KINDERTALES
Kindertales is a mobile and web based childcare management platform aimed at streamlining operations for childcare centers, nurseries, and preschools. The platform's primary goal is to simplify administrative tasks and enhance communication between childcare providers and parents. Under my 10-year tenure as Head of Design, the Kindertales platform has grown to serve over 30,000 children, tens of thousands of child care staff, and over 80,000 parents on a daily basis. Kindertales is the software backbone for hundreds childcare providers internationally including the top 3 providers in Canada.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Branding
- Mobile Product Design
- Web App Product Design
- Wireframing & Prototyping
- Team Leadership
- Project Leadership
- Product Management
- Web & Print Marketing
TOOLS
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Figma
- Asana
- Jira
- Confluence
- MailChimp
- HubSpot
- Microsoft PowerBI
ROLE & TIMEFRAME
- Full-Time - Head of Design
- 2010 - 2024
CHALLENGES
The childcare industry faces numerous challenges, including inefficient communication channels between caregivers and parents, manual administrative processes prone to errors, and difficulties in managing finances. My responsibility was to address these challenges by designing a user-friendly platform that would facilitate seamless communication, automate administrative tasks, and facilitate payments between parents and care providers.
GOALS
- Provide real-time communication and updates between childcare providers and parents.
- Automate administrative tasks to reduce manual workload and errors.
- Allow parents to pay their childcare fees through Kindertales.
- Ensure the security and confidentiality of child information.
- Enhance the overall childcare experience for both providers and parents.
APPROACH
Market Research and Analysis
Conducted extensive research on the childcare industry, including interviews with childcare providers, parents, and industry experts. This helped identify pain points and requirements for an effective childcare management solution.
User Persona Development
Developed detailed user personas representing childcare providers, parents, and administrative staff. This provided insights into their needs, preferences, and challenges, guiding the design process.
Feature Prioritization
Prioritized features based on their impact on addressing user needs and achieving business objectives. Key features included:
- Billing and Payment Processing: Streamlined billing system to manage payments and financial records.
- Parent Communication: Real-time communication between parents and caregivers via a messaging portal, SMS alerts and automated notifications.
- Child Profiles: Simple to navigate profiles for accessing child information, including registration forms, medical records, activity history and billing data.
- Daily Activity Tracking: Real-time tracking to update parents on their child's activities, meals, developmental milestones, and more.
Iterative Design Process
Partnered with established childcare providers and incorporated feedback from them at each stage to refine the user interface and user experience. This involved wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing to ensure intuitive navigation and functionality.
Scalability and Integrations
Designed Kindertales as a scalable solution capable of accommodating the needs of single and multi-location childcare operations. Additionally, we've integrated with existing platforms such as rich media content providers and CRM systems to allow Kindertales to be an all-in-one solution.
BRANDING
It all starts with a name.
My first significant contribution to Kindertales was giving it a name and visual identity. During the course of an identity brainstorming session, I came up with "Kindertales" and the rest was history.
The goal for the logo was to evoke the sense that the product was tied to nurturing children while keeping the identity modern. I avoided the use of cartoony characters or imagery which can become dated quickly and were already present in most competitor's branding.
MOBILE PRODUCT DESIGN
Building a platform so users can spend less time on the platform.
Less time doing administrative tasks and more time with the children is always the end-goal of designing user experiences in Kindertales. Tasks need to be quick and easy to execute and still meet the government and business requirements of the care providers.
Keeping parents connected to their children.
The parent mobile app is designed to primarily as a communication tool to keep parents up to date in real-time. Actions triggered in the staff mobile and web portals trigger push notifications and social media style updates to the parent app that can include photos, video, and content from partner integrations.
Billing, attendance, enrollment forms and health features are also present for parents to leverage if they are unable to access the more powerful desktop web portal.
WEB APP PRODUCT DESIGN
Sometimes you just need a bigger screen.
While the mobile app for staff is primarily focused on classroom-based tasks, the web portal for staff is where heavier administrative actions are taken. These include functions for forecasting and scheduling child enrollment, billing, and finance tools, PowerBI based reporting and much more.
The parent web portal provides a more convenient path to completing long enrollment forms, billing functions and all other features found in the dedicated parent mobile app.
MARKETING
Educating the target market.
Over the course of 10 years at Kindertales I was afforded to directly work on or serve as creative/art director on a huge variety of marketing projects. These included print materials, web marketing, multiple versions of the company website, video production and large-scale trade show presences.
OUTCOMES
COMMUNICATION
Kindertales facilitates seamless communication between childcare providers and parents, leading to increased parent engagement and satisfaction.
EFFICIENT ADMINISTRATION
Automation of administrative tasks such as attendance tracking and billing reduced manual workload, minimizing errors, and saving time for childcare staff.
ENHANCED CHILD SAFETY & DATA SECURITY
By centralizing child information and implementing stringent security measures, Kindertales ensured the safety and confidentiality of child records, promoting trust among parents and caregivers.
POSITIVE USER EXPERIENCE
The intuitive design and user-friendly interface of Kindertales resulted in a positive user experience for both childcare providers and parents, increasing adoption and retention rates.
FINAL THOUGHTS
When designing Kindertales I focused on addressing the unique needs and challenges of the childcare industry. By prioritizing user experience and efficiency, Kindertales has grown to be a leading childcare management solution, revolutionizing the way childcare centers operate and communicate with parents.
CONTACT.
Feel free to reach out if you want to discuss a project or job opportunity.
Mobile: +1 905 334 6280
E-mail: mike@emerymedia.com
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