One Mom’s Experience Turns Into Treasure For Others
After giving birth to a second child, our client decided to leave her career and become a stay-at-home mom. Stresses of motherhood were bearable enough until it turned out her younger baby refused to sleep outside her arms. So she researched the baby sleep topic and learned how to sleep train her baby. The training was so successful that she decided to make an app to help other parents with the same problem.
At first, our client laid out her app’s vision as basic wireframes in Sketch and started going through iOS development agency lists in the US and abroad. Eventually, she chose EGO to build the app for her.
Duration
Three months
Team
Project Manager
Tech Lead
QA Engineer
UI/UX Designer
iOS Developer
We were asked to assist with the testing of the client’s hypothesis.
They wanted to check if there is a real demand for a baby sleep training solution before building an MVP for iOS based on the suggested wireframes. Eventually, we did much more than that.
Solution
After our prototype was approved, we developed the iOS app within two months. We’ve done research, concept, product design, coding, testing, and release.
Scope of work
We went through the full app development cycle, from business model definition and customer profiling to defining architectural approach and app release.
The process
We established a regular meeting schedule to keep the client up to speed with the processes and decisions we’re making along the way. Internally, we also had daily standups, demo, and planning meetings. This approach helped keep the team synced and create the app from the ground up in less than six months.
The client approached the EGO team with their wireframes. We offered to go through the analysis and prototyping stages to adapt those wireframes to the needs, habits, and expectations of the potential users. That helped both parties to get an idea of a market positioning for the product and its audience.
After that, we could proceed to formulate the product vision. The vision helps to come up with the functionality list and the development roadmap. Once it was ready, the EGO designers could start working on the wireframes which then were evaluated by early adopters. Based on their feedback, we presented the final concept as a clickable prototype and, after the client’s approval, turned it into an iOS app.
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The initial meetings with the client were covered by the project manager and design team within our iOS app development agency. When the design and prototypes were suggested and approved, the developers joined the process.
To help the client be sure their expectations are met, make better-informed decisions, and eventually come up with the best product possible, the developer compiled over 30 intermediate versions of the app throughout the development process. We were heavily improving the app on the go. Two months later, its release went as smoothly as possible.
Product details
Description
The app offers educational materials, sleep logs where parents can track sleep statistics, and customisable notifications about the upcoming pre-sleep rituals. The app’s end goal is to allow moms and dads to get more hours in a day with their kids having an established sleeping routine.
Cool things we’ve done for the app
Target audience.  Our research revealed that the app would be iOS-only, for 18-40 years old US-based moms who couldn’t afford a sleep coach to address their child’s sleep problems.
Competitor research. Â The app had to address the downsides of rival apps.
Gamification integration. Â To support parents and keep them motivated, the app was requested to demonstrate even the smallest progress in baby sleep training.
In-app purchases. Â The app had to include functionality for ordering a personal consultation with the client.
Hypothesis check
Early adopters tested wireframe-based prototypes. Their feedback revealed breakpoints and helped improve user flows before the EGO mobile application development services company started coding the app.
Project’s scope of work
Here is the list of things we’ve done for or together with the client:
Market research  to identify and position the product
Customer profiling  to figure out the target audience and its expectations
Competitor research  to help make the product stand out
Business model  to determine the development strategy
MVP concept  to satisfy earliest customers and create a feedback loop
Product requirements  to understand our goals and definitions of done
Architectural approach  to figure out the product’s technical solution
Product wireframes  to test with early adopters and improve user flows
Design concept  to decide what it’s going to look like
Clickable prototype  creation to test the ideas on any device
Development
Release
What's interesting
The testing process included functional, nonfunctional, and UI testing, smoke and regression testing, testing on multiple devices and platforms, and testing with different types of Internet connection.
The goal of push notifications is to get users back into the app. So they were designed as daily reminders appearing at a specific time with a pre-determined regularity. The developers added test pages into the app to help the client decide on the notification frequency and other parameters.
We decided to go with Apple subscription functionality here since it offers a free trial so that a user could evaluate paid functionality before buying it. It turned out Apple has strict requirements for the purchase screen, and it was challenging to find the compromise between product aesthetics and those instructions.
When working on a color scheme, the team at our iPhone app development company was inspired by energetic, progressive, and modern moms. This is not typical for a “baby app” where the visual style often mimics one of the children and newborns’ accessories. The colors we’ve chosen give the app a degree of vibrancy, and a paper-looking background helps to relax while reading the baby sleep guide.
The concept of challenges and tasks allowed us to divide a learning process into small and manageable pieces and inspire moms to accomplish every challenge.
Current status
The app got into the App Store upon the first try and currently has a five-star rating thanks to ultra-positive reviews. The Q4 2020 stats also show stable growth of an average app session time and other key metrics.
Though the app is targeted at the US-based moms primarily, it attracts users from all over the world: according to Mixpanel, it is also downloaded in Canada, Bulgaria, UK, Australia, Germany, South Africa, Netherland, Dominican Republic, Mongolia, Spain, Israel, Finland, Taiwan, Sweden, New Zealand, France, Mexico, Norway, China, and other countries.
It might seem to be a small project, but it’s always a pleasure to feel that our job turns out to be helpful in such unpredictable ways as helping young women become happier with their motherhood routine.
~ Eugene Polyanskiy, CEO at EGO Creative Innovations
Tech stack and tools
Swift
Google AdMob
Mixpanel
Firebase
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