Punkin Patch Daycare
What is Punkin' Patch Daycare Website
Punkin' Patch website is a concept design for the daycare website to get status updates about children in daycare.
The challenge
I chose Punkin' Patch daycare for this project because they currently do not have a website presence and in this day and age that can make a business really difficult to maintain. I started this project to continue cultivating my skills in research and interaction design.
Side note: I do not work for Punkin' Patch and they are not paying me to do this project. I took this upon myself and the views in this case study are strictly my own. I don't have access to their data or their business plans to fully understand why they currently do not have a website to only have a Facebook group and a one-page link on the church website. As a result, this case study is not an end all to the process and I'm not suggesting they forego all the other work they have done and use only my work.
Project goals
- Facilitate a way for the daycare to promote news and updates and events to the parents they interact with
- Gain empathy for the parents and the daycare teachers of the company
- Design a site that allows parents to see what is happening at their child's daycare
- Get better at User research for small businesses and their customers
- Facilitate a way for the daycare to promote their business and the services they offer to parents and children
- Design a delightful experience for the parents interesting in taking their children to this daycare
Role(s)
- User researcher
- Product Designer
- User Experience Designer
- Visual Designer
Process
Here is a brief look into the process I used for this project.
My process follows a design thinking strategy:
Understand -> Research -> Analyze -> Design -> Launch -> Test
Understand
Before starting my design solutions I asked myself a few questions:
Who is it that will visit the website?
- Parents who work and don't have a stay-at-home care
- Single parents who need daycare for when they are at work
What are their reasons for visiting the site?
- Get safe and affordable daycare for their kids
- Find a place for their children that will help them learn and grow as an individual
- Find out more about the childcare curriculum and accreditation/licensing
- Determine long they were in business and if they have a good history
- Rooms and schedules
- Links to Social Media
- Pictures of the entire facility
- Rates/Payment options
- Where to enroll/waiting list info
What will keep them coming back to the site?
- Check on their child during the day
- See upcoming events
- Parent Portal
Research
I did some online exploratory research into how other daycare websites were structured and what information they typically included for parents. Since Punkin' Patch has no website—any features from other websites were sure to be helpful to the parents who want to learn more about the care facility.
They do have a Facebook page but it isn't really well kept. The best information traffic this business has currently is their Instagram accounts for each individual room of the facility, but that information is only available to people who have already enrolled their children. They currently don't have a noticeable way to get the attention of new parents
Their lack of digital presence does not allow new prospective parents to see the great work this daycare is doing. There is a single page of information about the daycare on the First Baptist Church website, but it's not easily found and it appears like an afterthought of the church rather than a separate business.
Analyze
Persona
I created a proto-personas of a potential Patch Parent based on some online research and my understanding of the people who I know that use this daycare for their children. This persona was created with assumptions and not fully research-based but it was something I constantly used to guide my design decisions and priorities.
Design
From that research, I began to list out the types of features that Christine might want to see on the daycare website.
Potential Features
- Information about the daycare curriculum
- List of the types of programs for each age
- Information on each classroom available
- Information about waiting list of classrooms
- Enrollment Information and access to forms she needs to fill out
- An About the Punkin' Patch page
- Information about the program activities and how they can be re-enforced at home
- Social Media connections
- Meal Calendar
- Staff Information
- Contact information
- Directions to the facility
- Schedule a tour options
- Testimonials
- Virtual Tour of the Facility
- Photo and Bio of Staff members along with accreditations
User Flow
Here's how I would imagine the process of working for Christine's ideal scenario as a first-time visitor:
Christine searches for "child daycare near me" on a search engine
She pulls up the record of Punkin' Patch Daycare (PPD)
She views the site information on the home about the daycare offerings and what she can expect.
She takes more time to discover who the teachers are and what the curriculum is for PPD
She likes what she sees and makes a decision to fill out enrollment for her child.
Information Architecture
I started working on the information architecture of the site using Christine as my guide for how it should be structured. In addition to this, I used my research if similar websites to determine a structure for the site navigation.
Here's the initial design structure on for navigation/site architecture:
About Us
- Our History
- Our Teachers / Staff
- Accreditation
- Our Mission Statement
- Our Teaching Philosophy
Pricing
- Pricing structure
- Pricing breakdown for each age group
Classrooms
- Curriculum
- Infant Room
- Photos
- Teachers
- Toddler rooms
- Photos
- Teachers
- Preschool rooms
- Photos
- Teachers
Schedule/Events
- Event Calendar
- Class Schedules
Contact Us
- Phone Number
- Address
- Email address
- Hours of Operation
- Directions
Join our team
- Hiring manager email
- Job listings
Social Media Feed
- Instagram Feed
Login
- Parent Portal
- Child Profile
- Account Settings
Schedule a Tour
- Schedule Date
- Schedule Form
Mockups
Here's a look at the mockups of the Punkin' Patch Daycare website.
Mood/Aesthetic
I wanted to give the site a playful aesthetic while avoiding the commonly gimmicky look found on other websites in this industry.
- Simple and Clean
- Fun and Playful
- Colorful
- Pumpkin-patch inspired
- Family
- Illustrative
- Non-cheesy photography
- Whitespace
- Animals
- Other gourds
Home Page
About Us Page
Teachers Page
Classrooms Page
Events page Mockups
Contact Page Mockups
Prototype
If you want to see the site for yourself you can check out the prototype of the concept here
Conclusion
After it is all said and done here's what I learned.
I think the biggest challenge is the fact ht the current business had no content present online promoting their business. Not even their parent site(First Baptist Church) could provide information about this place.
Here's what worked.
Overall the design created via my guerilla research was appealing to the people I presented it to and they like the information and aesthetic enough to browse through the prototype to learn more.
Here's what went wrong.
Since this was a personal project the only thing there wasn't a lot that went wrong. The only challenge that I had to work around was in showing images of kids. I had to scour the web for useable images that were not in violation of privacy while also matching the aesthetic and mood I was intending for the site.
