Esikidz Parent App
Esikidz Parent is a valuable tool for parents to stay connected with their children's daycare experience and simplify the parent's involvement in their child's daycare journey.
The Problem
The current web app poses challenges when accessed through mobile phones, making it inconvenient for parents to use. It hampers their ability to receive timely messages and updates regarding their child's activities. Moreover, parents often require easy access to additional information, such as their child's activity schedule, tuition payment details, and annual tax reports. However, due to the infrequent usage of the web portal by parents, the Esikidz Membership subscription may not hold much appeal for them.
The Team
- Product Manager - Dean
- UI UX Designer - Carina
- Tech Lead - Billy
- Developer - YIng
- Developer - Yenny
The Goal
Our objective is to enhance convenience and accessibility for existing users of the parent web portal, enabling them to access their child's information promptly. Additionally, we aim to attract new parents to our platform, thereby increasing the number of childcare centre users utilizing the Esikidz system.
The Progress
The Esikidz Parent Web App offers a comprehensive range of features, encompassing enrollment processes as well as providing updates on in-school activities. When designing the mobile app, various factors will influence its development, including user flow, project objectives, and business requirements.
Research
After receiving valuable input from our marketing team, we proceeded to conduct interviews and questionnaires to pinpoint the pain points and essential features of the original Web App.
Here are some noteworthy insights we gathered from our interviewers:
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The lack of notification reminders for parents to check daily updates was the most common complaint.
Parent Feedback 1: Sometimes I missed teachers' supplies reminder, only becoming aware of them after dropping off my child at the centre...
Parent Feedback 2: Sometimes I want to check my child's activities in centre but there was nothing updated yet...
Parent Feedback 3: I have no idea when is a good time to open parent portal and I can see all the updates and photos...
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Through our questionnaire, parents were able to indicate the functions they deemed most important for daily use.
Parent Feedback 1: I forgot to pay tuition so many times until centre admin called and reminded me...
Parent Feedback 2: I want to make a photo book each year for my child but downloading photos day by day is tiring.
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We also received valuable suggestions from childcare centre teachers regarding the information they wished parents to review and confirm, as well as their preferences for efficient communication via the app.
Centre Feedback: For some important reminders and information, we need parents to acknowledge. We don't want parents unintentionally missed supply messages and their child won't be happy for that haha...
Team Brainstorming
Based on the feedback we received, our team had a meeting and came up with redesign ideas.
The team generated a multitude of ideas that we aimed to incorporate into the new design, with many stemming from advanced suggestions derived from parental feedback. I endeavoured to achieve all these ideas, although certain compromises were necessary due to return on investment considerations.
Prototype and Iteration
Information Board
Create an information board that showcases the most recent centre documents and school broadcast messages. (This initiative addresses concerns raised by parents who have found it challenging to stay informed about the latest center messages and policy updates.)To enhance user awareness, a notification system will be integrated into this feature, ensuring timely updates reach the users.
Send Check in/out Request to Teacher
We used to use a separate web app for this task, but now we want to integrate this feature into the Parent App. This way, parents won't have to use two different apps. We're planning to add a new section on the home page of the Parent App, allowing parents to easily send check-in or check-out requests for their child to the teachers. This change will make attendance tracking simpler for teachers. Additionally, this feature will help reduce errors and improve overall efficiency.
Notifications of Daily Updates
I've created a section called "Daily Updates" which encompasses child's daily activities, photos, reports, and activity schedules. Through these features, parents can easily access and review their child's daily updates. Furthermore, our system will send notifications whenever teachers upload new content, ensuring parents stay informed about their child's latest developments.
Enhancing Timely Message Communication
To enhance the communication process between parents and teachers, I've introduced a messaging feature as one of the four navigation options at the bottom. After discussions with our PM and developers, it was concluded that implementing a full-fledged chat box akin to regular social media platforms could be challenging. As a solution, I've devised a design resembling a conversation view. Parents can acknowledge messages from teachers and view both teacher acknowledgments and replies (functioning similarly to emails). This design approach ensures effective communication within the app's capabilities.
Haven't Acknowledged Yet
Acknowledged
View Teachers' Reply
Tuition - Embedded All The Possible Payment Methods ( E-Trans, Auto Credit Card, PAD)I
The introduction of this feature serves as a significant step towards simplifying and enhancing the tuition payment experience for parents. By facilitating the option for automatic payments, the system effectively relieves parents from the burden of remembering and manually processing monthly tuition fees. This innovative solution not only ensures a hassle-free payment process but also mitigates the risk of overlooked payments, which can lead to unnecessary complications.
Tuition - Simplifying Payments for Multiple Children
Recognizing that some families have multiple children attending the same centre, I've developed a feature that enables parents to conveniently pay for all their children's tuition with a single tap, using a credit card. This option is available when the daycare center supports online payment methods.
