OVERVIEW
There is an opportunity to create a competitive parent-teacher communication application, if we design a product that takes a different twist on the currently existing application experiences and delivers the target audience with the all encompassed interface they are looking for. Furthermore, refining the features of the competitive applications' flaws will create a lot of potential for our product.
OBJECTIVE
Create an easy to use and reliable communication app providing confidence and practicality for daily usage for parents and teachers of infants and toddlers.
GOAL
The business seeks to help manage teachers and parents regular communication that doesn't result in sending frequent emails or updating notice boards on regular basis.
SOLUTION
As active parents we understand the difficulty of communicating and managing kids' activities on regular basis and have accumulated a large collection of valuable feedback from both parents and teachers as well. We have been able to filter the must have requirements and the good to have features required for the project included but not limited to our app design. We recommend using our amalgamated product with all the desired features designed for both parents and teachers benefit.
OUR STEPS
Started by identifying what business need the project aims to address and how the company will benefit from the project. Then carried out research as appropriate to the size of the project. Next, created personas based on the requirements gathered followed by presentation of the work analysis under each user profile.
Based on our initial research we classified our personas under the following three categories:
1. PARENT
Tried reaching out to 5 parents but could successfully interview 3 of them only. Created the parent persona based on them.
2. TEACHER
Reached out to 2 teachers and synthesized reports and created teacher persona based on my interaction with them.
3. ADMINISTRATOR
Yet to carry out the interview with any admin, given the current circumstances(COVID 19).
PERSONA
REQUIREMENTS
PAPER PROTOTYPING
Designed the following paper prototypes which details how stakeholders will potentially use it in the following scenario:
SCENARIO 1:
After feeding your 9 months old Mia, while preparing dinner you thought of checking what your 4 year old daughter Kyla is supposed to carry to school tomorrow. Also you wanted to check if you need to buy any supplies for next week.
Task 1: You Sign In to Kinder Aide app on your mobile and check what Kyla is supposed to carry tomorrow.
Task 2: You check the chart to get a sneak peak of what items Kyla might need next week.
SCENARIO 2:
You have an important presentation to work on but are distracted by the thought that your daughter Kyla might not be happy at school and may even skip meals since she woke up cranky and had a runny nose too. You want to call her pre school teacher to check on Kyla but then you decided to log on the Kinder Aide app to see if there were any updates from her teacher.
After checking for any updates you decided to drop in a message to the teacher enquiring about Kyla.
Task 3: Go to Kinder Aide app on your mobile and check for any updates on Kyla.
Task 4: You want to inform Kyla's teacher Mrs Helen about her runny nose and that she woke up cranky. You also ask her how Kyla was doing?
SCENARIO 3:
You recently renovated kids room and decided to hang some school pictures of Kyla in a bunch of 4*6 photo frames. You want to order some pictures so that by weekend you receive them for your little DIY.
Task 5: On your Kinder Aide app select photos that you want to print.
Task 6: Order the pictures selected.
SCREENSHOTS
CONCLUSION
Based on the interaction with the user sample concluded the following strengths and weaknesses of these prototypes.
STRENGTHS
It gave us a clear direction on what features one looks out for in an app like this. The feed feature was highly applauded by parents. They were thrilled to view the photo print store option as well. After completing all the tasks some participants took time to go through all the features designed and said that all the features mentioned were quite self explanatory.
WEAKNESSES
They suggested that the 'tomorrow' details looked a bit cluttered and may be re designed. They wanted to see an arrow button beside' tomorrow' to see the next day details as well. In the chat window they wanted a way to just directly post a question to the authority in-charge for their child rather than spending time clicking on the teacher in-charge -since there are times teachers have substitutes and the parents aren't aware of whom to address. These were constructive feedback at a very early stage that will definitely enable me to design a better product.