Viva Care: enabling better fertility planning
Timeline
2024 - 2026
Role
Head of Design and Research
Disciplines
User-centered Design
Interaction Design
Design Systems
Day in the life of someone undergoing Fertility Treatments
Steep learning curve
Heavy mental burden
Outdated technology
The challenge
When I entered IVF treatment, I went looking for apps to help me navigate it — and found a market built entirely for patients already deep in the process.
By the time most products enter the picture, patients are already overwhelmed, already making decisions without enough context.
The contrarian view / assumption
Fertility outcomes aren't purely clinical — they're planning ones.
They're shaped by how early patients start planning, what information they have access to, and how supported they feel along the way.
Since fertility is heavily correlated with age, the earlier a user starts planning, the better the outcome tends to be.
The users
Some users are early-stage planners. They're considering fertility preservation but haven't started yet — they need information before the decisions become urgent.
Others are already in it — actively navigating IVF or egg freezing, often alone, without a guide for what comes next.
Problem definition
Fertility patients need a companion that helps them understand and navigate each stage of their journey before they're in it — not a tool that arrives after the hardest decisions have already been made.
How might we
How might we meet fertility patients earlier in their journey — before urgency sets in — and give them the clarity and support they need to make confident decisions at every stage?
Research
To validate my assumption and the problem definition, I recruited on Reddit and talked to 7 people across different stages of the fertility journey — some in IVF, some in egg freezing. The most telling finding: IVF stories were strikingly similar to each other, but egg freezing stories were all different. Egg freezing patients were more underserved — often navigating the process alone, with less information and less support than their IVF counterparts.
The insight
That research shaped our entry point decision. I chose egg freezing for three reasons: we could capture users earlier in the reproductive lifecycle, the market was less competitive and more underserved, and procedurally, egg freezing and IVF share the same steps up to egg retrieval, giving us a natural roadmap expansion into IVF later.
The disconnect
The deeper insight was this disconnect: patients didn't know what decisions they'd face until they were already facing them. That shaped our entire content strategy. We built Viva as a companion that walks you through each stage before you get there — so nothing is a surprise.
I had no idea what this process entailed when I went into the cycle. I thought the egg freezing procedure only took a day"
Chelsea, 33, Egg Freezing Patient, User Research Interviewee and tester
Three principles emerged from the research and shaped every design decision:
1
Anticipate, don't react.
Patients didn't know what decisions they'd face until they were already facing them. The app should prepare them for each stage before they're in it — so nothing is a surprise.
2
Walk alongside, don't lecture.
Egg freezing patients are navigating alone, often without a support system. The app should feel like a companion, not a medical textbook.
3
Start focused, expand naturally
Design for egg freezing first. Build the architecture so IVF is an extension of the same journey, not a separate product.
Feature analysis #1:
Calendar Widget
A centralized command center for cycle navigation. By aggregating fragmented to-dos and appointments into a time-boxed calendar, we provide patients with clear visibility and agency over their daily treatment journey.
Feature analysis #2:
The Medication Tab
Turning overwhelming medical management into manageable daily tasks. Beyond simple reminders, the Medication Tab features real-time inventory management and on-demand educational resources, providing patients with the clarity and peace of mind needed to manage complex IVF schedules.
Feature analysis #3:
AI Chat
Humanizing AI through persona-driven support. By introducing specialized AI companions, we transform static LLM capabilities into an empathetic, conversational experience that guides patients through clinics, injections, and emotional highs and lows.
The building blocks: a design system that stacks and scales
Viva Care's design system, Felicity, was designed to scale with a small team: flexible enough for rapid iteration, structured enough that any designer or engineer could ship consistently without hand-holding. Every component has a status lifecycle from work-in-progress to live, so the system stays honest about what's ready and what's not.
Open questions:
Retention beyond one cycle
One user told us she loved the app but only used it for her egg freezing cycle — about one month. How do we keep users engaged beyond the immediate treatment window? This surfaced cycle tracking as a potential retention layer, but we hadn't validated it.
Quantitative validation
Our entry point decision was based on 7 qualitative interviews. The directional insight was strong, but we'd need quantitative data — market sizing, conversion modeling, engagement benchmarks — to validate the business case at scale.
IVF expansion path
The product architecture was designed so egg freezing and IVF share the same flow up to egg retrieval. But the second half of the IVF journey — embryo transfer, TWW, pregnancy testing — introduces new emotional complexity and clinical variables. How much of the companion model translates, and what needs to be redesigned?
Partner and support network integration
Our research showed egg freezing patients often navigate alone. But some have partners, family, or friends involved. Should the app include a support network layer — and how do you design for both solo and supported journeys without alienating either?
Imapct
5-star rating on the App Store: High-trust sentiment
0-to-1 Scalability: Established flexible and scalable systems to allow future iterations
Design Founder-led Efficiency
Next steps
It took a village to launch on iOS and the Play Store
The day Viva Fertility launched on the Play Store
Celebrating the notification firing for the first time on the Pixel Watch
Regularly held working sessions with technical partner in Brooklyn