Kiddo

The app that helps you find quality childcare wherever you are.

Overview

Time frame:
8 weeks

My role:
Sole UX Researcher & Designer

Tools:
Figma, Miro, Google Forms

Process:
Design Thinking

Starting point

The problem

When moving to a new location with your family it is difficult to find quality childcare that meets your specific needs and feels safe and reliable.

Background

For the last couple of years, I have had jobs that have allowed me to work remotely. In theory, this means that I could work from almost anywhere. However, with a five-year-old son, this is difficult. Who would take care of him when we work? Where would we even begin to look for local childcare that feels safe, reliable and meet our needs?

I was curious to understand how other parents think and feel about this. To get the lay of the land, I did some initial desk research and talked with parents in similar situations. I could confirm that many parents share the same doubts and thoughts. There is a desire to live a more free or “nomadic” life, but finding local childcare is one of the biggest barriers. [1]

In a post-pandemic society where the number of remote jobs is predicted to increase, the need for a solution that addresses the issue of finding childcare in a new location will only grow stronger. [2] These insights were the spark that ignited this project.

[1] UK Worker’s attitude towards the Rise of the Corporate Nomad. Small Business Prices. https://smallbusinessprices.co.uk/the-rise-of-the-corporate-nomad/

[2] Why the Digital Nomad Lifestyle is On the Rise. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecastrillon/2022/07/17/why-the-digital-nomad-lifestyle-is-on-the-rise/?sh=7d5807084934

Understanding the problem

To bring clarity to my problem, I needed to understand it more profoundly. I, therefore, used the 5 Whys technique to get to the underlying root cause. Using this technique consequently helped me to create my hypothesis.

Scope

The next step was setting up goals for the research, formulating research questions and assumptions, and choosing research methods.

Research goals

Research questions

  • What are the motivations for parents to go to other locations and work remotely with their kids

  • What are the needs and desires of the families when choosing local childcare?

  • What worries and concerns do parents experience in relation with choosing childcare for their kids?

  • How do the parents generally search for local childcare options when moving to a new location?

  • Do the parents use, and how are they using, digital services/apps focused on finding childcare?

Assumptions

  • The issue of finding suitable local childcare possibly hinders families going on remote work trips

  • Parents that want to change location find the process of finding local childcare difficult

  • Searching for local childcare is time-consuming and disorienting due to the information being scattered over different sources

  • It is crucial for parents to feel secure and well-informed when choosing local childcare

  • The parents want access to reviews/recommendations when choosing childcare

  • The parents want to be able to choose childcare based on specific interests, skills, languages, or pedagogic orientations

Methodology

I only had two weeks to perform the research. These circumstances forced me to prioritize and work smart. The motto was: doable but with maximum impact.

Primary research

Moderated semi-structured interviews: To understand the why behind the motivations and needs of the users on a deeper level

Survey: To detect larger patterns and obtain quantifiable data

Secondary research

Desk research: To understand more about the context, the users, and where and how they search for information

Competitor & benchmark analysis: To understand the direct competition and find inspiration among best-practice companies in related sectors

Conducting the research

Desk research and competitor analysis

I started with the desk research, competitor- and benchmark analysis to learn more about the context and the users before creating the interview guide+survey.

My objectives were to understand which types of services and information sources are out there, to find direct competitors and inspiring products/services to benchmark against.

Clustering of different types of information sources and services

Main findings

  • Difficult to get an overview: Information is scattered over many sources

  • Few one-stop shops for childcare services: Many services help users find only one type of childcare (e.g., nanny or school)

  • No direct competition: There exist similar services, but none operates in Europe nor adapts to the needs of ex-pat/remote working parents

  • Benchmark selection: I selected three companies representing different important product aspects such as content, design, usability, etc. 

User interviews

With the interviews I was curious to know more about the users motivations and needs when searching for local childcare and understand how the process make them feel and why they feel as they feel.

I interviewed 7 users:

  • 3 expats living in Barcelona

  • 1 expat living in London

  • 1 remote worker living in Chicago

  • 2 remote workers living in Sweden

First page interview guide

As-is user journey
During the interview I asked the interviewees to describe their current, “as-Is” journey when looking for childcare at a new location.

When mapping out the journey visually it became clear that the main pain-points are located in the first three phases of the journey (Explore, Research & Validate, Compare & Deliberate).

