How I created my prototype
My project started from the Point of View, which stated: Communication between parents and teenagers should be clear and reliable, keeping in touch and understanding each other can be easy and joyful.
The main challenge with teenagers is that they are still kids and require some control from parents, but at the same time they need more freedom and autonomy.
Parents often worry about where their kids are. They call their kids or ask them to call when they arrive to school, after school classes etc. It can be annoying for the kids. My idea was to provide families with a tool which makes this process easier and more fun. I started with storyboards to address this issue.
Families can create their own groups in the app. Each member of the family has personal calendar, where he/she can enter either events or tasks. They can make these calendar entries visible to the family or make them private. They can invite other family members to their event, kids can send their events to parents for approval. Parents and kids can assign tasks to each other. Public events have check in/check out feature. For instance, when a teenager arrives to school the app will send the notification that check-in is required. Thus, parents will be able to see where the kids are at the moment. Kids will learn to plan their activities.
I also decided to add chat function so that the families can exchange messages and multimedia.
I created paper prototypes, because it is highly recommended to start design with low fidelity paper prototypes. To be frank I did not like the idea of drawing my prototypes on paper. I had to make a lot of copies and I spent much more time then I would have spent if I did them digitally.
I tested my paper prototypes with users and made Heuristic evaluation. I got useful feedback. I implemented some changes and started designing the app in Sketch and used InVision to create interactive prototype and test navigation flow. Based on the results of paper prototypes testing and evaluation, I place four icons in the footer. The home screen is user’s personal calendar. Then there are links to the list of family calendars, chats and settings screen. I also added arrows above to navigate through the calendars
I continued elaborating my prototype. I started with grey-scale version, made some tests and then proceeded to work on the visual part. My prototype was almost ready before final user test and A/B testing.
These tests provided me some useful insights. For instance, nobody understood check in/check out icons. I made more changes before the final launch. I also decided to postpone the implementation of some advanced features like a snapshot of a whole family calendars to the following versions of the app. I believe that it is better to start with basic functions, test them and then gradually add new features.
I believe that this app will help families and will be enjoyed by parents and kids. Will be happy to receive your feedback.
Here is the link to prototype: https://invis.io/NUB3DYSQX
