1Stop

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The Problem

How can we help low-income and unemployed single mothers earn a living wage? That was the question posed to my team as we kicked off the first project in our Dev Mountain adventure. We started out by talking about some beliefs we had about single mothers and their situations, whether they might be misconceptions or not. Based on on that conversation, we defined the problem, made a list of assumptions, and came up with a list of questions to use in interviews.

We were team of three and tried to split up responsibilities evenly, as we were all learning the steps together.

The INTERVIEWS

I wanted to be sure to treat my interviewees with respect as I knew the topic of single motherhood could be intensely personal, so I tried to not press as I conducted my part of the interviews.

We each reached out to people we knew through our various outlets. I have a podcast patron group that I’m a part of that is full of a diverse range of people. I reached out to them and found a few people were willing to talk with me. I was surprised by how quickly these amazing women opened up and provided crucial insights. Though each of their scenarios were different, we began to notice similarities. A common trend we found was that despite the many hardships they’d faced, they had a strong resolve and felt deeply connected with their children. Their trials had brought them even closer. On the surface, they dealt with similar logistical problems such as child care and a lack of progession available in their work setting.

THE EMPATHY MAP

While discussing the results of our interviews, we also generated an empathy map to confirm or disprove our initial assumptions. We wanted to discuss what single mothers might be feeling, thinking, saying, etc. We learned that even though the father wasn’t always in the picture, many women still had access to extra help through neighbors or other family members. We were right in assuming that many women wanted to further their education, but hadn’t realized one of the primary reasons they hadn’t yet was due to the age of their children.

From this discussion, we started to build our persona: Kiki a single mom with two kids. Her motivations include not wanting to stress about finances and the passion she feels toward the upbringing of her kids. From this point forward, we wanted to frame our questions in how they’d affect Kiki specifically and that choice helped us guide our decision-making.

THE USER STORY MAP

Applying what we’d learned form the persona, we constructed a User Story Map in order to find out what may be most important to Kiki and how she might best navigate through the website we were pitching. We felt a website was the most logical solution to the problem we faced.

THE SOLUTION

There are a lot of resources out there, but it becomes increasingly difficult to apply for so many different things, or really even to know what you might qualify for as a mother. There are a lot of factors that go into it: money, number of kids, location, history, etc.

From the user story maps, the main goals we felt should be addressed were: Find grants and scholarships relevant to me, find financial aid to go back to school and get a better job, apply for grants easily and quickly, search specific grants, and learn about grants.

We decided what would be the most beneficial for Kiki would be to provide a service where she could input all of her information once, and then be shown what she qualifies for, rather than having to search aimlessly for grants/scholarships/financial help she may or may not even know exists. Users would fill out an initially questionnaire when they sign up with the website, so any relevant information is on file. Then, they’d able to view what they qualify for. We felt it made logical sense to adopt a “cart” type function at that point, where users could pick and choose what they want to apply for and then mass apply.

The Wireframes

We built a sitemap to see how users might best be able to navigate through the website. From there, we started sketching out loose wireframes.

We presented these wireframes in front of our class and got some great feedback. One suggestion that stuck out to me was that we were using a “cart” as the main mechanic, but we weren’t charging people for the service. Based on that feedback, we changed the word to “list.”

I was in charge or producing the medium fidelity wireframes and unifying the different styles the three of us had. I did this work in Sketch.