StrongMama app
• UX Design • UX research • Low-fidelity wireframes • Usability test • UI Design
Introduction
This project was developed as our semester assignment when studying UX Design course at Noroff School of Technology and Digital Media. Our assignment was to research, design, and test a digital product that solved a real-world challenge.
As a team of four mothers, we created the StrongMama app, a exercise app designed to help new mothers regain confidence, strength, and wellbeing after childbirth. In this case study, I showcase a glimpse of the onboarding process and focus primarily on the exercise flow and highlighting our user-centred design approach.
My Role
UX Designer
Project type
Mobile app
Year
2025
Duration
3 months
Design Thinking model
Our process followed the five steps of the Design Thinking model:
1. Empathize: We conducted literature reviews, competitive analysis, and interviews with new mothers to uncover needs, motivations, and challenges.
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2. Define: We crafted a persona, Caroline Foster, to represent our users, and refined our problem statement.
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3. Ideate: We used mind mapping, brainwriting, mood boards, and dot voting to generate and prioritize ideas.
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4. Prototype: We created wireframes and concept sketches based on our most promising solutions.
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5. Test: We ran usability tests with four participants from our target group to validate the prototype, gather insights, and iterate.
Image source: Interaction Design Foundation.
Image source: Canva.com
StrongMamas mission
Our mission for the StrongMama app was to create a safe, motivating, and accessible fitness solution tailored to new mothers. We wanted StrongMama to empower women to fit exercise into their unpredictable schedules, provide professional guidance to avoid injuries, and foster confidence and wellbeing through short, effective, and realistic workouts.
1. Empathize stage
In the Empathize stage, we conduct secondary and primary research. For the secondary research, we conducted literature review to gather a mix between qualitative and quantitative data. We also conducted a competitive analysis using the SWOT framework to get a better overview of our competitors and understand where StrongMama would fit with the competitors. For the primary research we will conduct interviews with people in the target group; “new mothers”.
We conduct a competitive analysis using the SWOT framework to get a better understanding of where the app would fit in the market.
Target group
Our target group is diverse and could come from very different backgrounds in terms of fitness/activity level, challenges, and how their daily life looks like. StrongMama is an inclusive app that has a solution for every mama and their busy life. Fitness enthusiast or just starting off; StrongMama is the app for you.
2. Define stage
In the Define stage, we gather all the information we found in the empathize stage, and we define what we have learned. We then created a problem statement (that you can read below) and we created a primary persona named Caroline Foster. By creating a persona, we get a clearer understanding of who we are designing for. We also created a story board and How Might We Questions.
We created a primary persona based on our research findings, named Caroline Foster. Image source: Canva
Problem Statement
Busy mothers of young children struggle to make time for exercise in their daily lives, often neglecting their physical and mental health. The main barriers are lack of time, limited support, fluctuating motivation, and the absence of easy and accessible solutions.
3. Ideate
We started our ideation process by making a Mind map based on our five How Might We questions. This created lots of ideas. We then conducted Dot voting, where we all got 5 dots each to place on the best ideas. We then got four ideas that we used to conduct a Brainwriting workshop, and we came up with a lot of ideas.
We then restructured the map and organized the sticky notes after high-level categories which we then put into a table with a description of each idea, plus why it is important for our users. We then conducted a $100 test; we ranked the ideas after how much value we wanted to give them. We ended up with two concepts and chose the concept that was best for our persona Caroline.
We conducted multiple workshop session and the first one we did was a mind map.
The top solution
We found our StrongMama concept:
The StrongMama app is an exercise app for over-stimulated mothers who struggle with prioritizing their own mental and physical health and finding balance in a busy life occupied with family, work, and household chores.
4. Prototype
In the prototype stage, we first used the MoScow technique to find out what we need to prioritize and not, we then created an Information Architecture, to show how the app would look like. After that we created user flows, task flows and a wireflow of the onboarding of the app.
We created an Information Architecture to show how the app will be structured.
5. (Usability) Test
In the last step of the Design Thinking process is the test. We conducted moderated usability tests with four participants, to understand what works and what doesn’t work in the app. After that we collected all the information into an affinity map and grouped them to find. We added everything into a spreadsheet and found our insights. From that we gave our recommendation on what to change and what to keep.
We collected all the information from the usability test into an affinity map, so that we could find out what works and what didn't.
What I Learned
This project taught me the importance of:​
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Balancing personal experience with research: as mothers myself, I had to consciously avoid bias and rely on data-driven insights.
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Iterating often: revisiting problem statements and personas made our design stronger.
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Testing early: usability tests uncovered small but critical improvements that shaped the final design.
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Designing with empathy: postnatal mothers are balancing exhaustion, recovery, and childcare. The design must be compassionate, realistic, and supportive.
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Being mindful of colours: I learned that colours can unintentionally mislead users. In our onboarding wireframes, we made a mistake of adding colours to our titles, during usability testing, participants interpreted the red text as warnings or stop signals. This showed me how powerful and sensitive visual design choices can be.
End Result
The final StrongMama concept is an inclusive postnatal exercise app with:
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Personalized workout plans tailored to fitness level, goals, and time availability
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Professional guidance from certified trainers to ensure safety
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Short, effective, at-home workouts designed for busy schedules
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Optional community features to connect with other mothers for support and motivation.
The usability tests confirmed that the concept addressed real needs but also revealed opportunities for improvement, such as simplifying onboarding and clarifying navigation.
Try the StrongMama app
Onboarding
Login and Questionnaire
Exercise pages
