Raelynn O'Leary and Ashley Deal’s Intro to Interaction Design class at Carnegie Mellon's School of Design collaborates each year with members of the converge team to design mobile applications in the FemTech space as part of their Master of Arts in Design program.
These applications were so impressive, CONVERGE wanted to highlight their achievements and ability to create comprehensive mobile contraceptive education platforms.
In Spring of 2021, students worked with Dr. Sonya Borrero and CONVERGE to design mobile applications to address contraceptive use. Students were given the following prompt:
Design a mobile application that allows people of any gender, in relationships or single, to learn about, compare, and choose from among available birth control methods. Utilizing the structures and work by FemTech, and working with stakeholders of reproductive age who were considering or had considered birth-control decisions, students were able to design concepts for mobile applications addressing various needs and populations. Birth Control Learning Application
- Birth Control Learning App
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Our design is a mobile experience which empowers individuals, particularly young adults, to make their own choices about birth control through user-defined exploration.
This application focuses on:
- Empathy for young adults and others who are new to birth control
- Empowerment for individuals to explore on their own terms and feel confidence in and control over the flow of information
- Clarity in access to a substantial amount of information on birth control methods, including uses beyond contraception
Design Team: Ivar Dameron, Mica Harrison Loosemore, Christina Ip, and Matt Muenzer
- DownUnder
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This birth control decision aid empowers users to learn and reflect about birth control methods through multiple channels. This mobile application focused on community-minded users with left-of-center view on reproductive issues and enables these users to engage with resources, organizations, and clinics in the reproductive health space.
Guiding Principles:
- Community-minded, interested in progressive ideas
- Flexible for various backgrounds
- Emphasis on personal stories and current contexts
- Focus on curated content
Design Team: Laura Pedrosa, William Rutter, and Jonah Conlin
- Ask Shirley
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This application explored contraception through compassionate conversation and utilizes natural language understanding, machine learning, and natural language generation to make the application generate appropriate responses to the user.
Values:
- Compassion
- Friendly and noninvasive
- Makes no assumptions about gender, values, or life situation
- Empowerment
- Users have control over when & how they access resources and provide personal informationDesign Team: Yi Shang, Sian Sheu, and Joe Nangle
- Controlling my Birth Control
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This birth control application utilizes user choice to develop axes graphs that display the interests of the user. The user will select two attributes which will become a visual x- and y- graph of the methods. This will have more preferred methods according to the two chosen attributes appear in the top right corner (greater in contrast) and the least preferred methods appear in the lower left corner) lowest in contrast.
Guiding Principles:
- Respecting privacy
- Promoting Intimacy
- Sorting based on personal priorities
- Providing a summary of interactions
- SimplicityDesign Team: Melissa Cagan, Chen-Yu Chiu, and Taery Kim
The MA cohort in the Spring of 2022 worked with Dr. Liz Krans and Tamar Krishnamurti, PhD to design a simple mobile application to deliver a substance use screener for pregnant women. The screener is intended to be administered on a tablet in a healthcare clinic or on a client’s phone prior to their first pregnancy visit to the OBGYN. Students aimed to provide an experience that was supportive, non judgemental, and that encouraged disclosure.
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Tool for comfortable and informed disclosure
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This tool provides a mobile experience for pregnant women to reflect on their experiences with substance use and make informed decisions about sharing this with their doctors before the first OBGYN appointment. Our goal was to make users feel comfortable answering substance use related questions, reflect on and be conscious about their choices in regards to substance use, and understand the benefits and consequences of disclosing this information.Design Team: Andrew Sim and Shelley
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Space for awareness and reflection
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We designed a straightforward and neutral substance use questionnaire that focuses on pregnant women’s overall wellbeing and feelings. Rather than soliciting detailed information, we created a space for awareness and reflection, so that pregnant women could resurface existing thoughts and questions. Our tool promotes disclosure, while providing a useful experience regardless of how a patient responds or their substance use status.
Design Team: Ann Li and Iris Cai
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Non-judgemental safe space
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Our tool creates a non-judgmental, educational and safe space to encourage informed disclosure of substance use. In the tool, Penny becomes an encouraging guide through the consumption and health benefits that are experienced during pregnancy. She seeks to build trust and connection, reduce the stigma and fear surrounding substance use, and articulate reasons to share.
Design Team: Carol Auh and Shreya Sharma
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Wellness check
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Our tool provides a wellness check for pregnant women, allowing them to check in about their past and current experiences with substance use, mental health, and sexual harassment or domestic violence. It takes into consideration the interconnectedness of these experiences and screens for them all in a way that serves to be a supportive and direct conversation starter.Design Team: Irene Yang and Nina Gao
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Self-reflection tool
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We designed a self-reflection tool to build trust and encourage conversations related to substance use in pregnancy. Our intention was to create a supportive, calming experience, and provide a tool for individuals to interact with throughout pregnancy, providing routine reflection on substance use.
Design Team: Elizabeth McDonough and Tsai-ling Lei
The charge for the MA students in 2023 was to develop a simple mobile tool to help people with cystic fibrosis (CF) make informed and values-concordant decisions related to breastfeeding. They worked with Dr. Traci Kazmerski and Olivia Stransky who served as the client and subject matter experts, and evaluated their concepts with women with CF who were making or who had made reproductive health decisions.
- OurChoiceCF
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OurChoiceCF helps people with CF feel better about their baby feeding decision. Built on evidence-based decision-making frameworks, the tool helps users reflect and connect with someone close, and find opportunities to discuss their values. It also helps pairs set healthy boundaries and plan for baby care.
Design Team: Alexis Morrell and Bhavyta Chauhan
- MyPlanCF
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MyPlanCF is an educational tool that provides information on infant feeding options and CF-specific concerns. For new moms or those considering starting a family, MyPlanCF will provides strategies and tools to for managing CF as it relates to family planning.
Design Team: Annie Heyward and Maggie Hung
- inHera
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The inHera mobile app will help potential, expecting, and new moms with CF gain confidence in feeding their newborn children. It provides sufficient, organized, and up-to-date professional information about feeding newborn children for people with CF, allowing moms and caregivers to navigate the resources efficiently with minimum pressure.
Design Team: Freya Yang and Rashel Li
- BabyFeedingCF
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BabyFeedingCF is an educational aid for physicians to interact with patients who seek advice about breastfeeding.
Additionally, it can assist women with CF in making informed decisions by providing a comprehensive understanding of the factors they need to consider and allowing them to reflect on their personal preferences.
Users can leverage the app to communicate with their physicians and partners.
Design Team: Elizabeth Sokolich and Xiaotong Yu
- NewParent CF
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NewParent CF Helps women with CF decide on the feeding method for their babyby providing them with curated, relevant information that they can save, categorize and markup to create a personalized summary list.
Design Team: Audrey Reiley and Milena Phan