Co-Designing with and for Milk Donors

Wardle, Chelsea-Joy

Co-Designing with and for Milk Donors

Master Thesis

2019

Abstract

Many mothers of small children (<2 years old) rely on technological interventions to provide aid and advice for child-rearing during the early stages of motherhood. This time can feel very isolating and so many mothers turn to technology as a medium to reach others and access information. In this research, I examine South African mothers’ experience with computer-supported aid for online communication and information searching. I describe these mothers in the context where they are also milk donors and provide insight into their utilization and preferences for social networks through the lens of co-designing with them a donor mother chatroom for improved communication between donor mothers and the NGO. Breastfeeding mothers who want to become milk donors have to go through a rigorous screening process to qualify to be a human milk donor. The lack of feedback from Milk Matters and the demanding donation process deters mothers from donating, especially considering the existing constraints of mother resources. The transition to becoming a mother can be very stressful, isolating and challenging, even more so as a donor. Through this work I identify several design implications to consider when co-designing a chatroom with donor mothers, for donor mothers with the purpose of improving engagement and feedback between them and the milk bank. Designing mobile applications for breastfeeding mothers can be challenging; creating spaces to foster co-design – when a mother’s primary focus is on her child rather than on design activities – is even more so. Based on this knowledge, I have approached this study with a variety of co-design methods, comparing Cultural Probes, interviews, participant observation, high- and low-fidelity prototyping, and cognitive walkthroughs.

Keywords

Computer Science

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