Father's Playbook

The pregnancy and baby app designed specifically for dads

Illustration of a couple standing together against a yellow background with a large heart shape. The person on the left wears an orange dress and appears to be pregnant, while the person on the right wears a white shirt with orange accents.

Overview

The Father's Playbook app was developed from research on folic acid promotion among young Hispanic mothers who expressed a need for greater paternal involvement in prenatal care. This insight led to a health communication intervention focused on expectant and new fathers. Research consistently shows that father involvement in prenatal care, leads to more prenatal visits, better adherence to postpartum best practices, and improved communication between partners, resulting in stronger maternal and infant health outcomes.

Practical, actionable guidance to build confidence and self-efficacy
Tools to encourage healthy communication and active participation during pregnancy
Resources to support family well-being through paternal engagement in maternal and infant health

Since its launch in 2019, the app has reached thousands of users and continues to evolve through ongoing research and user feedback.

Expertise

Quantitative research
Qualitative research
Creative strategy
Graphic design
Copywriting
Creative testing
Bilingual content development

VIEW APP WEBSITE

A Black man in a yellow long-sleeve shirt sits on a bed reading a book with a green cover to a young girl beside him.

Approach

Father's Playbook exemplifies an audience-centered approach to health communication campaigns. In the initial development of the app, the team set three priorities:

Light data footprint — Minimize data use to ensure accessibility for fathers across socioeconomic backgrounds
Fully bilingual — Enable seamless switching between English and Spanish within the same app
Comforting and encouraging tone — Build user confidence and self-efficacy during the transition to fatherhood

Additionally, in marketing the app, the team employs an iterative approach to find strategies that are cost-effective and appealing to expectant and new fathers, using these steps to reflect and evaluate marketing campaigns:

Formative research
Marketing tests
Evaluation
Campaign release
Evaluation
Refined marketing strategies

Materials

Impact

Success was determined by a number of cumulative measures, including the number of app downloads for iOS and Android devices and the number of obstetricians reached through direct mail packets.