Kiddo is a mobile application designed to bridge the communication gap between parents and teachers at daycare centers. The primary goal of this project is to create applications that enable parents to contact teachers directly while viewing photos and updates of their children during the day.
Product Designer and Brand Specialist
Product Owner, Full-stack Developers
December 3, 2023 to December 30, 2023
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
My responsibilities for the Kiddo app encompass creating a user-friendly interface that facilitates seamless interaction for parents and caregivers. This project includes designing a visually appealing layout, ensuring easy navigation, and optimizing information accessibility. The app should prioritize clear and concise messaging, photo sharing, and event updates, enhancing the user experience.
We always want to have an application that can access photos in the past. And also provide us an easy way to contact the teachers rather than calling the daycare center every single time.
I work the afternoon shift at the daycare and often find it challenging to stay updated on the morning's events. There's rarely an opportunity for my colleagues from the earlier shift to brief me on each child's activities or incidents.
I conduct in-person interviews with parents and daycare educators to explore their current communication challenges and app preferences, noting issues like difficulty accessing historical data, a complex interface for parents with multiple children in daycare, the lack of an in-app messaging feature leading to reliance on text and email, excessive email notifications, and teachers' limited access to real-time child information during shift changes.
Users pain points:
Based on insights from interviews with parents and teachers, it appears that many daycares opt for either Lillio (formerly Himama) or Fastoche as their chosen applications, each possessing its own set of advantages and drawbacks, with daycare centers often selecting them due to considerations such as pricing, usage suitability, or limited alternatives.
The app provides a seamless mobile interface with clear branding, enabling direct and easy communication between parents and staff.
The profile picture is too small to identify easily, and it's hard to distinguish between records for parents with multiple children in the daycare.
Parents can readily detect when teachers fail to send the child's report.
It's an email-based notification system with temporary record access and lacks in-app messaging, making users depend on calls, texts, or emails for communication.
The application employs Material Design icons as a fundamental element of its user interface. These icons, renowned for their clean and modern design, contribute to a visually appealing and intuitive user experience. By utilizing Material Design icons, the application not only ensures consistency and clarity in its visual elements but also enhances the overall aesthetic, making it easier for users to navigate and interact with the app seamlessly. This choice underscores the commitment to user-centric design and elevates the application's overall appeal.
During the foundational stage of developing the Kiddo app, my collaboration with the product owner and a full-stack developer was instrumental. Together, we meticulously analyzed and determined the app's information architecture, ensuring that each feature seamlessly integrates to offer a cohesive and user-friendly experience. This careful planning and teamwork laid a solid foundation, shaping an intuitive and well-structured application tailored to meet the needs of our users
We devised two distinct information architectures tailored to our main users: teachers and parents. For teachers, the structure prioritizes classroom management tools like attendance and activity tracking. For parents, it centers on delivering real-time updates on their child's day and facilitating direct communication with teachers. This tailored approach ensures both user groups enjoy a streamlined, personalized experience that meets their specific needs within the app.
Positioning the action items at the bottom of the mobile screen in the Kiddo app optimizes user comfort and accessibility. This location caters to natural thumb movements, especially for one-handed use, ensuring key navigation elements are easily reachable. It aligns with ergonomic principles, acknowledging larger smartphone screens and the need for seamless, one-handed navigation, thereby enhancing the overall user experience.
Integrating a payment feature in the Kiddo app simplifies fee transactions, allowing parents to pay directly and securely within the app. This eliminates external payment methods and physical paperwork, saving time and reducing hassle. It not only improves the user experience for parents but also streamlines the daycare's administrative processes, making fee collection more efficient and transparent.
Adding a two-way direct messaging feature in the app for teachers, daycare center directors, and parents greatly enhances the effectiveness and clarity of communication. It provides a fast and private way to discuss a child's development, address concerns, or convey updates, thus deepening the immediate connection between daycare staff and parents. This functionality ensures the prompt and secure sharing of vital information, promoting a more engaged and supportive environment for nurturing the child's growth.
The photo library and historical record feature enable parents to access and review their children's past records, facilitating easier tracking and referencing.
Wireframing the Kiddo app was essential for outlining its structure and ensuring an intuitive user experience. This early design stage helped organize features and content systematically, identify usability concerns, and facilitate adjustments. It was a crucial process that transformed conceptual ideas into a coherent, user-focused layout, laying the groundwork for the app's successful development.
Testing the wireframes of the Kiddo app is essential for refining the design and gaining insights into user interactions. Tester Sarah evaluated the app's functionality for monitoring her child's activities and messaging the teacher. She appreciated the app's intuitive design, particularly the straightforward access to photos and messaging. Yet, she encountered issues finding the button to compose messages and was uncertain about how the notification system operates. To improve the user experience, we aim to enhance the messaging interface by incorporating an obvious option to compose messages, adding a list for easily contacting teachers, and including a CC feature for the center director in communications. Moreover, the introduction of push notifications on the lock screen and a notification badge on the app icon will ensure users are promptly informed, thereby making the final version of the app more user-centric and efficient.
I facilitated a second round of usability testing with our intended audience to confirm if the app's designs effectively addressed their needs. The test included a scripted scenario where parents were instructed to send a message from the main dashboard, and teachers were asked to add notes and review student profiles. Together with the product owner and the full-stack developer, we monitored the participant's interaction with the prototype. The session indicated that both teachers and parents found the message composition straightforward. Moreover, teachers could effortlessly locate information about their students, send daily reports to the parents and seamlessly add notes for their peers when necessary.
The Kiddo app has garnered positive results, notably in enhancing the daycare experience. Parents have expressed a heightened sense of engagement with their child's activities and progress, attributing this improvement to the app's features. Teachers, on the other hand, have reported a significant ease in conveying crucial updates to parents, streamlining the communication process. Furthermore, overall user feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, reflecting high satisfaction levels with the app's design and usability. These outcomes collectively underscore the app's success in fostering a more connected and satisfying daycare environment for parents, children, and educators alike.
The app promoted a collaborative environment between parents and daycare staff, fostering a community-centric approach to childcare.
Continuous user feedback was integral in iterating and enhancing the app, ensuring it remained aligned with user needs and expectations.
Easy access to children's records and activities provided transparency and peace of mind for parents.
The app facilitated better organization and management of daycare activities, benefiting both educators and families.