Anna Gross

What—

Mommy Issues is an exploratory website aiming to add to the conversation around motherhood. Through 13 research-based, mixed media “micro-projects,” we’ve used our differing design practices to visualize, reflect, and push ourselves (and each other) to learn how we can gain empathy through our practice.

Why—

The conversation around new motherhood is often glamorized and focused on the baby. This lack of truthful and holistic representation keeps the public unaware, and thus unempathetic, and leaves mothers feeling isolated and helpless.

How—

This project was created in collaboration with fellow designers Maddie Headrick and Serina Liu. Due to our lack or personal experience with the subject area (motherhood) we conducted in-depth interviews with local Pittsburgh moms as well as certified doula Kathy McGrath.

With COVID-19 calling for a transition into virtual collaboration, our team made the decision to pursue a web-based deliverable. As three designers with vastly different personal practices, we attempted to explore the uncomfortable, reflect on our insights, and capture our own understanding of motherhood through performative and emotional design explorations.

My individual responsibilities included micro-project generation, research and creation of “The Conversation” page content, and contributions to concept development.

Visit the live website @ mommy-issues.com

The 4 Core Components to the Website—

1. “The Conversation” Through Time

This feature was a nod to the underlying goal of our project: adding to the conversation around motherhood. We felt it was important to gain a better understanding of what that conversation actually is and how it has continued to develop over time. This account is in no way a complete history, but rather a collection of major moments that have directly impacted the way that American society engages with motherhood (eg: Delivery methods or medical “advances”, Mass media and the representation of maternal figures, Controversial beliefs, Parenting eras, Massive political events...)


2. Conversation Bubbles

Each of these conversation bubbles, separated by color and type, represents one of us. Scattered throughout the home page and project pages, these bubbles feature an on-going conversation about things this project has prompted us to think and reflect on. Starting out with blank bubbles, we wanted to represent the research insight of “not knowing what’s to come” (lack of control) by creating an element of reveal + discovery with an on-hover interaction. They eventually disappear after some time, making viewers re-hover to emulate the repetitiveness and physical nature of motherhood.


3. Micro-Projects

The website houses 13 unique, multimedia projects (video, photosets, gif, interaction, etc.). We chose to do a combination of both group projects and individual projects. The individual projects were more or less self directed after we’d had an initial conversation about the intent of it and the medium we were planning to use. In the group projects, we all worked from the same prompt and set a few restrictions, but the goal was to really be able to see our distinct voices through how we chose to execute it.


4. Insights

The 8 insights, shown on the top menu of the website, come directly from our conversation and research with mothers and are a foundational element to the website. Each micro-project represents one or more of these insights. In addition, the website includes descriptions of each of these insights throughout the website to give the viewer a deeper look into our research synthesis.


Micro-Projects—

01  Sanctuary
02  Guilty as Charged
03  Read My Mind
04  Escape
05  Baby Monitor
06  Pieces of Identity
07  Gathering Dust
08  Over and Over
09  Society Says...
10  Guilty Pleasures
11  7.5 lbs
12  Didn’t See That Coming
13  Rise and Cry