thinking about motherhood, depicted in Still You Bloom, in the context of a larger environment that may offer limited resources to mothers from marginalized communities, in poverty, and/or dealing with the physical or mental health issues that often affect new mothers. This was how we interpreted the piece: we wanted to create something that would help new mothers bloom and thrive “in the land of no gardens.”
INSPIRATION
For this milestone, our group was inspired by Akunyili Crosby’s piece Still You Bloom in the Land of No Gardens. Tasked with creating a prototype to meet one of the pictured people’s needs, we were struck by the mother’s relaxed expression amidst surroundings that were simple yet teeming with life, rife with nature and small, artful details. The setting of the piece is the artist’s native Nigeria, and given that themes such as racism, oppression, and discrimination are prominent in her work, we started thinking about motherhood, depicted in Still You Bloom, in the context of a larger environment that may offer limited resources to mothers from marginalized communities, in poverty, and/or dealing with the physical or mental health issues that often affect new mothers. This was how we interpreted the piece: we wanted to create something that would help new mothers bloom and thrive “in the land of no gardens.”
Image: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Still You Bloom in This Land of No Gardens, 2021 Acrylic, transfers, colour pencil and collage on paper. 243.84 x 274.32 cm, 96 x 108 in © Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner
This intimate exhibition (from 23 July 2022) presents four new works by Akunyili Crosby. Still You Bloom in this Land of No Gardens, the largest work in the show, depicts the artist holding her young child on the outdoor terrace of her home, enveloped by lush plants and vines.
IDEATION
IDEATION
From here, we turned our attention to prototyping, and with some further research, we found ample evidence that an important unmet need among new mothers is tools for social support, especially amidst taxing challenges in the aftermath of childbirth, when the risk of social isolation is high. One ethnographic study of mothers found that “the key problem emphasized by almost every mother… was how difficult it was to find community groups” (Gibson & Hanson 2013, p. 317). Another study found that new mothers dealing with mental health challenges said they would appreciate an app that simply sent “friendly, supportive reminders to care or take time for themselves and their own wellbeing” (Lupton, 2020, p. 395). As such, we wanted to build our prototype around a key element of a thriving environment for motherhood: community. From here, the idea for MamaMingle was born.
MamaMingle has four main pages: Home, Information, Community, and Products.
From here, we turned our attention to prototyping, and with some further research, we found ample evidence that an important unmet need among new mothers is tools for social support, especially amidst taxing challenges in the aftermath of childbirth, when the risk of social isolation is high. One ethnographic study of mothers found that “the key problem emphasized by almost every mother… was how difficult it was to find community groups” (Gibson & Hanson 2013, p. 317). Another study found that new mothers dealing with mental health challenges said they would appreciate an app that simply sent “friendly, supportive reminders to care or take time for themselves and their own wellbeing” (Lupton, 2020, p. 395). As such, we wanted to build our prototype around a key element of a thriving environment for motherhood: community. From here, the idea for MamaMingle was born.
MamaMingle has four main pages: Home, Information, Community, and Products.
From here, we turned our attention to prototyping, and with some further research, we found ample evidence that an important unmet need among new mothers is tools for social support, especially amidst taxing challenges in the aftermath of childbirth, when the risk of social isolation is high. One ethnographic study of mothers found that “the key problem emphasized by almost every mother… was how difficult it was to find community groups” (Gibson & Hanson 2013, p. 317). Another study found that new mothers dealing with mental health challenges said they would appreciate an app that simply sent “friendly, supportive reminders to care or take time for themselves and their own wellbeing” (Lupton, 2020, p. 395). As such, we wanted to build our prototype around a key element of a thriving environment for motherhood: community. From here, the idea for MamaMingle was born.
A personal guide for new mothers for self-tracking and social support amidst the taxing challenges during pregnancy and after childbirth.
MamaMingle's navigation consists of four main features: Home, Information, Community, and Products.
NAVIGATION
NAVIGATION
Home Page
The Home Page is focused on the new mother’s unique needs both during and after pregnancy, helping her keep track of a variety of factors based on her own progression through pregnancy and postpartum.
