Product released:
Hi-Fi Prototype
Project duration:
1 month
Team size:
4 people (2 coders, 2 designers)
Role:
UX Researcher
tiny - an app for new moms.
Product overview
Tiny is a supportive companion app designed to alleviate the overwhelming cognitive load faced by first-time mothers. The transition into motherhood is more than just a routine change; it is a profound shift in identity, hormones, and physical demands.
Tiny aims to act as a "second brain" for new moms by providing intuitive logging for diaper changes, breastfeeding schedules, and monthly budgeting. A standout feature is its integration with Smart Lamp technology, which provides visual cues and recommendations to help mothers navigate the stress of a baby crying in the middle of the night.
The challenge
Reality vs. Technology
During the research and design process, we had to confront the harsh realities of early motherhood, which led to several "pivot" moments in our thinking:
The Accessibility Gap: We recognized that our Smart Lamp integration—while innovative—could be seen as a segmented solution primarily accessible to a specific socio-economic demographic. This pushed us to think deeper about how to make the core value of the app more inclusive.
The Friction of Exhaustion: A major realization was that a mother who has been awake for 20 hours is often too exhausted to even unlock her phone. Expecting a user to manually log data during their most vulnerable moments is a significant UX barrier.
The "App-Centric" Fallacy: We approached this project with a dose of humility, acknowledging that not every human problem requires a digital solution. Some struggles—especially the emotional weight of being a new mother in a less-supportive environment—are better solved through human connection, systemic support, or financial resources rather than just an interface.
The Cultural Weight: In the Indonesian context, social pressures can often add to a mother's burden rather than alleviate it. Designing for this required a trauma-informed approach to ensure the app felt like a helper, not another "chore."
Execution
Design Logic: Reducing Cognitive Load
Our design system for Tiny was built around the principle of "Minimum Effort, Maximum Support." * Predictive Logging: To combat the "exhaustion barrier," we focused on features that could "predict" the baby's next needs based on previous data, reducing the amount of manual input required from the mother.
Visual Signaling (Night Mode): Instead of forcing a mother to read dense text on a bright screen at 3 AM, we utilized the Smart Lamp integration to provide soft, color-coded visual cues that signify the baby's likely needs (e.g., hunger vs. diaper change).
Simplified Budgeting: Recognizing that financial stress contributes heavily to cognitive load, we integrated a streamlined budgeting tool specifically for essentials like diapers, helping mothers plan ahead with minimal friction.
Result & Reflection: Design with Empathy
The result of this project was a high-fidelity prototype that balances utility with deep empathy for the user's state of mind.
Key Takeaways:
User-Centric Reality: This project taught me that a "perfect" feature on paper (like a smart integration) must be weighed against its actual usability for someone in a state of extreme fatigue.
The Power of "No": I learned that as a designer, it is okay to admit that an app is only one piece of a much larger puzzle. Recognizing the limits of technology allowed us to focus on making the features we did include as low-friction as possible.
Advocating for the User: My role was not just to build an app, but to advocate for the mother’s mental health, ensuring that Tiny serves as a source of relief rather than an additional source of digital noise.
