Sarah’s circle

Project overview

Sarah’s Circle is an online platform that connects families with trusted tutors, babysitters, and housekeepers. The website and app allow people to easily search, filter, and find the help they need in one place.

Service providers can create profiles to showcase their experience and availability. The platform replaces scattered recommendations with a simple, organized system. The goal is to make finding reliable help fast, easy, and stress-free.

Brief

My role for this project was to create a brand for Sarah’s circle by designing a logo and UI Kit.

Then once that was created, I was then to design a website and create an app based off of the website.

Duration: Three months
Role: End- to end UX/UI Designer
Team: Self directed
Tools: Figma

Problem statement

How might we create a simple, trusted platform where families can easily find, book, and manage vetted babysitters, tutors, and housekeepers in one place?

Desk research

In order to gauge an understanding of the current market for this sort of service, I did some competitive analysis. It was a great way to see what currently works, which features users tend to use more or less. Elements to avoid or include and understand what’s missing from all the available options.

These were the main findings:

●       Make sure onboarding is extremely straightforward and simple

●       Include inbuilt calendar

●       Have extensive filter options

●       Include ability to talk to one another beyond the app

●       Make bio mandatory

●       No show has consequences

●       Takes x amount of time to respond

●       Add certification to profiles

●       Make sure it works on all devices well

●       Design for parents who don’t have time- simple, clean and effective

User research

In order to gather a better understanding of what the clients want; I carried out some user research.

Main struggles with finding help:

●       Cleaner unreliable and expensive

●       Can’t find old enough/ experienced babysitters

●       Don’t reply

Main struggles with finding when looking for jobs as a cleaner/housekeeper:

●       People cancelling on us

●       No photo - hard to gage a vibe

●       Hard to find a family that is looking for when I am available to work

●       Don’t get approached often

●       Don’t get paid/ on time or ever

●       Can’t find enough job opportunities

●       Don’t pick me up or drive me

●       Have to chase them to pay me

Deal breakers:

●       Price

●       Reliability

●       Too young to complete tasks

●       Cancelling last minute

●       Smoking/ smoke breaks

●       On their phones a lot

●       Giving my kids screen time

●       Doing things without asking me first

Onboarding ideas/must haves for babysitters/helpers:

●       How much they charge

●       Make sure they have to fill out the whole bio in order to proceed

●       Background check

●       Experience level

●       Language

●       Availability

●       Okay with pets

●       Can they swim (if nanny)

●       Okay with in house cameras

●       Do they need picking up/ dropping home

●       Do they smoke?

●       How do they like to be paid?

●       Do they come with their own supplies

●       What are they comfortable doing?

●       What their expectations are

Onboarding must haves/ideas parents:

●       How old are the kids/how many of each age

●       Do any of the children have special needs?

●       Specify what they would like me to focus on more - cleaning/cooking/children/other chores

What would make you comfortable to use the platform?

●       If everyone is vetted

●       Be able to talk before hiring

●       Pictures

●       Recommendations

What would make you use the platform more as a service provider?

●       Financial incentive - if I book 5 bookings the 5th is free

●       Direct chat

●       Ability to book in advance

●       Price range filter

●       Having regulars I can rely on

●       If it’s easy and simple to use - don’t have time to waste

Problem

families struggle to find professional and reliable help. Any time they need a babysitter or housekeeper they need to lean on WhatsApp or Facebook groups to find someone and then have to rely on recommendations.

It’s a struggle every time, there’s a lack of consistency and reliability.

Solution

1) To design a brand for Sarah’s circle, the brand is to be gender neutral, calming and simple.

2) To design a functional and easy to use website and app that will connect families to all relevant service providers.

Personas

Goals

Business goals:

  • Design new logo to rebrand company

  • Have a website to connect families with service providers

  • Gain revenue from sign ups

  • Be able to track all jobs

  • Over time increase the client base on both ends (service providers and families)

  • Incorporate payment method

  • Get as many users as possible using the app

User goals:

  • Find and book service provider easily and quickly

  • Feel safe with hiring people

  • Keep track of their favorites

  • Have a huge pool of service providers to select from

  • Service providers - have an easy process to finding jobs and an increase in income

Technical goals:

  • Make sure the website works smoothly

  • Make sure the website is responsive

  • Have a smooth payment process

  • Make sure the onboarding process works well

Flows

The site map for Sarah’s circle:

When it came to design we had to be strategic, there are a lot of screens and they serve different purposes. It was important that they are cohesive throughout. Here are some of the low fidelity wireframes:

Wireframes

Sarah’s circle had already had a logo designed that they wanted it refined and therefore before anything else, we needed to design a new logo that they felt fit the brand, was gender neutral and alongside that create a UI kit to work well alongside it.

Branding

The old logo:

  • Too feminine

  • Very basic and won’t stand out

The client requested that I don’t change the logo too much, just to improve it. But they were open to see what ideas I had in mind. Here are some of the options I presented:

After presenting the first two, we agreed that it might be a good idea to veer away from this style and try something new. The client wanted something that emphasized how important security is to them, so I designed this one.

While this did feel like we were getting closer, it didn’t feel like this was it just yet. One thing we realized was that if the website was to offer other services beyond babysitting it would be a good idea that the logo represent all of the services.

I liked the “S” from this one but wanted to completely change the design to be more neutral as well as cleaner and less cluttered.

The final logo:

Variations of the final logo:

The logo is a combination of the letters “S” and “C”. The two small circles symbolize people, the underlying motto being Sarah’s circle connects people.

In terms of the UI kit, I presented one more feminine and playful and one more mature and neutral. They chose the latter, with some changes of course.

The UI kit:

High fidelity prototypes

Some screens for those looking for work. The journey and questions change slightly depending on what field they chose to work in. The first few screens are the same in every journey. These again are only some of the screens as there were many.

Many of the screens are the same on the app with minor tweaks, some have more obvious differences.

Thought process

The thought process for this project was very much working alongside the client to bring their vision to life. They came with a lot of passion and excitment but not much direction on how to go about bringing it to life. We spent a lot of time discussing the different user journeys that the platform would need. The screens we felt were important for launch, while other ideas could wait until post launch.

We also put a lot of thought into the brand design, making sure it fully portrayed the platform in the correct way, and that it would attract the right audience.

Closing thoughts

Project reflections

When I was approached to be the designer for this project, I was really excited. For me working with a blank slate is is really enjoyable. I was able to really design from scratch and while working closely with the client to find what they connected to most and what would work best for the users.

Overall, I am really pleased with how this project turned out. The client was happy with the way the brand design, website and app came together cohesively, really representing the company.

While there are more features that they would love to incorporate once the platform goes live, the client feels there are sufficient features for now to make for a successful launch.

Challenges

I would say the biggest challenge for this project was working through the different onboarding journeys and making sure it is a smooth user experience.

Next steps

Once the platform is launched, there are a few additional features that will be added. For example, reviews and stats etc.