Information Page
The Information Page provides resources that are also customized to the mother’s unique needs and issues she may be facing due to a lack of support or resources. This page provides resources such as blogs, podcasts, videos, and infographics, and can adapt to the mother’s searches and interests.
Ideation
Ideation
Community Page
The Community Page is, we feel, the heart of the app. Mothers can join groups that align with their own experiences and support needs. Through these groups, they can ask and answer questions, seek support, and build their community. They can search for new groups or topics by using filters or browsing through featured options.
Products Page
The Products Page features products that align with needs identified by the new mother throughout her app experience. She will be able to see reviews and commentary from other mothers in her groups and community. Drawing inspiration from Akunyili Crosby’s piece, we envision the app to feature products from Black-owned and environmentally friendly brands.
Individually drawn Pen-Paper Sketches after first brainstorming session
In our first virtual brainstorming session, we discussed our ideas and after settling on one, we each created individual sketches with the features we felt the screen should have.
Individually drawn Pen-Paper Sketches after first brainstorming session
In our first virtual brainstorming session, we discussed our ideas and after settling on one, we each created individual sketches with the features we felt the screen should have.
White Board Sketches after another group session
Then, as a group, we decided which features to include in our digital artifact by selecting some of the best ones from each of our individual sketches.
White Board Sketches after another group session
Then, as a group, we decided which features to include in our digital artifact by selecting some of the best ones from each of our individual sketches.
Hand Drawn Lofi Wireframes
After deciding on the final features and necessary screens, we divided the screens among ourselves to produce hand-drawn low-fidelity wireframes.
Hand Drawn Lofi Wireframes
After deciding on the final features and necessary screens, we divided the screens among ourselves to produce hand-drawn low-fidelity wireframes.
LOW FIDELITY FIGMA WIREFRAMES
Individually drawn Pen-Paper Sketches after first brainstorming session
In our first virtual brainstorming session, we discussed our ideas and after settling on one, we each created individual sketches with the features we felt the screen should have.
White Board Sketches after another group session
Then, as a group, we decided which features to include in our digital artifact by selecting some of the best ones from each of our individual sketches.
Hand Drawn Lofi Wireframes
After deciding on the final features and necessary screens, we divided the screens among ourselves to produce hand-drawn low-fidelity wireframes.
Onboarding and Login/Signup
Home
Information
Onboarding and Login/Signup
REFERENCES
Gibson, L. and Hanson, V. (2013). Digital motherhood: how does technology help new mothers? Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, p. 313-322.
Lupton, D. (2020). Caring dataveillance: Women’s use of apps to monitor pregnancy and children. In L. Green, D. Holloway, K. Stevenson, L. Haddon, & T. Leaver (Eds.), The Routledge companion to digital media and children (pp. 393-402). Routledge.
MamaMingle
MILESTONE 2
REFERENCES
Gibson, L. and Hanson, V. (2013). Digital motherhood: how does technology help new mothers? Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, p. 313-322.
Lupton, D. (2020). Caring dataveillance: Women’s use of apps to monitor pregnancy and children. In L. Green, D. Holloway, K. Stevenson, L. Haddon, & T. Leaver (Eds.), The Routledge companion to digital media and children (pp. 393-402). Routledge.
FIGMA FILE
View
Image: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Still You Bloom in This Land of No Gardens, 2021 Acrylic, transfers, colour pencil and collage on paper. 243.84 x 274.32 cm, 96 x 108 in © Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner
This intimate exhibition (from 23 July 2022) presents four new works by Akunyili Crosby. Still You Bloom in this Land of No Gardens, the largest work in the show, depicts the artist holding her young child on the outdoor terrace of her home, enveloped by lush plants and vines.
LOW FIDELITY FIGMA WIREFRAMES
Finally, after creating hand-drawn wireframes, we then used Figma Software to build low-fidelity screens which could be seen below:
LOW FIDELITY FIGMA WIREFRAMES