Maro Parents: UI Deep Dive
About Maro
Maro is a health-focused EdTech startup with the goal of improving pediatric mental heath care through behavior tracking and curated parenting materials.
My Role
I led a team of 3 UX designers to redesign Maro Parents, Maro’s app for families. In addition to leading the team, I was primarily in charge of illustrations and defining the overall look and feel of the app.
This section dives into the visual elements and choices that were made during the redesign of Maro’s iOS app. To read more about the UX portion of this project, click here.
“We don’t want to look like every other mental health app.”
— Client
Client Requests
Maro’s branding is all about evoking a feeling of optimism with a clear, comforting, helpful tone.
The Client had a few requests and preferences for the high fidelity screens:
Minimal black on top of yellow, their primary brand color, due to personal preference. Specifically, no black text on yellow buttons.
Minimal pastel colors throughout the design. The client mentioned that many mental health apps/healthcare apps in general have pastel themes and they wanted Maro Parents to stand out.
App Color Palette
Main Colors
To meet WCAG accessibility guidelines and align with the client’s vision, I used the Maro Yellow as a decorative color and relied on other bright colors, like the pink and blue below, to indicate primary and secondary actions.
Neutrals
I also assembled a neutral palette for various UI elements, such as text, icons, list items, etc.
Accessibility
To ensure that our color combinations were at least WCAG 2.1 AA compliant, I used large, semibold, white text on all active primary pink buttons.
Colors in Action
Illustrations
Maro Character
I created illustrations inspired by Maro’s logo for the app’s modules, which teach parents about how to approach sensitive topics with their kids.
The Maro Character was originally created by a designer working on Maro’s desktop application. I brought this idea into the mobile app to create a cohesive look across products.
Moods
Journaling is one of the main features within Maro Parents because tracking emotions/symptoms is one of the best ways to help parents to identify mental illness in their children early.
I created three simple mood faces that appear on the home screen and prompt parents to begin tracking how their child’s day is going.
