This project aims to improve the experience of parents enrolling their child in a daycare. Finding childcare can be a difficult task, whether you are a new parent, recently moved to a new area, or wondering what options are available to you and your family. This process is a time for parents to consider their needs and the daycares to consider their resources. I saw an opportunity in this space to create a platform for parents as well as business that is discrete and time-saving.

Duration: 2 week design sprint

Tools: Sketch, Invision, Adobe suite, Figma

Methodology: Interviews, Service Design BluePrint, Childcare Ecosystem, Mobile app Prototype

DISCOVER

Research

I started the discovery phase by sending out surveys to parents and gauging the responses into my next round of research. For immersive research experience, I visited 2 different child daycares to breakdown the experience of the enrollment process through contextual enquiry. To further validate my experiences, I interviewed existing and past clients in one of the child daycares, few teachers and directors.

Research Insights

•Finding a childcare is an intensive process both for daycare and parents

•It demands energy, time and resources

•Millennial parents start the search online first and then schedule daycare visits

•Recommendations and rating are important to parents for finalizing a daycare

•Proximity from home is a key driver in finalizing a daycare

•The non availability of daycares is a major blocker in the search

•The admission process is manual and lengthy, inviting more errors

•The daycare tours are pretty long and in odd hours (nap time)

•The on-boarding of a new child is a linear process for daycares, that causes miscommunication

How might we…

On Gaining insights from the research, I mapped out the ecosystem of the existing service, to better understand the opportunities to design seamless services for parents who are looking to find the right childcare for their kid. On synthesizing the research data, I found four high level opportunities for which I could provide potential solutions.

How might we design a comprehensive child enrollment process for parents?

How might we simplify the admission process?

How might we streamline the Form submission process?

How might we make the search process more resourceful and enticing?

Competitive Analysis

- The existing websites in this space are trying to improve the experience of parents to a larger extent but some of the unique features are still unexplored. Some of the features like Parent Reviews, recommendations, Online Tour, Online Forms, Comparison chart for parents could be good opportunity areas to work as possible solutions. — The existing websites in this space are trying to improve the experience of parents to a larger extent but some of the unique features are still unexplored. Some of the features like Parent Reviews, recommendations, Online Tour, Online Forms, Comparison chart for parents could be good opportunity areas to work as possible solutions.

Comparative study

I looked at some of the apps that give the users autonomy to decide about their life events. The apps like Rent. Com and Carmax help the user make personal decisions leaving the user with satisfaction and security. Finding the right daycare by the parent for their kid is an overwhelming process. To make this whole process comprehensive and less intimidating, the app will have features like Parent recommendations, reviews , HD virtual tours of daycares.

DEFINE

Mind Mapping

Chilcare Enrollment Ecosystem

Key Touchpoints

USER PERSONA

Amongst all the interviews, I identified our primary user persona as the Millennial Mom, who balances her work and life with the help of smart devices. She values Productivity, Privacy and Time. Our User is someone who is very Tech Savvy and is multi tasking always. To design the experience for someone like Shawna, my process was guided by three principles.

• Minimize users’ cognitive loads

• Easy access to information

• Reduce user’s decision-making time

Task Flow: Parent Journey in finding daycare

Service Design Blueprint

DEVELOP

Concept

For each of the 4 touchpoints, I created unique design solutions that were guided by our principles with an aim to provide a seamless experience to the user. Throughout the experience, I worked towards creating minimum friction points and maintaining a consistent experience for the user.

I designed with a purpose of reducing overall time spent in child enrollment process. I emphasized on a holistic experience with use of HD virtual tours to virtually guide users about Daycare and thereby reducing their overall search time.