Main findings interviews

Lack of overview: Users are looking for information on different sources and platforms

First three steps of user journey main issues: Causes feelings of frustration and anxiety

Local knowledge, testimonials, and connection: The users want to feel safe and connected to their peers

Different users, different needs: Long-term stay users have other needs than short-term stay users

“There might exist great alternatives that you can’t find just by googling, you need to know where to look and you need a lot of time”

-Karina, 35 yo

“I would like to know what other parents using these childcare providers think”

-Ethan, 45 yo

Survey

With the survey, I mainly wanted to explore the user’s preferences, needs, and pain points when searching for and choosing childcare.

Recruitment
The recruitment process for the survey turned out to be complicated. Due to the time constraint in combination with my user profile being quite specific, in the end, only 22 participants answered my survey.

This gave me an indicative result, but for the survey to be statistically significant I would have needed a bigger sample size. 

Examples of questions survey

Main findings survey

The results from the survey confirmed many of the desk research and interview findings:

Would like to be able to choose childcare options based on location

Would like a product that offer great overview over local childcare options

Would like to take part of reviews/ testimonials from other parents

Find it difficult to evaluate the quality of existing options when searching for childcare

Synthesizing the data

To detect patterns and extract key insights from the research, I introduced all the collected data into an affinity map where I organized the findings into different categories.

Key insights & Conclusions

After synthesizing and analysing my findings, I could identify seven key insights:

Hypothesis validated

The research findings also validated my hypothesis: offering an efficient way to help parents find childcare in a new location would decrease the levels of stress and anxiety connected with this process.

I also clearly could see the value this service could bring to the users.

User personas

The key insight that different profiles have different needs highlighted the benefit of creating personas. Based on my research, I therefore created two main personas:

  • A long-term stay profile, The Expat, who needs the childcare provider to match her exact needs. She also needs to feel safe and confident with her choice.

  • A short-term stay profile, The Remote Worker, who does week - or month-long trips with his family. This profile also wants to feel safe and confident with his choice but is not as specific with his requirements.

Starting the design

I kicked off the design phase with an ideation session with two fellow students where we brainstormed potential solutions, keying off 3 primary ‘how might we’ questions:

  • How might we help parents feel less overwhelmed when searching for and choosing local childcare options?

  • How might we help the parents to have access to clear and accurate information?

  • How might we help the parents to feel more connected with their new location?

Based on the key insights and ideation session, I decided to include the following main functionalities and features in the design:

  • Great overview

  • Reviews and testimonials

  • Map function

  • Local information and guides

  • Filter options

I sketched storyboards and variations of the wireframes which helped me to develop lo-fi, and later on hi-fi, wireframes in Figma.

Storyboard

Sketch of main flow

Moodboard, Style Guide & Design System

Based on my research the guiding key words for the design were: reassuring, clean, efficient and playful.

I tested different visual designs and color schemes with two users. It became clear that they preferred a clean design with a fresh and fun (but not childish!) touch.

I also added graphic elements (a circle, “blob” and dotted line) to give the design a fun touch. The dotted line illustrates finding the path to the right childcare.

Usability testing & Iterations

I constantly tested and asked for feedback from the users during the design process, so when I finally designed the hi-fi prototype of the product there were only minor alterations to be made

Main findings

  • The shortcuts on the home page were confusing and needed to be clarified

  • The onboarding process was too long

  • In the short overview cards of the childcare providers, the users missed information about spoken languages

  • Overall, the users liked the concept and design

Shortcuts menu clarified

Adding language to overview cards

Overview user feedback

Solution

Kiddo is a mobile application created for parents that need childcare at a new location. It offers users an overview of available options and facilitates finding the perfect match through filter options, peer reviews, accessible 
information, and the possibility of connecting with different childcare providers.

Learnings and next steps

My learnings

This project truly showed me the value of involving the users in an early stage of the design. Since I received user feedback throughout the design process, I didn’t have to re-think or re-do too many parts of the final design. This saved me both time and headache.

The project was challenging since we had very little time. However, this forced me to prioritize tasks and to be smart with time. For example, the research was less rigorous than I would have wanted. With more time I would have added participatory observation to the methodology. Here I would have observed how the user’s search for information to see if there’s a difference between what the user’s say that they do and what they actually do.

The time restraint also refrained me designing all features and functions of the product. However, focusing on the main issues gave me a prototype that I am proud of and that answers up to the main user pain points.

Next steps

  • Usability testing with user tasks: The product prototype is not full-working and more flows would need to be added to give users tasks to complete

  • Accessibility: I would like to adapt the app to families with kids with disabilities. This part would need to be tested and developed together with this user group to properly meet their needs and for the tone/language use to be respectful and correct

  • Add more types of childcare: Nanny services, parent groups, workshops etc.

  • Community function: Possibility to connect with other families at the location

  • Add more locations: Barcelona is just the start …