Motherload

Capture, organize, and share the mental load of family life with a calendar built for caregivers.

About Me

Project Overview

Problem Statement

User Research

To understand how families manage the logistics of day-to-day life, I surveyed and interviewed 11 parents (mostly mothers and default caregivers) recruited through Facebook and ADHD support groups. Participants were English-speaking expats in Germany. I asked about the tools they use, their pain points, and how they delegate responsibilities.

Key Insights:

• Everyone’s reinventing the wheel – Custom hybrid systems (apps, whiteboards, mental lists, post-its) are the norm.
• Too many inputs – On average, parents received family info from 12–15 sources.
• Mental load remains siloed – Delegation is difficult because one person holds all the context.
• Digital tools aren’t helpful enough – Adding info feels like too much work; tools don’t reflect real-world complexity.

Primary Persona: Co-Parent Clara

A composite persona based on 11 interviews with primary caregivers—most of whom juggle fragmented systems, feel unsupported, and carry the majority of the family’s mental load.

Solution: A Layered Approach to Lightening the Mental Load

Caregivers aren’t failing to stay organized, most tools are failing to support how family life actually works. The answer isn’t more effort- it’s better support.

Each feature builds on the last, creating a system that moves information out of a caregiver’s head and into a tool the whole family can use.

Capturing scattered inputs

Caregivers were juggling nonstop input: WhatsApp threads, school flyers, calendar invites, verbal reminders from kids, and more. On average, interviewees reported 12–15 different sources of family info, but much of it never made it into their tools.

The Smart Add feature meets caregivers where they are, letting them upload photos, screenshots, or voice notes on the fly. AI extracts the key details and turns them into actionable tasks or events, making the first step of care work simple, structured, and shareable.

Organizing event-related tasks

In many calendars, an event is just a time slot. But in family life, most events are actually mini-projects with moving parts: forms to fill, snacks to bring, or bags to pack.

The Agenda View was introduced to surface these task-level details without cluttering the day view. Instead of hiding tasks inside events—or keeping them in someone’s head—the Agenda View shows all assigned and unassigned responsibilities, across family members and timelines.

Enabling Shared Responsibility

In many families, one caregiver ends up carrying most of the mental load- not because others won’t help, but because the systems don’t make responsibility visible or shareable.

When information stays stuck in one person’s head, it can’t be picked up without explanation. And explaining everything (how, when, for whom…) becomes its own kind of exhausting work.

Each task shows who it’s for (or if it’s still unclaimed), so others can step in without needing to ask what needs doing or rely on someone to delegate it manually.

The groundwork is laid for future features like reminders or accept/decline flows, but even in its current form, Motherload starts to break the cycle of silent defaulting and unspoken expectations.

Reflection & Next Steps

Next Steps

While the current prototype surfaces core features, several key flows remain to be built out:

• Delegation & task acceptance: Tasks can already be unassigned, but future iterations will support delegation flows like prompts to accept a task, visual indicators for unclaimed tasks, and confirmation feedback for the assigning caregiver.
• Task screen improvements: A centralized list view will allow users to sort and track tasks across days, categories, and family members, extending beyond the day-focused Agenda View.
• Future list types: Optional long-term lists like groceries, DIY projects, or meal plans may offer additional value but are not prioritized in the MVP.

Reflection

Designing around mental load shifted how I think about UX entirely. It’s not just about better organization, it’s about making invisible work visible so it can be shared. While this case focused on family caregiving, the same principles apply across roles where responsibility is felt but rarely mapped: assistants, teachers, care workers, or anyone holding a team together behind the scenes. This work made me reflect on how often systems fail the people doing the most, and how design can start by simply saying: we see you.