Make parenting easier with customized parenting tips
UX/UI Design
Period 2 months
Tool Figma, Maze
Contribution 100%
(Self-initiated)
From “I wouldn’t use this app.”
To “When can I download it?”
During user research for this app, Sonia was skeptical about using an app for personalized parenting advice, stating, "I have used many apps, and they didn’t work for my child. Personally, I won’t use a parenting app." But after testing the prototype, she changed her mind, asking, "When can I download this app? I would love to use it.”
🔑 It’s the KEY importance of listening to users and integrating their feedback into the design.
When I visited Korea, I saw my aunt struggling to support my cousin, Julie, who was battling emotional challenges. My aunt eventually quit her job to care for her full-time, yet she still felt lost and unsure of how best to help. Her struggle inspired me to think: What if there were an app that could simplify expert advice, helping parents easily assess their child's temperament and receive customized, practical resources? By making guidance more accessible, we could empower parents to better understand and support their children.
Domain context:
My role:
As it was a self-initiated project, I was responsible for conducting user research to gather insights from parents, analyzing common key pain points, and designing an MVP interface that enables users to take an assessment and receive customized parenting tips.
Design solution:
The design solution offers personalized parenting advice based on a child’s age, gender, and temperament. Based on this input, the platform generates individualized strategies and resources, including parenting tips, an AI supporter, live sessions, and a mood graph. By providing personalized insights, it will help parents understand and support their children, fostering healthier relationships and promoting positive development.
DISCOVERY
PHASE 1
Start by asking, “What should I cook today?” Consider who you’re cooking for—like your 2-year-old who needs soft food or a friend who loves crunchy chips. Knowing your audience helps you find the perfect recipe!
Understanding Parents by Listening to Their Struggles
Deep User Interviews
I interviewed 6 parents to understand their needs and struggles in parenting. This helped me clearly identify their needs and revealed challenges I hadn’t considered before. With these insights, I was able to prioritize features for the MVP.
If you’re a parent, you understand that opening up about how you raise your children can be sensitive. With this in mind, I revised my interview script six times, seeking feedback from colleagues to maximize the efficiency of the interviews.
#Don’t trust online parenting tips
#Every child is different
#Often doubt their parenting
#Self-control is tough
Creating Personas to Clarify Users' Specific Needs
Persona
Based on the user interviews, I created personas to narrow the scope of common needs and struggles, I was able to identify the prevalent pain points more clearly, which in turn helped me develop potential solutions.
How might we design a personalized parenting experience that support parents, ease comparison stress, and foster confidence in their parenting journey?
Browsing Existing Parenting Apps to Understand the Market
Service Research
I analyzed five parenting apps, reviewing their features and user feedback to identify potential opportunities. This research helped me understand the general approach for engaging with parents through the app.
Opportunities for JoyParent 🔑
Most apps are age-based only—there’s an opportunity for personalized parenting guidance.
Personalization
AI technology enables us to provide expert, customized insights affordably by drawing from professional resources.
Affordability
DEFINITION
PHASE 2
Then, it’s time to gather the ingredients based on the recipe. You can make your own recipe from the beginning or utilize the exiting recipe based on your needs.
Brainstorming Solutions and Prioritizing Key Features
Priority Grid
Based on the common needs and pain points identified during the discovery process, I utilized the Priority Grid method to select the key features that address the core needs for parents. In 15 minutes, I generated 15 solutions, filtered out those most relevant to users' needs, and organized them based on User Value and Effort to Build.
Gathering child psychology resources to build assessments
Assessment resource
I focused on temperament to provide personalized parenting tips —an inherent quality children are born with that influences major behaviors such as activation, inhibition, and maintenance of actions.
As it’s one of the most important factor that decides the right parenting direction, I decided to dig deeper by reading Temperament and Parenting Styles in Early Childhood (NIH), The Customized Child Temperament Parenting Manual by Dr. Jung Ga-eun and watching over 250 episodes of My Little Golden Child by Dr. Oh Eun-young, allowing me to map out key elements of a child’s temperament and create relevant assessment questions.
Then, I developed 5-7 questions for each category to assess temperament.
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Strong curiosity for new things.
Upset easily when unable to do desired activities.
Quick to lose interest in new toys.
Repeating the same behavior despite multiple cautions.
Comfort with a structured routine.
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Frequent use of phrases like “I’ll do it myself.”
Tendency to get nervous in unfamiliar situations.
Taking time to consider before trying new things.
Needing time to adjust to new people or situations.
Often feeling worried and shy.
Avoids breaking rules in risky situations.
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High awareness of others' reactions.
Actions vary based on others’ emotions, expressions, and praise.
Strong desire for praise and recognition.
Difficulty expressing true feelings, leading to inner burden.
Mood improvement even after being in a bad mood.
Struggles to fit in with small groups.
Difficulty empathizing with others’ emotions.
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Easily discouraged by own mistakes.
Ability to focus on one activity for extended periods.
Continued effort until achieving success, even with setbacks.
Crumpling or throwing paper when folding doesn’t go well.
Viewing play as competition rather than enjoyment.
Tendency to give up on tasks or learning midway.
