Babysitting app | My Site 2

The Babysitting center

An app that finds you the best sitters

My role: Research, UX/UI Design, interactions

A good babysitter is a true treasure

As one of the projects I initiated during my studies I planned a babysitting app that can help parents find the best sitter for their kid, with a simple and easy search.

Main goals

Creating an app that will be easy to use for busy, working parents.

Planning an app that will be reliable enough for finding the best babysitters.

Creating an ongoing relationship between parents and trustworthy, qualified babysitters.

Problem

The main problem of babysitting apps is that parents (understandably) are hesitant to put their kids in the hands of people they don't know.

Solution

The Babysitting app that I've planned relies on a growing database of sitters and parents. when looking for a babysitter, parents will see babysitters that are recommended by other parents from their social circle (either from social media, like Facebook or instagram, or from their list of contacts).

Research

In my research I focused on benchmark research and questionnaires that focused on parents group from social media (local groups on Facebook and in WhatsApp).

1 Benchmark research

There are several apps and websites that are focused on finding sitters, as parents all over the world might, sometime, need a sitter. In Israel a babysitting app was active until 2019, but can't be found anymore on the app store. The apps are not based on recommendations from people in your social circle, though.

Sittercity

An extensive database with more than 1 million babysitters, nannies, pet sitters and more.

The search is based on your location.

There is an option for payed background test.

Helpr

Clean, simple design.

The sitters are screened by professionals from Helpr.

The app is used only in the US.

Komae

Colorfull, attractive design.

The app is a cooperative app, which means there's no payment, rather taking turns caring for each other kids.

While the app is a great innovative idea, it is based on the parents' willingness to take care of other kids.

2 Questionnaire

I built a questionnaire that was aimed at parents' groups, aiming to find out what are their needs, wants and major pain points. I included a group of 50 parents.

My conclusions :

Participants included

parents between the ages of 29 to 47

60% of the parents are both working full time. 20% have one partner working part time, 5% of the parents are

a single parent working full time. 15% are both working part time.

85% of the parents use

babysitters. 60% use them

on a regular basis after school/kindergarten/

holidays). 70% use babysitters occasionally

on evening times,

35% of the parents will only use babysitters that

were recommended by people they know. 95%

will rather use babysitters

that were recommended to them by people they know

90% of the parents said that a reliable babysitting app is something they would surely use.

3 Personas

Two personas were developed based on the data that was gathered and analysed. This was done in order to identify the prospective repeating users' behaviours and their motivations and also to plan the app so it will be the most efficient for the users.

4

Based on the questionnaires and personas, I have built the user flow for parents for my app, in order to find potential pain points and the focal points I should focus on while planning the app to be the simplest and accessible as it can.

The next step was to plan the wireframes for the app, keeping it as straightforward and usable as I can.

User flow

5 Detailed Wireframes

Based on the personas I've built and the user flow, I planned wireframes for the app. These wireframes were later prototyped and tested on potential parents. Following that I have identified potential issues that were refined and tested again, prior to the planning of the app.

UI Design process

My main goal was to keep the app very easy to use, while keeping the babysitters database professional and based on parents social circles. I also wanted to assure parents about the babysitters being verified and vetted (as seen on the app's menu). I also aspired to get as much information on each babysitter, without making the app cumbersome or hard to use.

The app. in my eyes, should be modernly designed, in clean lines and bright colors, without making it childish (as the users are parents, not kids).

The final design

Homepage

When opening the app, the first screen is divided to access fir parents and babysitters. I have focused on the parents on this study case.

As a parent, you can either sign in or sign up.

Sitter search and results

The main screen of the app is the sitter search. The essential information is the dates, time, preferred rate and whether they want the babysitting to be a reoccurring job.

Following that, the search results are presented.

Booking confirmation

The end screen gives a summary of the booking (Date, time and price).

A receipt is sent to the user email.

Signing up

For new users, a signing up form opens, and following that their profile, where they can handle payment methods, watch their booking history and see their favourite babysitters list.

Sitter profiles

Each sitter has a bio, when he or she are free to work, and reviews that were written on them.

Other than that the user see which of their friends hired that sitter before. Each sitter has a short video where they introduce themselves and the option to book the sitter.