I designed the onboarding and log history flows in addition to conducting user research and testing.
A new child-care policy was mandated in June 2021 requiring daycares to check on napping infants every 15 minutes. Daycare staff must log the date and time of the check and the infant’s name and sign off with their initials. They must also be able to provide documentation to the Department of Social Services (CDSS) as proof of practice during annual inspections.
Most daycares log this information with pen and paper, as suggested by the CDSS. However, this leads to the hassle of bringing writing materials to every check-in interval, organizing piles of paperwork, and the possibility of losing past logs.
Create a digital logging system for safe and organized record-keeping
By digitizing the logging process, daycare workers can quickly log infant nap times and retrieve previous logs without having to rummage for physical copies.
Complete a nap log in seconds with auto-fill
Add collaborators to the workspace using secure domain codes
Our research findings stem from field observations of a local daycare. We found that the majority of the staff use paper and pen as their logging tool-of-choice, but have expressed frustrations with this method, including:
Inefficiency: The need for physical materials and signing and logging each time stamp and signature slows things down.
Organization hassles: Having physical logs also means log organization is needed for easy reference later on.
To get around these pain points, one daycare worker used Notion to create digital logs to make the nap logging process easier.
Since the majority of the population has smartphones, we can use this to our advantage and make mundane tasks simpler for daycares.
Furthermore, going paperless has its benefits: many companies are switching over to cloud-based services for more sustainable practices and to “improve efficiencies, optimize business processes, and reduce costs” (Miliken).
We also did competitive analysis of popular nap tracking apps and Notion.
A sleep & habit tracker app that makes schedule predictions based on infant logs and expert analysis from pediatricians.
A colorful and cheery brand identity that encourages growth and trust.
An all-in-one app that can be reconfigured for notes, tasks, databases, and more using pre-made assets and templates.
Minimalistic designs help keep users focused and not get distracted by other features.
Nap tracker app with real-time trends to help predict infant sleep patterns.
Simple, reusable components and functions that stay on the app’s main goal.
While these apps are great for their intended purposes, they are not what daycares are looking for. They are designed for personal use rather than for daycares and teachers, and their functions, from pattern predictions to kanban boards, are too advanced for the simple goal of checking in on napping infants. There are little to no apps that cater specifically to daycares and their nap logging task.
Taking the user pain points and competitive analysis into consideration, we began brainstorming various solutions. We moved forward with ideation and developed low-fidelity sketches that incorporated our mutual design ideas and solutions. During the ideation process, we wanted to prioritize designing features that were minimalistic, efficient, and easy to navigate.
We wanted to include four main design features in our app that targeted the user pain points and better-fulfilled user needs. This included a:
Increases efficiency by giving immediate access to the most-used features within the app
Easily view and access every infant’s nap logs under their supervision.
Quickly go through log entries, automatically organize data, and keep track of the time during shifts.
Promotes data security and allows for easy collaboration and communication amonst the staff.
We created different variations of our designs in the mid-fi stage, exploring further possibilities for our users.
We explored three variations of the homepage with different card sizes and formats to find what best assists users in completing the desired action.
Although the three versions include the same information, Version 3 gives has a better view of the student profiles while maintaining the organized card structure.
We explored variations of visual hierarchy to find an intuitively navigable design. Our user testers found Version 1 easier to use due to the color contrast and space separation between tabs.
We conducted two rounds of user testing before beginning our hi-fi designs. We evaluated the navigability and intuitiveness of our designs by having users go through the onboarding process, complete a morning shift log, view past logs, and check their settings. During the test, we were able to pinpoint some usability issues that needed to be fixed.
From these tests, we found:
Both users had trouble with signing off the time log as the “Initial” button was too small.
We initiated the hi-fi stage by establishing a design system for Sleepiez.
Brand Style
Soft Components
We softened harsh corners in our component styles for a friendly and casual experience.
Colors
Lavenders Accented with Grays
Lavender offers tranquility and eases tension. We wanted to implement a color scheme associated with the concept of sleep and rest to stay on brand.
Typography
Helvetica Neue
Helvetica Neue’s structurally unified set of heights and widths gives the interface a clean and polished look.
.png)
Sleepiez helps daycare workers log infant nap times without having to worry about accuracy or losing past lots.
We personally knew daycare workers who were frustrated with the new mandate, and by working closely with them, we felt that our product could make a difference in their work routine. Because of how niche this problem and target audience was, working on this project widened my perspective on what could be a design opportunity.
Due to the pandemic, research was more difficult than expected as the health guidelines for daycares are more restrictive to ensure the safety of the kids. With limited observational opportunities available, we found it more difficult to gather information on the operations of the daycares.