Goal: Providing maximum trust with minimum input in the beginning
Crafting Assessment Experience
Since this is one of the first steps parents encounter after signing up, it’s crucial to provide maximum trust and confidence with minimum input. Which means it has to be easy to navigate. I also observed that parents expressed a need for quick and straightforward solutions during the chaotic moments of parenting.
“I can only use my phone when the babies are sleeping. Quickly and quietly!”
1. Decision Making Process - Assessment Interface
For the temperament assessment, I initially created 6 options, assuming that offering more detailed choices would make parents feel more valued.
Before
However, taking into account user feedback highlighting the importance of time and efficiency, I refocused my efforts and implemented the following iterations:
Simpler: Reduced the options from 6 to 5.
Visual: Sized circles based on the frequency of each child’s activity.
Delightful: Chose yellow, blue, and gray to clearly communicate with users and convey that there are no “good” or “bad” answers.
Final version
2. Decision Making Process - Speedy Action
After testing, I implemented a "Click and Go" interaction to minimize the time needed to get results. As a result, I was able to reduce 13 seconds!
Before: 35s
After: 22s 🎉
DEVELOP
PHASE 3
As we gather the main ingredients, it’s time to start cooking! It’s essential to remind ourselves why we are cooking this dish and who we are cooking it for. This understanding will guide us in how to prepare it.
Sketching Concepts to Solve Key Problems
Low Fidelity
I explored various options using pen and paper, asking myself 'Why' and 'How' questions for every decision I was made. Being a solo project allowed me to take my time with this process, which helped build a solid foundation for each decision and kept my focus on the users.
Decision Making Process - Interface Structure
I conducted quick tests with parents to make clearer decisions before moving to the high-fidelity design. Here’s an example:
I initially placed the child's information at the top for parents with multiple children to swipe quickly. However, feedback indicated that it was inconvenient to see this info first and always. This helped me to refocus on the main issue and solutions parents need: 'Providing Parenting Tips.
Before
Users
Users wanted quick access to core info to address their pain-points with their children and feel checking already known details is unncessary.
After
Decision made
I decided to remove it from the main page and will reconsider its placement later, focusing instead on solving the main problem for the MVP.
Assumptions that seem certain can be wrong, so ask target users to validate them before building the product.
🔑 Key Learning
Creating a Style Guide to Keep the Product Consistent
Style Guide
I developed a style guide with colors and fonts chosen based on parents' feedback: they wanted the app to bring calm to the daily chaos of scattered toys. I incorporated brown and turquoise tones inspired by trees and added a few pastel accent colors. Asking about desired themes for a parenting app during user research was especially helpful in building the style guide.
High Fidelity
Detailed and Structured UI Work
Based on the UX and UI components, I began building each screen with a clear design to ensure parents could navigate quickly and easily.
Challenge: I designed this app in Korean and English, considering that some users might feel more comfortable with one language during usability testing. Translating cultural context and finding suitable images took more time than anticipated. However, this approach allowed me to test users in two different countries.
DELIVER
USER PROBLEM:
Users don’t trust online parenting tips.
Building Trust Through Onboarding
To build trust, I focused on addressing the "why" behind common problems. By highlighting how this app resolves each cause of distrust and delivering a key user needs, I establish trust throughout the onboarding process.
USER PROBLEM:
Parenting tips are too general.
Assessment for Parenting Tips
Based on interviews with parents and insights from the Child Psychology Association, I identified key factors shaping a child’s unique traits: age, birth order, gender, and temperament.
I structured the assessment to begin with basic questions, gradually progressing to temperament-focused questions. This approach eases users in by starting simple and gradually going deeper. For more on how I developed the temperament questions, check Define part.
USER PROBLEM:
Parenting tips are too general, and mismatched milestones make users feel anxious about my child’s progress.
Customized Tips & Child Mood Tracker
Parents expressed two needs: they wanted to see general developmental milestones for their children while also avoiding anxiety if their child’s progress didn’t align with those milestones. I decided to address this by providing both types of information:
1.General milestones based on age.
2. Mood Tracker for Individual Wonder Weeks: This tool is essential for parents, as it helps them anticipate their baby’s wonder weeks and prepare to provide support during critical developmental phases.
USER PROBLEM:
Difficulty managing emotions and the need for quick access to parenting information based on.
Conquer Your Time and Anger: AI Assistant, Parent Supporter
After recognizing the importance of emotional control in the daily challenges faced by parents, I added a feature called the “Parenting Supporter,” that offers real-time parenting solutions by generated AI, and the Anger Button to support parents emotional challenges.
ITERATIONS/ RESULTS
1. Using Data to Find Opportunities
Iterations
I conducted remote usability testing with 9 parents using Maze, aiming to ensure smooth app navigation. The test was divided into four key steps: Onboarding + Assessment, Main Page, and AI Chatbot.
Between each phase, I included open-ended questions, allowing users the freedom to share their thoughts and experiences in greater detail.
From this analysis, I realized that screens without clear CTAs could cause confusion about where to click, so I added clear CTAs to those screens to improve navigation.
Before
After
Creating Prototyping to Enhance the Experience
Prototyping
After finalizing the screens, I created a prototype in Figma to ensure a smooth and intuitive testing experience for users.
When can I download this app?
Usability Test Result
Users express how they want to download this app and test it to user for their parenting in real life!
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