Milk Matters App 2.0
Leveraging cloud services to improve the human milk donation experience.
Abstract
Human breastmilk donation is not a widespread practice, and thus creating a positive and motivating donation experience is important in order to retain those who do choose to donate. Milk Matters, a human breastmilk bank, previously hosted a mobile application aimed at improving the donor experience. However, this application consisted entirely of hard-coded content, and so quickly became out of date. In this study, we detail the design of a replacement software suite, consisting of a donor-facing application and a staff-facing application. Key to this design is the implementation of cloud-hosted services, including a database and an authentication system. This system is designed using a co-design process, modified to eliminate any in-person contact (due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic). We find a demand for several features, such as a donation tracker, and discover several important non-functional requirements for the backend system stemming from Milk Matters’ status as an NGO. Based on our findings, we motivate the cloud-based functionality of the system, as well as the design of the cloud-based backend systems. Additionally, we find the remote co-design process to be repeatedly impeded by technical difficulties, but also benefitted by the easy scheduling of online video meetings.
Videos 1
Watch presentations, demos, and related content
The final overview of our study, providing a brief summary of what we did.
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The final overview of our study, providing a brief summary of what we did.
Documents 8
Downloadable resources and documentation
Gallery 25
Explore the visual story of this exhibit
The project poster
The mobile app's login screen
The mobile app's account creation screen
The mobile application's home screen
Users can navigate the application using the menu side-bar
Using the donation tracker screen, donors can view their past donations as well as record new ones.
Donors are able to visualize their past donations as graphs.
Some parts of the mobile application are restricted to registered donors only, due to containing sensitive information. Users need to provide their Milk Matters donor number to progress to these areas.
Registered donors are able to access a depot locator, in order to find the nearest donation drop-off depot to them.
Users can easily view depot information using this screen, including the location's telephone number and their opening times.
Users are able to access a wide variety of educational articles, across numerous categories. Each article is vetted by Milk Matters, and can easily be shared to social media using the share button.
Users are also able to suggest articles for inclusion in this collection. All suggestions are submitted to Milk Matters for approval and inclusion.
Users can also view a Milk Matters news feed, keeping them up to date with the latest events. Much like articles, these entries can also be shared to social media.
Users who are not yet registered donors with Milk Matters can complete a quick questionnaire to begin the application process.
A FAQ section exists, for those with questions about Milk Matters or milk donation in general.
Only staff accounts are able to access the Milk Matters administrative webapp, used to manage the mobile app's content.
The dashboard can be used to quickly view donation amounts at depots, as well as any suggested articles.
Staff members can quickly and easily update the app's collection of articles using the Articles page. They can do the same to items on the news feed using the similar News and Events page.
Using the Depots page, staff can view and clear donation amounts from depots. They can also add new depots, as well as edit the information of existing ones.
Using the Account Management page, staff can perform various administrative tasks pertaining to both the mobile app and the web app.
Google Firebase is used to provide several cloud services for the applications. Here, one can see the developer console view of the application's Realtime Database (populated with "dummy" entries).
High-level system diagram
Use-case diagram
Database design diagram
We would like to thank our supervisor, Melissa Densmore, for her invaluable guidance and input throughout. We would also like to thank Jenny Wright, the CEO of Milk Matters, for her enthusiastic participation and assistance in this study.