Family Hub: Reducing Family Scheduling Chaos via a Mobile App

Project Overview

My Role: UX/UI Designer (Solo Project)

Duration: Apr - May 2024 (An 8-Week Sprint)

Tools: Figma

Links: Mobile Prototype ↗

The Problem: The Unseen Stress of Family Scheduling

For busy parents, managing the family schedule is a constant source of stress. Generic calendar tools often fall short, leading to three core pain points:

• Time Scarcity: Parents have very limited time for planning, making complex or manual scheduling tools impractical.

• Work-Life Imbalance: Juggling personal, work, and multiple children's schedules in one place is chaotic and overwhelming.

• The Caregiver Gap: Securely and simply sharing relevant schedule information with caregivers (like babysitters or grandparents) is a persistent challenge.

The Goal: A Central Hub for Family Calm

My goal was to design a mobile-first application that acts as a central source of truth for the family. The aim was to deliver clarity through personalization, unity through calendar integration, and peace of mind through secure, simple sharing.

Results: A Clear Vision for Family Schedule Harmony

The project culminated in a high-fidelity, interactive mobile prototype that presents a clear and thoughtful solution to the chaos of family scheduling. The design is a direct response to the initial user needs identified during the research phase.

Process: From Empathy to a Validated Solution

My design process for Family Hub began with a simple goal: to replace the daily chaos of family scheduling with a sense of calm and control. This required a deep dive into the user's world, followed by a structured approach to design a solution that truly met their needs.

1. Uncovering the Core Problem

My process started with empathy. To truly understand the stresses of a busy parent, I utilized foundational UX tools like user personas and journey maps. This research was critical, revealing that the biggest pain points weren't just about scheduling, but about the constant anxiety of planning and the friction of keeping everyone in sync.

2. Designing the Blueprint for Calm

With a clear understanding of the problem, I designed the app's blueprint. A clean Information Architecture and a simple User Flow for the core task (creating/sharing an event) were essential to ensure the app itself would never add to the user's stress. This structural work was the key to creating a truly intuitive experience.

3. Crafting an Intuitive & Calming Interface

Finally, I translated the blueprint into a high-fidelity prototype. The final UI is the direct result of the previous research and structural planning. Features like the color-coded calendar directly solve the need for clarity found in my research, while the secure sharing system provides the peace of mind that users were lacking.

Key Takeaways: My First Step into UX

As my first end-to-end project for the Google UX Certificate, Family Hub was where I translated UX theory into practice. It was a foundational experience that shaped my entire approach to design.

The most critical lesson I learned was the power of a research-driven process. Before this project, I might have jumped straight into designing screens based on my own assumptions. Going through the process of user interviews, creating personas, and mapping the user's journey was a revelation. It taught me that the most impactful design decisions are not based on a designer's creativity, but on a deep, empathetic understanding of a real user's problems. This "user-first" principle has been my north star in every project since.

Additionally, I learned The Value of Iteration: Realizing during the design phase that an initial idea wasn't working and having the freedom to pivot was a crucial lesson in not being too attached to the first solution.