An app that enables users to apply AI recommendations for personalized product suggestions based on user preferences, lifestyles, and unique needs.
BabyNest
ROLE
TIMELINE
UX Researcher
100 Hours
UX Designer
OVERVIEW
BabyNest is a mobile app designed to simplify the baby registry experience for first-time parents on a budget. Unlike traditional registry platforms, BabyNest uses AI to recommend personalized product suggestions based on user preferences, lifestyles (e.g., eco-friendly, minimalistic), and unique needs (e.g., twins, premie-specific). Parents can also organize their registries by baby milestones, creating a more intuitive and goal-oriented experience.
PROBLEM
The baby registry process can feel overwhelming for first-time parents, especially those with limited budgets or specific lifestyle preferences. Existing platforms focus on listing products but often lack meaningful guidance and personalization.
THE GOAL
BabyNest combines AI-driven personalization with milestone-based registry planning to provide parents with tailored recommendations and smart budgeting tools. The app fosters informed decision-making, helping families save time and money while feeling confident in their choices.
RESEARCH
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
What gaps currently exist in baby registry platforms?
Current apps lack milestone-specific recommendations
Limited customization options for parents with unique needs (e.g., eco-friendly, budget-conscious)
Sharing registries is often unintuitive or inconvenient
Key Opportunities: Focus on personalization, easy sharing, and milestone organization
USER INTERVIEWS
Some key findings:
Overwhelmed by Choices:
Parents feel stressed by the volume of products available and lack clear guidance.
Desire for Milestone Organization:
Many users wanted to create registries aligned with specific milestones (e.g., newborn needs, first feeding).
Challenges in Sharing Registries:
Users found it difficult to share registries in a user-friendly way with family and friends.
Preference for Personalization:
AI-driven recommendations and the ability to filter products (e.g., budget, eco-friendly) were highly desired.
Emotional Needs:
Participants sought reassurance that their choices would meet their baby’s actual needs without overspending.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
First-time parents are overwhelmed by the wide variety of baby products, which makes it difficult for them to distinguish between essential and non-essential items. This lack of clarity leads to stress and indecision when building their baby registry.
COMPONENTS
User Persona
Sitemap
User Flow
DEFINE
Next, I took the insights and observations gained from the research and created a user persona that embodies the target audience’s needs, goals, and pain points. This persona, Natalia Rivera, serves as a guiding reference throughout the design process, ensuring that every feature and interaction in BabyNest aligns with the real-life challenges and aspirations of first-time parents. By keeping her journey in mind, the app’s design remains user-centered and empathetic.
SITEMAP
Creating a sitemap helped me establish a clear hierarchy for the app’s features, ensuring users could easily navigate through BabyNest’s core functions like adding items, reviewing the registry, and sharing it. By visualizing the structure, I identified the most intuitive pathways for users, reduced potential friction points, and streamlined the app’s navigation to align with user goals.
USER FLOW
Creating the user flow allowed me to map out the most intuitive pathways for users to achieve their goals in BabyNest. Starting with logging in, users are guided through key decisions like opting for AI-generated recommendations and viewing personalized product suggestions. The flow then transitions seamlessly to category-based organization, enabling users to explore and refine their registries with ease. By visualizing each step—from making changes to sharing the registry—I ensured a smooth, goal-oriented experience, reducing friction and aligning the app’s navigation with user needs.
COMPONENTS
Low-Fi Wireframes
Logo
UI Kit
Hi-Fi Prototype
DESIGN
I initiated the creation of low-fidelity wireframes to quickly visualize the core structure and user flow of BabyNest. This step allowed me to focus on layout, navigation, and functionality without getting distracted by visual details. By mapping out the app’s key screens and interactions early, I could validate my ideas, gather feedback, and iterate efficiently before moving on to high-fidelity designs.
