The Client: LiNana Inc. – an educational consulting company.
Duration: 5 months, 2-week sprints (Agile)
My Role: Lead UX Researcher and UX/UI Designer
The Challenge/Problem to Solve: Solo moms face a challenge of finding reliable and affordable babysitters. It is problematic to trust someone you never met with your children. Also, friends and family don’t always want to look after your kiddos for free. In my role at LiNana Inc. as a Lead Researcher, I decided to explore how I might help solo moms with this issue. WHY? I’m a solo mom myself, so I face this issue on a regular basis.
Process (Planning, Research, and Design):
Secondary Research and Research Plan: I started by conducting secondary research to see what’s out there. From there I constructed a solid research plan:
Background: Solo moms face a challenge of finding reliable and affordable babysitters. It is problematic to trust someone you never met with your children. Also, friends and family don’t always want to look after your kiddos for free. Existing research mentions the need for single parents to hire babysitters. Even though there are typical places mentioned where one can search for a reliable sitter, solo moms still struggle with being able to afford one or to balance their schedule with their careers. Also, single parents experience similar disadvantages in pursuit of sitters, namely less income, inconsistent need, inability to hire a full-time nanny, etc.
Objective
To better understand the challenges and pain points solo moms experience when looking for babysitters.
Research Questions
- What are the most common challenges solo moms face when searching for babysitters?
- What are the most common reasons behind seeking a sitter?
- What resources have solo moms used so far in efforts to find a reliable sitter?
Methodology
Selected participants will take part in a 10-15 minute survey.
Participant Characteristics
The following are the primary characteristics of the study’s participants:
- Identify as solo moms AND
- Have at least one child AND
- Have experienced hiring a babysitter
Recruiting Participants
I will recruit participants through social media (Facebook, Instagram, WeChat, etc.), through friends and family as well as through Slack channels.
Survey: I built a survey with hypotheses and related questions to participants/users.
Survey analysis: I analysed the results of the survey. Grouped the insights into themes using FigJam.
3 biggest take-aways:
- Even though no moms had sorely negative experiences finding a sitter, trust seems to be the most important factor for them.
- It is challenging to find both an affordable and a reliable sitter.
- Solo moms barely ever take any time for themselves and tend to give up on their plans if they can’t find an affordable sitter.
Jobs To Be Done: This helped me understand users’ journeys.
Competitive Research: This helped me understand the app’s competition.
Problem Statements > HMW: By writing those out, I explored my brand’s uniqueness.
- How might we make the process of finding a reliable babysitter smoother for solo moms?
- How might we encourage solo moms to take more time for themselves?
- How might we make resources available to solo moms?
- How might we ensure solo moms are matched with babysitters in their price range?
- How might we help solo moms build trust?
Ideation: I began ideation shortly after my discovery phase.
User Stories: I categorized them into three different levels of urgency.
SIte Map: From there, a site map was created.
User Flows: I developed three main user flows, based on my user needs analysis.
Sketches: With all of the preparation prior to this point, I was ready to sketch!
Wireframes: I started with low-fidelity wireframes for the three main user flows I identified through my research stage of the project. From there, I created mid-fidelity screens and am currently working on hi-fidelity screens.
USER FLOW 1
USER FLOW 2
USER FLOW 3
Brand Platform: This was really fun to make. It gave me an opportunity to align my goals with the stakeholders’ goals. I also created the app’s mission statement at this stage.
Moodboard: I focused on my brand’s attributes and personality at this stage of the UI design process.
Style Guide: Colors, typography, iconography, and wordmark were created next. This is where I focused on the feel of the app.
