Why new Parents?

Early in our process we brainstormed possible domains. Once a domain was found, we started the succeeding design process by informing ourselves through primary and secondary research.

Our design domain

After several iterations, we decided to narrow down our research and design to focus on a task-outsourcing platform within the shared economy industry. We took inspiration from some well established apps including task-rabbit and instacart which helped direct us in the right path.

The user we initially intended to design for were groups who struggle with independence and require assistance with carrying out everyday activities. We later narrowed this down further to focus on new parents requiring frequent help with their child.

Case study - Taskrabbit

In order to get insights on our design domain, we conducted a case study on an app with similar goals, Taskrabbit. Taskrabbit allows consumers to find immediate help with everyday tasks, including cleaning, moving, delivery and handyman work.

It provides service to people who are short on time or unable to perform tasks themselves, and are comfortable with the idea of outsourcing small tasks.

It also caters to individuals living in cities, who are looking for extra income in a manner that is flexible, independent and meaningful to the community.

Combining primary and secondary research

From conducting primary and secondary user research on several new parents, we gathered some useful data that helped us identify common user activities, goals and challenges, and establish some design opportunities for our app.

Activities: Most parents were looking for nannies for their newborns, they were interested in providing employment and were comfortable using digital means to interact with others.

Goals: Their main goal was to find trustworthy individuals to take-care of newborns when they were occupied.

Challenges: Were mainly related to sleep and time management, finding a trustworthy nanny at the last minute and searching for professional care.

Opportunities: We decided to focus on the most potential: New parents, Single parents and working parents. Allow parents to customize the services they require based on their needs/schedule/ preferences. We also wanted to provide relief to parents from the constant pressure of taking care of a newborn.