Family Circle
Web App
Find trusted helpers for all your family’s needs!
Family Circle is a service marketplace that aims to simplify family lifes by connecting them with the perfect everyday helpers for their individual needs.
The app provides a seamless experience for the referral process and helps the user manage the booking, subsequent billing and payment in a convenient way to make life easier for families and helpers.
Background
The Family Circle Web App was created as a final project for the CareerFoundry UX Design course.
The problem
Many family members feel stressed about managing their family life and the tasks that come with it. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to find a trusted helper nearby. 

My initial goal
I wanted to create a supportive platform that would act as a bridge between families seeking help and qualified service providers, fostering a sense of community.

From Discovery to Delivery.
My user-centric design process
Curios? Let’s go!
Join me on my journey!
Understanding the problem space
The market
In a crowded market, the main risk for Family Circle is that 
it doesn't get lost among the other household service providers and platforms.
To gain more clarity on the market situation, I carried out 
a competitive analysis.
The aim was to identify gaps and resulting opportunities that would lead me to create a more innovative user experience for the Family Circle app. 

The user
To better understand users' needs, motivations and challenges when searching for, selecting and booking 
a helper, I conducted a survey and user interviews, and analysed the collected data for insights.
Survey:

Using SurveyMonkey
Participants: 23
User Interviews:

Remote and in-person.
Participants: 4
Key Findings
1
Matching process with advanced search settings to meet diverse needs.
2
Trust and reliability are big issues, mentioned by almost all participants:

>> Helper profiles play a key role. They need to be concise and easy to compare.
>> IDent process contributes to the trustworthiness of the helper.
3
Ratings are the most important criteria for choosing a helper.
4
A direct and easy way to communicate with the helper is essential.
5
Reminders and notifications for easy time management.

Defining the problem
To narrow down insights and define the actual problem to solve, I synthesized data from the Discover phase and created personas as a starting point.
Personas
Please meet the apps core personas “Harry“ and “Rea“.
Certainly, the app takes into account a variety 
of user personas, but these two are particularly contrasting and stand out.
Thinking like the user.
Let's dig deeper to gain a comprehensive understanding of the user's interactions with the product, identifying friction points and areas for improvement.
User Journey Map
Learnings
1
Be fast and effective.
2
But still leave room to extend the user journey and provide additional information wherever needed for a more personalised user experience.
Designing solutions for the user
Backed by a lot of research, I started to explore the problem-solution space by defining the most relevant app features that would meet the users' goals and motivations.
Relevant application feature hypothesis
1
>> Offer easy & convenient search & filters to meet the expectations of both personas.
2
Help manage bookings for easy family time management.

>> Convenient payment

>> App notifications & reminders

>> Group account
>> Option to share favorites and bookings
3
Build trust, present helpers in a way that proves reliability.

>> ID verification

>> Meaningful helper profiles

>> User ratings & app ratings

>> Easy communication tools incl. video interviews
Sitemap
Card Sorting
Using Optimal Workshop, I conducted a open card sorting to get more user input about labels and category for app.
My iterative process at a glance.
From the initial ideation process through to refinement, validation and redesign.
Have a look at some exaple features and follow my design decisions.
Search Setting & Filter Iterations
Search Results Iterations
Helper Profile Iterations
Navigation Iterations
Dashboard Iterations
Onboarding Iterations
Coach Marks Iterations
Creating a distinct UI Design.
Family life is colorful. So is the Family Circle community, which embraces warmth, friendliness and trust.
The mission: simplify family lifes by connecting them with helpers. It's not just about providing a service, but also offering emotional, reliable support to our users during stressful times.

This was the basis for my visual UI journey. 


My inspiration:
Headspace
friendly, light-hearted
with a unique
illustrative look
Airbnb
pared-down design, inspirational yet 

highly functional
Final UI Design.
Wrap up
In the world of design, trusting the process and embracing user feedback are your best allies.
My key takeaways from this project
What I liked:
​
-
I learned to trust the design process and avoided jumping into UI details too early. Better done than lost in perfection!
-
Never enjoyed feedback more! Talking to real users was instrumental in building 
the foundation of the design and developing it further over time.
What I didn't like:
-
Being my own client and agency at the same time and having to set my own limits. It was really hard to decide what is ready to ship and what needs more work. 
From now on, I will embrace any client feedback and budget limitations, as they 
set the framework for my projects.
-
Flying solo, I missed the ping-pong of ideas with my colleagues and the collaborative spark!
Credits
The Family Circle application 
was created as part of my CareerFoundry UX Immersion Course.

I would like to thank Talya Kaya and Bara'a AbuHussein for their great support and motivation during this project.
I would also like to thank the test participants and interviewees for their time and valuable feedback.
Get in touch!