BRANDING
I used a mood-board and the low-fi wireframes as a visual guide to develop the BabyNest logo to ensure it aligned with the core values of warmth, simplicity, and nurture.
Drawing inspiration from soft pastel colors and aiming for an approachable, nurturing tone, I created a logo that visually embodied the idea of a “nest”—a safe and comforting space for new parents.
This palette combines calming, earthy tones with fresh, cheerful accents to create a harmonious and user-friendly aesthetic. It reflects the emotions of trust, joy, and support essential to BabyNest’s mission.
I assembled the BabyNest UI Kit by carefully selecting design elements that would create a cohesive and user-friendly experience. I focused on elements that align with the app’s values of warmth, simplicity, and trust.
HIGH-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
To create the high-fidelity wireframes for BabyNest, I followed the insights gathered from the usability tests and incorporated them directly into Figma, ensuring the final design would be intuitive, user-friendly, and align with user feedback.
TEST
To bring BabyNest to life for user testing, I created an interactive prototype using Figma that simulated key user flows and allowed me to validate the app’s functionality and design. I mapped out essential actions, such as adding items to the registry, navigating through AI recommendations, and sharing the registry, by creating clickable components and linking screens with transitions.
TEST OUTCOME
To validate the prototypes, I conducted usability testing with real users, allowing them to interact with the app’s core features, such as adding items to the registry, navigating through AI recommendations and sharing the registry. I observed how users engaged with the interactive prototype and gathered feedback on usability, task completion, and overall satisfaction.
TASK COMPLETION RATE
100%
WHAT WORKED
Users found the AI-powered product suggestions intuitive and helpful, with most successfully adding items to the registry using the recommendations.
Most tasks, such as navigating the dashboard and reviewing the registry, were completed successfully without assistance, including clear and simple navigation.
WHAT NEEDS WORK
Some users struggled to find a way to return to the AI recommendations after manually adding items. This feature needed more visible navigation options.
Users expressed a desire for more filtering options for AI recommendations as well as greater customization for milestones and registry organization.
ITERATIONS
In conclusion, through careful consideration of user feedback, I implemented minor yet impactful adjustments that significantly enhanced the usability and accessibility of the entire application.
⚡️ PROBLEM (Figure 1)
An issue that arose was difficulty in locating a way to revisit the AI recommendations after manually adding items.
⭐️ SOLUTION (Figure 2)
To address this, the feature required more prominent and accessible navigation. My solution was to add a label along with the “Back” icon.
⚡️ PROBLEM (Figure 3)
Users indicated a need for additional filtering options within AI-recommendations, along with more flexibility in customizing milestones and organizing their registry.
⭐️ SOLUTION (Figure 4)
My solution was to add a Category Dropdown where users have the ability to organize the items in their registry by general or custom milestones.
FUTURE ROADMAPPING
My future road-mapping includes incorporating features outlined below:
Prioritize AI-recommendations, milestone-based registry, and registry sharing features, ensuring seamless navigation and addressing user feedback from testing.
Introduce customizable filters, budget tracking, and educational content to enhance user satisfaction and engagement.
Add registry collaboration, personalized milestones, and sustainability ratings to offer more personalized and eco-friendly options.
Continue usability testing and refine the app based on user feedback to ensure it remains intuitive, relevant, and aligned with evolving parent needs.
MY REFLECTION
CATEGORIZE
I focused on organizing the app’s features into clear categories, such as milestone-based registries, to help users quickly understand where to find relevant products. This structure reduces confusion and ensures that users can easily track their progress throughout the registry creation process.
SPACE
I intentionally used generous white space to create a sense of calm and openness in the design. By reducing visual clutter, users can focus on more important tasks without feeling overwhelmed, making the app more approachable and stress-free.
SIMPLICITY
I aimed for a clean, intuitive interface where every action and feature was easy to understand and use. The goal was to ensure that users could navigate the app, find products, and share their registries with minimal effort, fostering a seamless experience for first-time parents.
