Making Forever Families
Parent Camp is a tool that connects prospective adoptive parents and expectant mothers within the state of Utah. Based off our research, we made a goal with Parent Camp, to create a space that eliminates the stress of the adoption process and one that thoroughly educates those considering adoption. One in six couples in Utah struggle with infertility, according to Utah Infertility Resource Center founder Camille Hawkins. Our goal was to not only educate, but to create a simple way for expectant mothers to find families within the state of Utah who are looking to adopt their child.
Giving birth does not make her a mother. Placing a child for adoption does not make her less of one.
As someone who has experienced the blessings of adoption, resulting in three seriously adorable nephews, I really wanted to design a website that would help ease the stress that the adoption process can cause on a family. I am going to take you through our process, starting with our research and how we were able to better empathize with those going through the adoption process.
Research
Assumptions:
Initially our group started by creating a SWOT Analysis; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as well as a creative brief so we could identify key elements of our issue and identify our user. When we started our research, we wrote down some of the assumptions we, and others, had on the topic of adoption. These assumptions included the following:
•Adoption is expensive, even more expensive if medical issues arise.
•Adoption is time consuming.
•Adoption is emotionally risky.
•People adopt because of infertility.
•People will dissect your choice to adopt/criticize based on their own biases.
Interviews:
After creating our assumptions, we needed to start interviewing our audience. Our website is for a specific demographic, those trying to add a precious child into their family, as well as the courageous mothers who are making it possible. Having experienced adoption, I knew that there are three specific groups of people that we needed to interview; Birth parents, expectant parents, and those who have been adopted.
In total, we interviewed 15 people in person or over the phone, and received 33 responses to our survey for a total of 48 participants.
Our two expert interviews came from opposing environments, one from an agency, the other from a private adoption resource. We interviewed individuals who were adopted both domestically and internationally, one who placed her child, and several parents who were blessed with children through adoption.
Some of the quotations that really summed up our interview research were:
“The adoption process is super intimidating”
“There isn’t a catch-all place about the adoption process in Utah.”
“The adoption process usually takes a year, unless they’re looking for a specific gender or other criteria.”
“If the adopted family is looking for a closed adoption, we usually don’t consider them.”
“The least expensive agency is 25k and upwards of 50–60k and doesn’t include legal fees usually. Private adoption is much cheaper”
“The only time I felt uncomfortable was communicating with the adoptive parents about cost. I didn’t know how to navigate that conversation.”
These interviews gave us valuable insight into those who have experienced adoption and helped us create the two personas you see below. We decided on two personas because we wanted to create a website that would be a tool for both birth mothers and adoptive parents.
Personas:
Now having created our two personas, it was time for us to get the creative juices flowing and start organizing our ideas into a site map.
Site Map and User Story Map:
Our user story map and site map were crucial in helping us determine where the “holes” were in our website. Were there any dead ends? Did everything make sense? What else can we do? What can be eliminated?
In the beginning, our goal was to educate-which didn’t help to address the entirety of our user’s concerns. Our only unique aspect was we had wanted to create a cost compare tool. This tool would inform those adopting what their cost expectations should be. Yet the further we moved along, we realized our idea was not big enough and we wanted to push the envelope. As you will see, we made huge changes from this stage to the second. We included adoption profiles, and the option to donate as well as other community building features. It’s at this point that we learned that when we limit our creativity, we also limit our users.
Identifying Issues
Based off our research, not only from interviews, but viewing other adoption websites, we identified these four key issues:
How do we stand out from competitors? A space that is organized that connects both parties of adoption. Educates both expectant mothers and adoptive parents. Includes everyone who empathizes with those going through adoption by donating towards a care package.
How can we get everyone involved? Care packages through donations, ability to share on social media, events.
How can we help those who don’t know much about the adoption process for both those adopting and placing? Defined pages dedicated to different aspects of adoption. This includes testimonials and community events to become even more educated from those within your community.
How can we simplify? Knowing that the adoption process was overwhelming enough as is, the last thing we wanted was a convoluted website. However, theres many steps to adoption, and even in our attempt to simplify, we initially started with so many cards. Adoption is a complicated subject, and there are a lot of features that we were struggling to consolidate. Card Sorting was key for us in narrowing things down and to better organize our project. After creating a general idea of the flow and deciding what to include and remove from our website, we moved into wire framing.
Wireframes
First round of Sketch Wireframes:
The first round of sketch wireframes, we were able to put into perspective what worked and what didn’t. For example, our navigation was overwhelming and went against what we were trying to do; to simplify. Simplifying our website was a huge goal of ours. Some feedback we received during our interview process was that existing adoption websites only added to the stress due to how overwhelming and cluttered they tended to be.
Second round of Sketch Wireframes:
During our second revision process, we consolidated our header, and also consolidated the drop downs of each header. Originally, we had agency and private broken up into several pages. For example, private costs, private international, and private domestic. We soon realized it was not necessary for them to have individual pages, and rather grouped them under the ‘Private’ label within the adoption paths section. Most of these combined features happened under prepare or adoption paths.
Solo Camp
It was at this point that we broke off as a group and individually created our hi-fidelity versions of Parent Camp. It took some time to understand what direction I wanted to go for the design. The first idea was very upbeat and colorful, but lacked the professionalism that was needed for our audience. The camping idea was a theme that continued to persist throughout the entire design process. Adoption creates instant families, and in some ways could be considered a parenting bootcamp. You go into it feeling overwhelmed, but the more you learn, the more comfortable you become and by the end of it, you realize the reward is greater than anything you could ever imagine. I wanted to use positive imagery, to help both adoptive parents and birth mothers feel at ease, and be the first step towards having that rewarding experience.
Final
I have learned a great deal throughout this process. Granted, this was mine and my team’s first UX design experience (and cough cough, first case study) so we had everything to learn. When I have more time, I plan to change the green so it has more contrast for two reasons, the first being that for those with color-deficiencies or color blindness won’t have a difficult time with my site, and to prevent different elements from blending together. I would also eliminate some of the green, or bring in another color as at times it can be a bit overwhelming. I also plan to better organize the site, to make sure that everything is aligned properly, that typeface sizing is the same throughout, and to eliminate the amount of leading lines I have for my content to create better cohesion.
Overall, I feel like we accomplished our goal, to create a simplified adoption website that was both visually pleasing and educative. We were able to provide content that our competitors haven’t thought to do yet, create a much more organized site that allows for easier navigation and viewing, and is focused primarily on the adoption process within the state of Utah. I know that there is much improvement to be had in the adoption community and I hope that our website proves to be a step in the right direction so that more families, like mine, can have a more rewarding, stress free adoption experience.
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My amazing teammates included Jake Rosevear and Sammy Smith.
Let’s talk if you have any questions or suggestions!
