The fertility space rarely accounts for LGBTQ+ family building. Support groups/forums come in the form of Facebook groups, invite-only community groups, or paid support groups. Informational resources are scattered across the internet and require deep digging to acquire. Nearly all fertility apps are heterocentric and exclusionary to LGBTQ+ people. There's currently no app in existence that specifically addresses family building in the LGBTQ+ community.
After a mix of user interviews and secondary research, the common themes and pain points I found within this space are best represented in three pillars:
Assisted Reproduction is unaffordable for the LGBTQ+ community due to restrictive and discriminatory insurance policies.
Most LGBTQ+ people rely on their family and friends for information, resources and support.
There are no clear guidelines on how long family building takes or what the process entails.
Storyboarding enabled me to contextualize features that were most vital based on the three-pillar problem. After fleshing out a few different scenarios, it was clear that the high-level features should provide tools for financial planning as well as support building connections within the community.
Based on user insights and research I'd gathered up until this point, the sitemap needed to focus on a structure that supported the high-level features. Areas highlighted in red indicate the priority features that I would take forward in this design sprint and what screens need to be fleshed out.
A few questions I asked myself during this process:
- Which screens are the most important?
- What's most helpful to people using this app?
- Which sections should have priority access on the navigation bar?
After creating the sitemap, I developed task flow diagrams to explore how users might complete a task and what actions need to be made available.
Explorations of the initial wireframes brought an interesting discussion about consolidating the "Forums" and "Members" section as some argued it would streamline the browsable content and eliminate two additional links. After laying out what a combined section could look like, it became clear that even if the two sections were combined, users would still have to navigate to a separate page if they wanted to see a full list of members. The end decision was to keep the sections separate.
I wanted the identity to have multiple associations (queerness & fertility/family/kids). The poppy pastels provide a friendly/non-intimidating vibe and are also representative of the LGBTQ+ community. The dots above the letterforms reflect "family" in many forms and the "Q" can be interpreted as a magnifying glass which has many associations such as discovery and research.
It was exciting to see the branding and wireframes coming together. The cards under "Resources" and "Forums" needed some differentiation in order to identify and organize the content. As a solution, icons and categories were added to the cards under "Resources" to provide more context for users. Metadata was added to the cards under "Forums" to distinguish between categories and member posts.
The prototype was created in Figma and a remote usability test was set up on the Maze platform. The link was shared with a Queer parenting support group as well as with my previous interviewees. Overall, the usability test yielded 16 participants.
Goals
• Can users successfully find members?
• Can users easily connect with other members?
• Are users able to navigate the app with minimal confusion?
• How does learnability rank?
• What are users' overall impressions?
Key Findings
High bounce rate due to technical difficulties with the Maze platform. Maze is not mobile-friendly and this caused 7 participants to drop off on the first screen.
Some users had difficulty finding the "Members" section and tried using the top search bar. This would be a valid path in a live app, however, it was not made an option for the test.
Users considered the support forums to be the most beneficial feature. Next-most important were connecting with members and informational resources.
I made the following revisions to address some of the pain points discovered during usability testing:
Added labels underneath each navigational icon for better discoverability.
Made the "Members" section the default screen when users click on "Community." The links were also re-ordered so that "Members" came first, followed by "Forums."
This project has been therapeutic for me. Being able to hear stories and read the experiences of other Queer people who struggle to conceive due to unnecessary roadblocks made me realize the benefits this product could bring to the community. Family building for Queer people is an intentional journey—and also a lonely one. Finding support and resources among your own community provides some respite from hardships and disappointments that come with this process.
If this were an actual product, my next step would be to conduct another usability testing with a broader intersectionality of people within the Queer community as well as user interviews in order to gain deeper perspective on the community's needs. Member locations are also something to take into consideration as having users geographically pinned by their sexual orientation or gender identity is a safety concern. I would explore options that give users different levels of visibility and security.
