PARENTSPACE.

END-TO-END APPLICATION.

USER INTERVIEW RESULTS SUMMARY.

BACKGROUND:

In order to get some first-hand insights from the target user, a group of stay-at-home parents was interviewed. Below is a brief summary of the information gathered during the user interviews.

PARTICIPANTS:

·         Number of participants – 5.

·         Age range – 27-38.

·         Gender – female.

·         Number of children per participant – 1-3.

·         Participants’ children’s age range – 4.5 months to 11 years.

·         Experience being a stay-at-home parent range – 4.5 months to 8 years.

·         Have a partner – 5 participants.

·         Living together with their partner – 5 participants.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND BRIEF SUMMARY OF PARTICIPANT ANSWERS

1. Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extravert?

·         Introvert – 2.

·         Extravert – 2.

·         In between – 1.

2. How much time a day on average do you spend with your child (children) alone?

·         8 hours and more – 3.

·         4 to 8 hours – 1.

·         Less than 4 hours – 1.

3. How much of that time do you spend inside of your home?

·         8 hours and more – 0.

·         4 to 8 hours – 4.

·         Less than 4 hours – 1.

4. Could you tell me more about it? What do you do when you're home with your kids? What emotions do you experience during your normal stay-at-home parent day?

·         Activities: reading, playing board games, watching cartoons or movies together, eating, playing outside, cooking, cleaning, doing household, chores, studying, doing hobbies

·         Emotions: -    “Different emotions”;

-         “Worry just comes with being a parent”;

-         “I felt calm and safe. Because we were home. But I didn’t feel any of that stress and stuff, because I spent a lot of time out of home as well. I didn’t have any depression.”

-         “I honestly don’t have enough time for all I want to do in a day.”

5. How much time do you on average spend with your kids outside of your home?

·         2 hours and more – 3.

·         It depends – 2.

6. Can you describe your time with your kids out of your home? Where do you go? What do you do there? Why do you have or choose to do it?

·         Places: parks, theme parks, walks, groceries store, swimming pool, playgrounds, stores, zoo,

·         Activities: bicycling, roller-blading, shopping, seeing other people and interacting with them, kids events, playdates, after school activities, exploring the local area.

7. How much me-time do you get on a daily or weekly basis?

·         Parents of children under 2 – 3-4 hours a week

·         Parents of children 2 and up – 1-4 hours a day

8. Do you have any hobbies? Time for hobbies? What kind of hobbies are those?

·         Hobbies and Interests: reading, hiking, writing, watching tv-shows, cooking, baking, volunteering, watching movies, hanging out with friends.

9. In what way (if at all) your social life (including your socializing with friends) changed after your shift to being a stay-at-home parent?

·         Changed to worse (less social life and communicating with friends) – 4

·         Remained the same – 0

·         Got better (more socializing and communicating with friends) – 1

10. What do you miss more in your life currently – socializing and going out or having some me-time and just relaxing? Or something else?

·         Answers: freedom, normal sleep, opportunity to work, sleeping in, time with friends, child-free weekends, more me-time.

11. Do you ever experience meltdowns related to your being a stay-at-home parent? What triggers them? How do you normally cope with them? What helps you calm down and stay positive?

·         No meltdowns – 1.

·         Meltdowns – 4.

·         Things that help cope: food, watching TV, help from husband, playing board games with family, talking, reconnecting.

12. What is the highlight of your day? Can you tell me more about it?

·         Answers:   -     difficult to answer;

-         seeing her child laughing or learning something new;

-         watching TV-shows in peace;

-         having coffee while the baby is asleep and the oldest kid is at school;

-         seeing the kids after school.

13. Would you trust another parent with your child for, say, an hour? In your or their house? Why? (Why not?) How would you use your free time then?

·         Yes – 0.

·         No – 3.

·         Depends – 2 (only the oldest child - 1; only with someone the parent knows well – 1).

14. Would you hang out with other young children's parents? Why? (Why not?) What do you think you could do together?

·         Yes – 4.

·         No – 1.

·         Things to do together: talking, working out (while kids are around playing), other (based on mutual interests).

15. What do you think about play-dates? How often do you participate in them? Would you like to do more?

·         Participate in playdates – 4.

·         Don’t participate in playdates – 1.

16. Do you share pictures of your children on social media? Or just with friends/ family? Why? (Why not?) What about pictures of your kids' art projects and stuff?

·         Often – 0.

·         Rarely – 4.

·         Never – 1.

17. Is there anything missing in your life since your shift to being a stay-at-home parent? What are the things you miss the most?

·         Answers:   -     freedom of choosing what to do,

-         opportunity to have own plans;

-         nothing; friends;

-         belonging to herself;

-         balance between personal, professional and family life.

18. If you could add, say, three things to your life currently, what would those be?

·         Answers:   -     job, friends, me-time;

-         having another child earlier;

-         more time with family and friends, time for a job;

-         family nearby, remote part-time job, husband spending more time home;

-         more sleep, more balance, less stress.

19. On a kind of unrelated topic, what are the apps on your phone you use the most? Why? Are there any apps you started using specifically because of becoming a stay-at-home parent? Why? What do you like about them? What don't you like about them?

·         Don’t use apps – o.

·         Use apps – 5.

·         Apps: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, app tracking her baby’s daily activities, farm-game, Facebook Messenger, Google Maps, Outlook, Gmail, WhatsApp.

20. My last question. If there were an app for stay-at-home parents what would you expect or want it to offer?

·         Features expected:

-         a matching system that would help parents with similar interests who have children of similar age meet and do stuff together;

-         a section for creating a schedule for your child;

-         something where parents can interact with each other;

-         nutritional ideas, healthy meals, and snacks from scratch;

-         cool science experiments that you could do with your kids;

-         recipes section would be good (food for children and also for moms who want to lose weight or are breast-feeding);

-         psychological help (how to cope with your emotions);

-         help network families/parents with similar interests and ages to establish play groups, childcare tree, etc.