WeCare - Case Study
The Challenge:
Design an app that parents and guardians use to enroll their kids in after-school care and pay for the service.
The Goal:
Identify user needs and pain points to create a positive enrollment experience.
My Roles:
-
UX Researcher (interviews, personas, testing)
-
UX Designer (wireframes, prototypes)
Part 1 - Empathize
User Interviews
For my interviews, I selected participants with the following characteristics: People who have children in their care between ages 3 - 13, including participants of different genders, ages, abilities, marital statuses, and incomes.
I prepared open ended interview questions including the following:
How often do you enroll a child in after school care? When you do, what is your motivation? What challenges do you face in the process of signing up for an after school program? What challenges do you face in the process of paying for an after school program? How do these challenges make you feel?
Aggregated Empathy Map
Says:
-
“I don’t have enough time to spend on signing up for after-school care”
-
“Having someone watch your kid is personal, and signing up for child care online doesn’t feel personal enough”
-
“I wish child care programs were more upfront about their prices before making me go through all the work”
-
“It’s usually more trouble than its worth”
Thinks:
-
"After-school child care programs are difficult and time consuming to arrange"
-
"The process of enrolling in after school care takes more time than I have to give"
-
"After-school care is expensive"
-
"After-school care helps support me when I’m working"
-
"It would be impossible for me to work without after-school care"
Feels:
-
Frustrated from spending so much time finding and enrolling in childcare
-
Stressed about not having enough time to complete the online enrollment
-
Stressed about finding affordable care
-
Excited to get kids into after school programs
-
More comfortable signing up in person
-
Worried about forgetting or losing info
User
Does:
-
Depends on after-school care for kids while working
-
Takes advice from friends on where to enroll for after-school care
-
Spends a lot of time finding a child care programs before deciding to enroll
-
Speaks to someone in person or via phone before enrolling online in after care
-
Documents details from apps / websites
User find after-care expensive and difficult to budget for. We can help users by being transparent and informative about pricing and available payment plans.
Pain Points
Users find enrolling in after-care time consuming when they’re already short on time. We can help users by making the process quick and seamless.
User find enrolling in after-care too complex and detailed. We can help users by making the process easy to navigate and providing documentation of details.
Users feel more nervous and untrusting enrolling in after-care online than in person. We can help users by providing ways to get to know the program and staff.
Personas
User Journey
Create a welcoming vibe to ease user discomfort and stress with positive views of life with after-school care
*Making sure the video has closed captioning, and alternate text to describe the video that can be read by a screen reader..
Accessibility Considerations
Show an estimated time length for the enrollment and any materials needed.
Send email confirmation.
*Provide options for confirmation/contact info to include people with low vision, less tech savvy people, people who don’t have regular email or phone access
Make the process as quick as possible.
*Making the process quick will be also helpful to users with limited phone access or time, and users who need more time to complete the process due to a physical or cognitive disability.
*Estimated time length would exclude people who take more time, such as someone who is neurodiverse, disabled, less tech savvy, or multitasking
Part 2 - Define
Problem Statements & Hypothesis Statements
Problem Statement
Alex Johnson is a working, single father who needs to be able to budget for and easily enroll his child in after-school care on his phone because he has limited financial resources, and doesn’t always have access to a computer.
Hypothesis Statement
If Alex Johnson uses the WeCare app to enroll his child in after-school care, then he will be able to easily evaluate the cost of and pay for the enrollment on his phone.
Part 3 - Ideate
How Might We Questions
HMW get parents excited about the pricing?
HMW help parents feel comfortable paying online?
HMW help parents budget for after-school care?
HMW help parents who can’t afford our after-school care options?
HMW create an enrollment process that takes less than a minute?
HMW take up too much user time?
HMW allow busy parents to skip the enrollment process?
HMW make parents feel accomplished after finishing the enrollment process?
HMW create a enrollment process that parents find fun?
HMW create an enrollment process that kids can be involved in?
HMW allow users to chose what type of enrollment process they want?
HMW save the users from ever having to write anything down about the after-school care?
HMW allow parents to connect with the staff?
HMW allow children to connect with the staff?
HMW allow children to get excited about the program?
HMW show children and parents what it would be like if they were enrolled?
Crazy Eights
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |
Storyboard
Part 4 - Prototype
User Flow & Information Architecture
Paper Wireframes
My Home page paper wireframes helped me settle on a structure with tab bar navigation to allow users to quickly and easily get to the page they need, and a simple home screen showing a welcome video and positive review to help users get to know and trust the company.
My After-School Care page paper wireframes helped me settle on a structure with filters to allow users to find care within their budget and scheduling needs, with search results including a picture, description, and price for each program to provide transparency to users to help save them time and effort, and establish their trust.
Digital Wireframes
Welcome Video with closed captioning to help users get to know the company
Positive Review to help users trust the company
Filtered search to help users find care within their budget and scheduling needs
Enroll button to quickly and easily start enrollment once users find the program they want
Description of program including price and photo for convenience and transparency
Quick enrollment form to save users time
Optional information field to save some users time, and allow other users to feel more personally connected
Clear indication of next step to ease the enrollment process
Order Preview to ease the enrollment process and establish trust
Option to pay online or in person to allow users a quicker process, and for users paying by cash or check, or who don’t have the money available yet
Part 5 - Test & Refine
First Round of Usability Testing
Usability Testing Insights:
-
Users want to be able to enroll multiple children at once
-
Users want to be able to add multiple parent / guardian names
-
Users want to be able to add multiple child names and age groups
Second Round of Usability Testing
Usability Testing Insights:
-
Users find the filter button and search button unnecessary and confusing
-
Users want to be able to clear the filters
-
Users are confused by what all the numbers mean in the program description and feel frustrated that they can't find the details they want quicker
-
Users with a screen reader don't know what page they are on with the "filter" heading
-
Users want to be able to find a teacher's title/job without reading their whole biography
-
Users would like to be able to calculate the price change when deciding how many children to enroll
Third Round of Usability Testing
Usability Testing Insights:
-
Users expect the contact us icons to open up email, phone, and maps when clicked
-
Users want to see the price next to the pay button so they can quickly double check
-
Users want to see the full price breakdown
-
Users are frustrated that they can't easily skim the order preview to double check something
Sticker Sheet
High-fidelity Prototype
We addressed our user's pain points by creating an app that is...
-
transparent and informative about pricing
-
has a quick and seamless enrollment process
-
is easy to navigate
-
provides documentation of details
-
and includes ways to get to know the program and staff.
Personal Takeaways...
-
I was surprised to learn that although after-school care is a way to give parents/guardians more time, the process of enrollment can be so time consuming that some users find it outweighs the benefits.
-
Getting the app to be detailed enough that parents/guardians feel comfortable, while quick enough to use was a big challenge.
-
Another big challenge was creating a welcoming and trustworthy app that users would find comparable to enrolling in after-school care in person.
-
I was also surprised that most users have difficulty finding prices on similar apps and websites, and happy to find that providing transparent pricing was an easy and beneficial fix.