Babe: An Experience Sharing Design for Enhancing Fatherhood During Pregnancy

Abstract

The distribution of family responsibilities between men and women is still unfair in modern families. The design theme of this work particularly focuses on the issue that father-to-be often lacks the awareness of fatherhood. For this purpose, several design research methods such as literature research and questionnaire were applied to explore the relationship between female and male during pregnancy. According to the research and analysis results, the user needs can be identified: males’ consciousness of being a father should be enhanced and father-to-be should be encouraged to be more proactive in caring for the fetus and wife. Therefore, a pair of wearable devices for couples is designed, which enables the male to feel the fetal heartbeats and movements in real time. Through this way, father-to-be can also share part of females’ experience during pregnancy. At last, a prior usability test was performed in a laboratory environment. Both the usability of the wearable devices and the supportive application were tested. In conclusion, Babe provides a new way of interaction and creates an artificial connection between father and fetal. Sharing experience through devices can be a creative way of alleviating gender conflicts.