Natural Cycles
​Natural Cycles is a hormone-free birth control app that uses basal body temperature data to identify fertile and non-fertile days, helping users manage their reproductive health without medications. It was the first app of its kind to be certified as a contraceptive by the FDA in 2018 and is also CE-marked in Europe. For this project I chose to add a milestones feature to the pregnancy mode within the app where woman are able to add their baby registry, progress picture and create a personal milestone timeline to look back at.
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Project Type
Added Feature to Natural Cycles App
Web, product
Research Methods
Competitor Analysis, User Interviews, User Personas, Affinity Mapping, Wireframes, Usability Testing
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Discipline
UX Design, Web, product, UI Design, Visual Design
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Time Frame
Jan - Feb, 2025
Overview /
The Problem
Expectant users of Natural Cycles face challenges in fully capturing and organizing the personal, emotional, and visual aspects of their pregnancy journey in a single, cohesive space. While the app tracks key health data, there is no dedicated feature that allows users to upload and store meaningful content such as sonograms, baby's heartbeat recordings, pregnancy photos, registry items, and nursery items. Without a way to commemorate and track these milestones visually and contextually, users miss out on a more emotionally connected pregnancy experience within the app.
The Goal
The objective is to design and implement a Milestones feature within the Pregnancy Mode of the Natural Cycles app that allows users to document, organize, and reflect on their pregnancy journey. This feature should enable users to upload and store images, sonograms, heartbeat recordings, and list items like baby registry and nursery products. The feature should be easy to use, emotionally resonant, and integrated into the existing pregnancy tracking flow, so users can easily connect key health data with the more personal aspects of their journey.
Discover /
To identify potential issues, research was needed on existing websites that address these user challenges. First, market research and competitive analysis were carried out to evaluate the competition and determine if there was an opportunity for a better solution. Then, user interviews were conducted to gain insight into the needs and pain points young professionals saving goals.
Competitive analysis
To better understand the competitive landscape, I conducted research on both direct and indirect competitors offering similar features, such as gamification, saving tips and security guidelines.
While some platforms were restricted by location firewalls, I identified four key competitors to analyse in depth. This gave me valuable insights into their solutions and features. By studying their approaches, I gained a clearer understanding of which features would be essential for my app and how to position it with a competitive edge in the market.
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User Interviews
User interviews were conducted with nine participants, each interview lasting between 15 to 30 minutes.
To prepare for these interviews, I developed an interview guide featuring open-ended questions to allow for the most exploration of user pain points. Following the interviews, I synthesized the findings using post-it notes in order to identify and analyze common themes.
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Managing Health
Most users track their cycle or pregnancy manually or on an app.
Feature Exploration
Users appreciate when all their information is stored in one place and also enjoy the emotional connection they can build with the app
Design & Workflow
Users would like the ability to add images and notes to their pregnancy journey
Value & Impact
Users would value this feature because it would help them stay organized mentally and physically.
Personalization
Users would appreciate personalized reminders or features to look back at once they give birth
Experience with NC
Users enjoy how informative and straightforward the app is along with the clean and simple UI.
Define /
The Challenge
The challenge with NC is the Fragmented Experience – Users rely on multiple platforms to track pregnancy memories, making it hard to consolidate meaningful moments in one place, lack of personalization – There's a need for a more personal, emotionally resonant space to document unique milestones like sonograms or heartbeats, limited emotional engagement – current tools feel clinical; users want deeper emotional connection and storytelling within their pregnancy journey and need for memory keeping – Expectant parents want an organized, shareable place to save and revisit important memories, ideas, and images.
User Personas
The target audience for this app are expectant individuals or couples using Natural Cycles to track their pregnancy who are looking for a more personal, emotionally engaging, and memory-focused experience. They value both scientific tracking and meaningful documentation of their journey—such as saving sonograms, recording milestones, and organizing memories—all in one place.
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User Flows
User flows went a level deeper and focused on the user’s decisions at each step in completing their task. By highlighting various paths, it ensured that interactions were intuitive and aligned with user needs.
These tools were essential in refining the platform for a smooth, user-friendly experience.
Registry List Flow
Progress Picture Flow
Wireframes
Deliver /
Low-fidelity
Based on research and key insights, I began the design process with low-fidelity wireframes, prioritising ideas around critical user pain points identified in user interviews. Low-fidelity wireframes allowed for quick iterations on flows for features, providing an initial sense of the platform’s layout.
This wireframe demonstrates how a user would build their pregnancy milestone timeline, add progress pictures or add their registry items on the app.
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Mid-fidelity
Based on peer and mentor feedback, significant changes were made between the low- and mid-fidelity wireframes. Key updates included adding more icons, confirmation for the user and a more clean UI for the user to follow without confusion.
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Usability Test
I conducted usability tests on five users within the target audience which provided valuable insights on how the users complete their tasks and interact with the platform. All users successfully completed the tasks with minimal errors. Feedback indicated that the platform's clean and straightforward design made tasks easy to complete.
Success metrics included a) Time taken to complete the task, and b) Error rate when completing the task. After conducting usability studies, all five users were able to complete the tasks in an average of 5 minutes or less. The errors that occurred during testing were simple details such as
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The "Progress Picture" upload is quick and intuitive, especially for frequent users.
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The registry item addition is simple, but more clarity was needed around the price field and why it's important.
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Some users had difficulty navigating the "Milestones" section. Adding clearer navigation or a homepage shortcut would be helpful.
Priority Revisions
After user testing was done, it was apparent that some buttons needed to be added to make the design 100% user friendly.
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Final Prototype
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View Final Prototype
Reflection
What I learned
As a UX designer, I learned the importance of deeply understanding both the business goals and the end users. This taught me how to design for emotional, evolving user needs while maintaining consistency within an existing product. I also gained experience balancing usability with privacy and ensuring the feature felt supportive, intuitive, and aligned with users’ real-life journeys.
Next Steps
1. Feature Development
2. User Testing & Iterations
The next phase involves fully developing the platform's existing features to ensure they function seamlessly. This will lay a solid foundation for subsequent testing and refinements.
Once development is complete, further user testing will be conducted to evaluate and improve usability. Iterative adjustments will be made based on feedback to achieve optimal success metrics.