Uncovering Parental Struggles: Using Digital Probes to Analyse Challenges in Applying Online Parenting Content

Understanding the situated challenges that people face when attempting to apply online parenting advice is crucial for building effective digital parenting supports. However, existing HCI methods do not enable researchers to capture the complete breadth of experience relevant to gathering experiential data on both behaviour change processes and lived experiences at scale. This paper describes the full development process of adapting existing probe-like methods to capture data about these parenting experiences. We drew on a systematic review of existing probe-like methods and developed a digital probe through user-centred design involving parents. Our study included parent interviews (n=15), online trials (n=30, n=200), and an evaluation of the probe alongside a UK National Health Service parenting intervention (n=35). Our paper contributes insights into how to adapt probes to collect rich parenting data, reveals the kinds of insights gathered, and presents new considerations for designing digital parenting interventions that resonate with families.