HI Mommy Website - A Usability Study

Abstract

Moms of newborns may experience emotional, physical, and mental fatigue due to the demands of motherhood. Importance is placed on caring for the baby that moms tend to overlook the fact that they need to also take care of themselves. Moms search for postnatal care information which are readily available to them, especially online, however, moms do not search for information on postpartum self-care, are even aware of what it is, and its importance to their overall health as a mom, spouse, and friend. The purpose of this usability study was to create and evaluate the ease-of-use of and satisfaction of available content provided on the HI Mommy website. The website provides suggestions for self-care activities that O’ahu moms can do at home and outside of the house, with or without the baby. The website was developed using Wix, a cloud-based development platform. The design of the website was guided by Gestalt principles and best practices for web designers as suggested by Susan Weinschenk on the psychology of design. The usability study recruited 10 participants who gauged the navigability of the website and the value of its content. Verbal feedback during the study and results from data collected via post-surveys indicated that participants agreed or strongly agreed that the website was easy to use and were satisfied with the available information.