WE-CARE (Women Engaged in Comprehensive Care for Substance Use)

The WE-CARE app facilitates care for expectant mothers by incorporating innovative features such as universal e-screenings for alcohol, illicit drugs, depression, and anxiety, educational resources, a moderated forum for anonymous discussions, a chatbot, and an anonymous referral to a comprehensive drug and alcohol treatment center.

This case study follows the structured design thinking process—Understand, Research, Ideate, Analyze, Design & Ideate, Prototype and Test—to create user-centered and impactful solutions.

Identifying and treating alcohol and substance use disorders (AUD/SUD) in women of childbearing age is crucial but hindered by barriers such as limited screening, stigma, time constraints, and lack of provider knowledge. Healthcare professionals also struggle with connecting patients to trauma-informed care.

During the Discovery Phase, a Project Plan was created to outline tasks and deadlines, ensuring the project stayed on track.

Project Requirements

To provide design system components that allow for the delivery of:

• Anonymous automated support for at-risk women
• Micro-learning materials to both WOCA and HCPs
• E-screeners

Deliverables

Initial design based on understanding including:

• Customer journey map
• Personas (for multiple roles)
• 3–5 User flows
• Storyboard for concept designs
• Interactive wireframe in Figma

Project Plan — High-Level Timeline/Schedule

• Week 1: App design walkthrough, onboarding, and goal alignment
• Week 2: Storyboard creation and concept designs
• Week 3: Refining concept designs, detailed user flow, and feedback integration
• Week 4: Developing interactive wireframes and testing with users
• Week 5: Iterating wireframes based on user feedback

Research Findings

Early research by Beneten Technologies found that up to 28% of women of childbearing age engage in binge drinking before pregnancy awareness, with high rates of comorbid substance use. Despite recommendations for universal screening, screening rates in women's health clinics remain low.

User Interviews & Insights

Beneten Technologies research team conducted in-depth interviews with healthcare providers (HCPs) and here are some example questions asked during the interviews.

Example Questions

• Not all practices conduct universal screening for alcohol use. Why do you think that is?
• Some screenings are done at home and some are done in the office. Do you think one location would be preferred over the other? Why?
• After screening for alcohol and substance use, what do you do in terms of follow-ups?
• Do you have evidence-based educational materials on alcohol and substance use for patients?
• What's the process of transferring screening results to EHR in your practice?
• Anything important you want us to know when it comes to supporting WOCA at risk for substance abuse?

Research Takeaways

Expanding universal screening among women of childbearing age (WOCA) requires an engaging, accessible solution. WE-CARE offers:

• Microlearning materials
• Anonymous e-screenings
• Automated support
• Appointment management

Creating User Flows

Based on research insights, key user flows include:

• Create an Account
• Read, Like and comment on Discussion Forum
• Watch videos/Save video progress
• Take a screener
• Read FAQ/Chatbot
• Post Screening: Low Risk: save results to app
• Post Screening: Low Risk: save results to phone as PDF
• Post Screening: High Risk save results to app
• Post Screening: High risk save results as PDF
• Post Screening: delete results applicable to high-risk users and low risk users

Storyboards were created to visualize Julia's journey, illustrating her pain points and decision-making process when encountering a WE-CARE ad.

Last week, Julia saw an ad for the app and hesitated to try it. Uncertain if she truly needed it, a difficult situation led her to reconsider. Realizing she had nothing to lose, she decided to seek help through WE-CARE.

This storyboard highlights user hesitation, emotional triggers, and the turning point that leads high-risk users to engage with the app.

Product Name: WE-CARE

Meaning:Stands for “Women Engaged in Comprehensive Care for Substance Use.”

Rationale:Short, easy to pronounce, and conveys the app's supportive nature.

Logo

• Multiple logo variations were explored, ensuring alignment with branding
• The chosen design and colors were consistently applied across low- and high-fidelity screens

Colors

• Dark green & yellow – Represent reliability, harmony, and growth
• Light blue – Symbolizes trust and self-expression
• Dark red – Draws attention and conveys energy and passion

Font

• Raleway was selected for its professional, clean, and sharp look
• Works well for bold, capitalized text, making it ideal for titles and headers

Icons

In creating low and high fidelity mockups for the app, I utilized the “Icon8” library's “IOS 16” for the app icons.

Illustrations

In creating low and high fidelity mockups for the app, I utilized the “Icon8” library.

Brand Personality

WE-CARE is designed to be a gentle, supportive, and understanding companion, offering solutions while respecting user autonomy. By ensuring anonymity, it removes the stigma of seeking help and creates a safe, judgment-free space for women to reach out.

Brand Attributes

The app embodies trust, care, and encouragement, making it:

• Supportive & understanding – Friendly, respectful, and optimistic
• Safe & private – Anonymous and comforting
• Empowering & informative – Encouraging, helpful, and calming

Usability Testing

After receiving insights from user testing, I worked on updating the prototype of the app. To evaluate the changes, I conducted a test with five users and assigned them three tasks to complete, including:

• Taking a screener
• Deleting screener results
• Contacting a treatment center

Although users were able to complete the tasks without any significant problems, there were some instances where they experienced confusion during the test.

Several users provided feedback that they did not immediately notice the pop-up message for deleting their results because it was located at the bottom of the screen and did not stand out. This caused them to take a moment to realize the message.

The pop-up message for deleting results has been redesigned to match the typical iOS pop-up messages, appearing in the center with a blurred background to make it clear and stand out.

The updated prototype was tested again with five new users, with a focus on aesthetics and design. Users completed the tasks without any issues.

The initial two screens of the app provided background information about what WE-CARE offers, but users either skipped over it quickly or did not read it carefully.

To address the issue of users skipping or not reading the background information about what WE-CARE offers, the solution was to divide the information into multiple screens, add illustrations, and use the color palette to make it more engaging and appealing to the user.

Minor changes were made to various screens throughout the app to update the formatting and ensure consistency across sections.