Family Schedule Management - A UX approach to Modern Parenting.
(A.I. Generated) - Illustration of a happy family; mom, dad, daughter and son, together looking at a tablet.
Overview
In today's fast-paced world, families often find themselves juggling multiple responsibilities. With parents working long hours and children engaged in various activities, managing everyone’s schedule can be overwhelming.
Coordinating schedules between parents and children has become increasingly complex. For working parents, especially those in blue-collar jobs, finding time for appointments or coordinating pickups and drop-offs can be stressful. Divorced parents often struggle with communication and sharing responsibilities, while single parents face the challenge of managing everything on their own.
My Role:
Lead UX Designer
Deliverables:
UX Research
Ideation
Define
WireFraming
Prototype
Process:
As a mother, I initially assumed that my personal experiences would allow me to empathize easily with the needs of families. However, I soon realized the importance of avoiding bias and ensuring that the solution truly embraced the diverse needs of modern families.
To develop an effective family schedule-management app, I began by conducting UX research. This research aimed to identify the primary user groups that would benefit most from such an app, allowing me to understand the unique challenges these groups face in managing their daily schedules, balancing responsibilities, and ensuring effective communication.
Through research, surveys and interviews, I was able to gather valuable insights. Three distinct user groups emerged: families with both parents working, divorced parents, and single parents. Each group presented unique pain points and needs, guiding the direction of the design process.
1- Families where both parents work.
This group consists of families where both parents have jobs that require them to maintain a busy schedule. Within this group, I identified two sub-groups based on economic status, which influences their ability to manage schedules and seek help.
- Sub-group 1: Economically Comfortable Parents
Characteristics: These parents have a stable financial situation, which affords them greater flexibility. They may have the option to leave work for appointments, work from home occasionally, or hire third parties (such as babysitters, nannies, or drivers) to assist with childcare and transportation.
Challenges: Even with financial resources, these parents face challenges in coordinating schedules, especially when balancing professional commitments with their children's activities. They may need a tool that integrates seamlessly with their professional calendars and allows for coordination with hired help.
- Sub-group 2: Blue-collar Working Parents
Characteristics: These parents work in blue-collar jobs, often with long hours and limited flexibility to take time off for family appointments. They may not have the financial means to hire professional help and often rely on extended family, friends, or neighbors to assist with childcare and transportation.
Challenges: The primary challenge for this group is finding reliable and affordable ways to manage their children's schedules while meeting work obligations. They need a solution that helps them coordinate with third-party caregivers and manage their schedules efficiently, despite limited flexibility
2- Divorced Parents
Characteristics: This group includes parents who are divorced or separated and share custody of their children. They face unique challenges in coordinating schedules and managing responsibilities, often struggling with communication and cooperation.
Challenges: Divorced parents may have difficulty agreeing on schedules and dividing responsibilities related to their children. Miscommunications can lead to missed appointments, forgotten commitments, and increased tension. They need a tool that facilitates clear communication, helps divide responsibilities equitably, and keeps both parents informed about their children's activities and needs.
3- Single Parents
Characteristics: Single parents manage the dual responsibilities of working and raising children on their own. They often rely on a support network of family, friends, and neighbors to help manage their children’s schedules.
Challenges: Single parents face significant time constraints and stress as they juggle work and childcare responsibilities. Coordinating with third-party helpers while managing their own and their children’s schedules can be overwhelming. A solution that provides them with easy scheduling tools, reminders, and ways to coordinate with their support network would be invaluable.
Persona created to represent married couples with children, when both have a full-time job.
Persona created to represent divorced parents.
However, as I conducted a competitive analysis, I realized that many existing family schedule-management apps, including my initial concept, often overlook a critical group of users: parents of children with disabilities.
These parents face unique challenges, as their children often require regular therapy sessions, special education services, and social activities tailored to their needs. In addition to these logistical demands, parents are also deeply concerned about their children’s socio-emotional development and well-being. Even when entrusting their children to caregivers, parents would benefit from having a dedicated space within the app to log and track their child's progress, so they can share updates with therapists or educators, and monitor their child's overall development. By addressing the needs of parents with disabled children, the app can provide a more inclusive and comprehensive solution, ensuring that all families have the tools they need to manage their busy lives effectively.
Recognizing this gap in existing solutions, I decided to revisit the ideation phase of my project to ensure that my app would truly meet the needs of all families. To do this, I created a new persona and user journey map specifically focusing on parents of children with special needs. This step allowed me to better empathize with their unique challenges and develop features that cater to their specific needs. By understanding their daily struggles and the importance of effective communication and support, I could design a solution that empowers these parents to manage their children's complex schedules, track their progress, and collaborate seamlessly with caregivers and professionals.
4- Parents of children with special needs
Characteristics: This group includes parents who have children with special needs, facing unique challenges in managing their children's therapy, school schedules, and overall well-being. These parents often juggle multiple responsibilities, including coordinating with co-parents, caregivers, and therapists, while managing their own work-life balance. Additionally, parents of children with disabilities often feel isolated and lonely, as their children's social struggles and intense demands can take over their social life, leaving little room for personal connections.
Challenges: Parents of children with disabilities may struggle with the emotional and logistical complexities of managing their children's needs. This includes ensuring therapy sessions are attended, medication schedules are followed, and special education requirements are met. The added emotional toll of isolation and reduced social interaction can exacerbate their stress. They often face additional pressure to maintain clear communication with co-parents and caregivers, which can lead to confusion or missed responsibilities. These parents would benefit from a tool that not only supports seamless communication and provides clear scheduling for therapy and school activities but also connects them to a supportive community, offering a sense of belonging and reassurance that they are not alone on this journey.
PERSONA:
Persona created to represent parents of children with disabilities and divorced parents .
USER JOURNEY:
Amanda starts her day by reviewing her son's therapy appointments, school schedule, and coordinating with her nanny and co-parent. She needs to make sure everyone is on the same page for pick-ups, drop-offs, and therapy sessions. Communication with her co-parent is often stressful, as they don't always agree on the best approach to her son's care. Throughout the day, Amanda juggles her job as a graphic designer, attending client meetings and deadlines while receiving notifications about her son's activities. By evening, she checks the progress of the day's events to ensure her son’s needs were met.
Intake:
Amanda’s journey is filled with stress, anxiety, and a constant balancing act between her work and managing her son’s care. Improvements to the app could help reduce these stress points by providing quick access to information, better communication tools with her co-parent and nanny, and supportive features that help her feel more in control and reassured about her son’s well-being.
Wireframes:
Wireframes were designed in Figma
continuation in progress....