Exploring needs of expectant parents and rethinking social and community support
This capstone project for my Social Design specialization explored the pregnancy journey in Taiwan through exploratory research and participatory design. Insights from interviews and secondary research informed co-design workshops with expecting parents, resulting in four distinct prototype concepts, which were further evaluated and refined through a testing workshop.
Partner organization: Birth Empowerment Alliance of Taiwan
My role
Project Type
Course-based Design Research Project
@ National Taiwan University
Deliverable
Research Insights
Personas
Conceptual Prototypes
Duration
Feb. 2022 - Jun. 2022
A group photo after the co-design workshop, with students and the instructor wearing red masks as members of the design team.
photo by our.appearance_
In Taiwan, nearly 200,000 people experience pregnancy each year. Yet within existing systems and policies, pregnant women and their families are often seen mainly as carriers rather than as people going through a complex emotional and physical journey.
We are curious about what pregnant women and their partners truly need during pregnancy, and what kinds of stress or anxiety they experience along the way.
How might we rediscover the needs of expecting parents and
create pregnancy support that truly resonates with their experiences?
This was a collaborative course project with 15 students as a team, and responsibilities rotated weekly. I was actively involved in every phase of the project, with key contributions including:
With no prior knowledge, we immersed ourselves in exploratory research to understand pregnancy experiences from multiple perspectives.
🔍 Interviews
Conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 participants across experienced expecting women, partners, and pregnancy-related professionals
👩⚕️ Expert Talks
Attended talks featuring obstetricians, midwives, and government public health officials
🏥 Field Observation
Attended pregnancy education sessions and hospital-led talks on childbirth decisions
Observed how medical knowledge and risk are communicated to expecting parents in real-world settings
📚 Secondary Research
Reviewed existing literature, policies, and statistics related to pregnancy and maternal care in Taiwan.
Provided background on current support systems and structural limitations.
My team and I interviewing a lovely family :-)
From the discovery phase, we gathered a large amount of qualitative data. We then synthesized these findings to uncover key insights and identify design opportunities.
Example of "from tension to insight"
We turned these insights into HMW questions to guide later design work
Next, we developed personas for key stakeholders
We developed a total of seven personas, four for pregnant individuals and three for partners, based on recurring patterns identified in the research. To keep the portfolio focused and readable, I present one representative persona from each group that best captures the key goals, concerns, and tensions relevant to the design direction.
Brainstorm Solutions Together!
We organized a co-design workshop with 32 participants, including experienced expecting individuals, partners, and practitioners. Through small-group brainstorming sessions, we encouraged participants to brainstorm possible solutions and build on each other’s ideas.
Brainstorming in groups
Organizing ideas after the workshop
Together, we came up with a wide range of ideas for six HMW questions
✍🏻 HMW 1: How might we reshape the imagination of the pregnancy journey, acknowledge the possibility of miscarriage, and ensure that people in early pregnancy or with miscarriage experiences receive adequate emotional and practical support?
Visualizing design ideas that could deliver high impact
To illustrate our prototyping and iteration process, I highlight the prototype I led through multiple iterations: the Seedling Care. This idea emerged directly from the co-design workshop. During brainstorming, participants described miscarriage as being “like growing plants. Some grow successfully, while others naturally do not.
Building on this metaphor, we developed the Seedling Care Program to address HMW 1: How might we reshape the imagination of the pregnancy journey, acknowledge the possibility of miscarriage, and ensure that people in early pregnancy or with miscarriage experiences receive adequate emotional and practical support?
Retrospective
👀 Designing with communities
This was my first time doing participatory design, and it was eye opening! Working directly with expectant parents and partners made me realize that the community often understands their own needs better than designers or researchers do. Instead of designing solutions on our own, involving users throughout the process led to more grounded ideas. This experience convinced me that in the future, I want to actively design with users, not just design for them.
🧩 Learning through fast prototyping
One moment that stayed with me was our first prototyping session, where we were asked to build a prototype within just 20 minutes. The focus was not on making it look perfect, but on clearly communicating and testing the core idea. This approach helped us quickly see what worked and what did not, so we could iterate and improve without getting stuck trying to perfect things too early.
