KidsFisrst
Crafting a tool for divorced parents to co-manage communication and children's tasks.
ROLE
Product Designer
TEam
1 Designer
1 Product Manager
5 Developers
& the CEO
DURATION
From April 2023 to August 2023
Skills
User Research
Design Thinking
Visual Design
Interaction Design
KidsFirst is a service easing the collaboration between separated parents in co-parenting their offspring.
KidsFirst supporting divorced parents in efficient communication targeting child-related issues. It aids in distribution and management of everyday parenting responsibilities.
Brief
Initial Problem Discovery
What problem am I trying to solve?
Divorce isn't the problem
—Poor communication is.
Initial Problem Discovery
Why is this problem important?
Divorced families suffer from the harm of poor communication
of divorced couples have communication issues.
74%
of children from divorced families are harmed leading to emotional isolation
68%
Whose problem i am solving?
Understanding Target Audience
The challenges of divorced families are a global issue.
There are approximately 340 million divorced families worldwide.
Roughly one in two children will see their parents’ marriage breakup.
Moreover, approximately 21% of children in America are raised without their fathers,
I believe the user base is substantial.
Family structure deeply influences children's growth, and supporting adolescents' healthy development is crucial.
Why does this matter ?
Research & Explanation
UX RESEARCH METHOD 01: SECONDARY RESEARCH AND INTERVIEWING
I hosted a UX Review Session where I thoroughly explored the current version of KidsFirst and evaluated the overall user experience from the user's perspective.
What methods of UX research will I use to help drive clarity and focus to my solution, and why?
Complex Info Entry Hinders Efficiency
Generating a topic related to children requires filling out a substantial amount of information
Challenges Understanding Crucial Data
Struggling to Quickly Grasp Key Topic Information
Limited Access to AI Functionality
AI access is limited to the chat interface, restricting instant information queries
To validate my ideas, I conducted user testing with the company's creative team members (who share a similar background of divorce), and we gathered the following data :
To better address user pain points and optimize the app, I conducted a competitive analysis.
The competitive analysis shows that most applications offer calendar management, unchangeable chat records, and expense tracking features, which are also currently available in our KidsFirst app.
Therefore, the question is: how can we make users choose our app when the features are similar?
UX RESEARCH METHOD 02: USER SURVEYS
With the question of "Why choose us" in mind, I conducted a user survey to understand the needs of divorced parents.
User Needs and Pain Points
Understand users' needs in scheduling, communication, and finances, along with key challenges in similar apps.
Feature Prioritization
Gather feedback from users on the current features of KidsFirst to identify which are most popular and what new or improved features they desire.
User Experience Feedback
Collect user evaluations of the app's interface, interaction flow, and overall experience to identify areas for improvement.
Perceptions of Competing Products
Gather user opinions on other apps and reasons for their choices to inform KidsFirst's unique design.
72%
Emotional responses
72% of people exhibit emotional reactions during communication
64%
Parenting stress
64% of people feel that their parenting responsibilities are overwhelming
67%
Response pressure
The percentage of mistakes made by users while performing the main task is 67%
I collected responses from 38 completed questionnaires through an online survey, and obtained the following data:
I want to care for my kids, but I no longer want to interact with the other parent.
87% of the separated parents share the same sentiment
Summarizing Research
What did did I take away from my research?
The topic initiators often do not receive timely responses
Divorced families often face communication barriers
allowing the other party to see their availability when needed while keeping certain schedules private
Divorced parents often struggle to progress on shared tasks
allowing the other party to see their availability when needed while keeping certain schedules private
Divorced parents want to share their calendars flexibly
How might we facilitates timely communication and effective management of shared parenting tasks between both parties?
DESIGN SOLUTION
Problem/Opportunity Spaces
How am I going to address the problem spaces in my designs?
Problem space #1: The topic initiator takes a long time to start a topic.
I want to create an optional topic generation process to improve the efficiency of topic creation.
Create Event
Event name*
Type the note here...
Date
Repeat
Never
End time
Start time
Select Catgeory
+ Add new
Invitees
None
Add attachment...
Excessive Information Required
Users are required to manually fill out excessive information when generating topics, which not only consumes a lot of time but also leads to frustration.
Omission of Important Information
Due to the large amount of information, users may overlook important details, causing the other party to struggle to quickly grasp key information.
Final Design
Using a fill-in-the-blank format, users only need to provide key information
Allows users to add brief descriptions instead of requiring complete sentences
Provides a list of child-related keywords or phrases to help users quickly select suitable topics
Problem space #2: Topic approvers struggle to respond quickly because they can't quickly grasp the content of the topics.
Final Design
Redesign the presentation of topics to include priority and other essential information, along with a quick reply button for easier response.
Add clear call-to-action buttons at the end of the topic information to facilitate quicker responses
Use different colors and icons to highlight key information
Provide a collapsible section for non-essential information to highlight the key details
Lengthy messages delay communication.
This leads to delayed response times, affecting communication efficiency between both parties
Lower communication willingness
Frequent lengthy messages may cause the recipient to become resistant to further communication, affecting the collaborative relationship
Pick Up the Kid
SmileSync :Building Bridges with Friendly and Effective Communication
Type in your answer with SmileSync
20 min ago
Hi Jenny,
Yes, will do.
Could you please provide me with a snack list?
Thank you.
1 min ago
Hi Tim,
Sure, here are the list:
apple*1
cheese*1
milk*1
water*1
Home
Calendar
Topic
Doc
What I learned
Users are my best partners
Their insights and feedback are essential to understanding their needs and preferences.
We can pursue various goals, but we must have a clear focus
Only by effectively addressing the communication issues between divorced parties can we benefit everyone involved.
© 2024 Yan Zhang. All rights reserved.
Let’s get in touch!
What I learned
Make the most of existing resources
By integrating and reusing existing resources, new application scenarios can be discovered.
My passion for UX design
This was my first ever long-term UX design endeavor, and I found so much fulfillment in being able to do my own primary research, as well as conduct secondary research to further develop my application.
