Value Proposition
Kids Club is an after-school care app for finding, booking, and paying for after-school activities. For this project, we used a goal-directed design method that focuses on our persona creation and goals. Our target users are parents and caregivers who work full-time and are unable to pick their kids up from school.
Project Type: Case Study
Role: Team Lead, Visuals, Interaction
Project Duration: June 2025 to September 2025
Challenges
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Flexible checkout: Allow parents to review and adjust activities before and after booking.
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Recurring bookings: Save time by allowing families to repeat activity bookings automatically.
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Accessible design: Create a simple, intuitive experience for both tech-savvy parents and less experienced caregivers.
Understanding the Problem
Parents needed a simple way to discover, book, and pay for after-school activities — without adding stress to their already busy schedules.
Key Themes from Research
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Age-appropriate & engaging activities: Parents wanted programs that fit their child’s age and matched their interests.
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Fragmented options: Existing platforms were scattered and inconsistent, making it difficult to compare and book.
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Cumbersome repeat bookings: Parents found themselves re-entering the same information for recurring activities, which was time-consuming and error-prone.
Gaining Insights
To explore these needs, we used a goal-directed design approach:
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Competitive audit: revealed gaps in recurring bookings, age-based filtering, and transparent pricing.
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User interviews & affinity mapping: highlighted parents’ desire for both efficiency and flexibility.
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Personas: kept our focus on two groups: busy working parents and less tech-savvy caregivers.
Meet the Users
Persona: Sofia
Age: 35
Occupation: College Teacher
Persona: Donna
Age: 58
Occupation: Small Business Owner
Sofia is a passionate and hard-working mom who needs to find after-school activities for her kids because she has to work late and can’t be there to pick them up. It’s important to her that they are having fun while waiting for her.
Donna is a small business owner with a busy schedule who needs to find after-school care for her grandchild because her shop is open later than the school bell. Donna has sole custody of her grandchild, but also a thriving business. Donna is not tech-savvy but can learn if shown how.
Turning Insights into Opportunities
Our research highlighted three opportunities that shaped the design:
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Clarity & trust: upfront information on activities, age groups, and costs.
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Efficiency: recurring booking functionality and a simple checkout flow.
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Accessibility: a minimalist, intuitive interface that worked for a wide range of users.
Preparing the Journey
We mapped a start-to-finish user journey of booking an activity to visualize pain points and touch points. This helped us:
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Understand user goals at each stage
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Spot friction points early
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Align navigation and interactions with real-world needs
These insights informed our first paper wireframes, ensuring the design addressed real user needs before moving into higher-fidelity iterations.
Wireframes
We began with paper and low-fidelity wireframes to explore the booking flow and overall structure of the app. This step allowed us to:
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Test different layouts quickly
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Focus on functionality before visuals
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Align the flow with our project goals
We iterated heavily at this stage to ensure the core UX felt intuitive and efficient before moving into high-fidelity design.
Iteration through Usability Testing
After creating a prototype from our low-fidelity wireframes, we conducted a moderated usability study with 5 participants. Each participant completed a series of booking tasks while we observed their interactions and noted pain points.
Key Insights:
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Parents wanted an easy way to book recurring activities.
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Activity days and dates were not always clear or easy to find.
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Users wanted quicker access to their children’s favourite activities.
These insights guided the next round of design iteration, helping us refine the flow, improve clarity, and prioritize features that mattered most to parents.
After analyzing the usability study findings, we identified the core areas where the app could better support parents’ needs. These insights directly informed the key challenges we addressed through design:
CHALLENGE 1
Flexible Checkout
Parents need both efficiency and reassurance when booking activities. Early feedback showed that users felt unsettled without a clear opportunity to review their cart. To solve this, I introduced a dedicated review step in the checkout flow. Parents can also make changes after booking, ensuring mistakes are easy to fix and enrolment feels stress-free.
CHALLENGE 2
Recurring Bookings
Parents often juggle demanding careers and family schedules, so repeating the same booking each week felt like unnecessary work. To reduce effort, I designed a recurring booking feature that allows parents to “set it and forget it.” They can opt out at any time, which balances convenience with flexibility.
CHALLENGE 3
Accessible Design
Although the primary audience was parents in their 20s–30s, usability testing revealed that some caregivers were less tech-savvy. To make Kids Club inclusive, I focused on a minimalist interface, clear iconography, intuitive gestures, and a linear purchase process. This ensured the app felt familiar and approachable for a wide range of users.
Sticker Sheet
To create a strong brand presence, we focused on a consistent visual system throughout the app. Our competitive audit highlighted the importance of a safe, welcoming environment for kids, and research confirmed that safety and reliability were top concerns for parents.
Our sticker sheet includes:
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Colour palette: bright, calming tones that communicate fun and safety
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Typography: clear, readable fonts for all users
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Buttons & UI elements: reusable components for consistent interaction
Takeaways
This project was my first experience completing the full design process, and I gained valuable lessons:
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The power of user research: insights from real users shaped design decisions and highlighted opportunities to improve the experience.
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Iterative design matters: refining prototypes based on feedback created a stronger, more user-friendly product.
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Design is never finished: the true measure of success is how well the product meets users’ needs. Since those needs can change over time, it’s important to continuously iterate to respond to evolving demands.
I’m excited to continue building on these skills, improving both research methods and design iterations in future projects.