Ohana

“Ohana” is an app that empowers parents to easily manage both their own schedules and their children's, streamlining day-to-day planning and reducing stress.

Responsibility’s

  • Interviews

  • Wire-Frames

  • User Personas 

  • Mock ups

  • High Fidelity Prototypes

  • User Research

Client
Coursera Project

Year
05/2024 - 08/2024

My role
I worked on this project solo.

Goal

Our goal is to create a simple, shareable app designed to help parents manage their time while keeping track of the whole family’s tasks. By streamlining schedules, the hope is for this app is to empower families to stay organized and make the most of every moment.

Problem 

Busy parents juggle ever-changing schedules, often losing valuable time to low-priority tasks—many spending over an hour daily on them. This makes it harder to focus on what truly matters, leading to stress and missed opportunities.

User Research

I began the design process by conducting user research with parents facing time-management challenges, using interviews with friends and family to identify key pain points. I expanded my insights through secondary quantitative research to explore the needs of a diverse demographic. Drawing from my own experiences as a parent, I uncovered broader challenges, including those faced by individuals with disabilities and varying marital statuses. This comprehensive research informed key design decisions and highlighted features that would make the app accessible and valuable to a wide audience.

Pain Points

1

Sharing Schedules

Users often face challenges coordinating and sharing schedules, resulting in double-bookings, miscommunications, and a constant sense of being rushed.

2

User-Friendly

Users often struggle with time management, spending significant effort on tasks that fail to align with their personal or professional goals, leading to inefficiency and frustration.

3

Interaction

Many users face challenges with typing, comprehension, or navigation within apps, highlighting the need for clear, intuitive, and accessible interactions to enhance usability and reduce frustration.

4

Time Management

Overly complex or technical apps can overwhelm users, creating confusion and frustration, which ultimately leads to poor user satisfaction and engagement.

Persona

Age : 42

Education : Degree in Business Administration

Hometown : Austin, Texas

Family : Married with three children (6, 9 &12)

Location : IT Project Manager

David Carter

Goals

  • Ensure the entire family’s schedules are seamlessly coordinated without missing key events or deadlines.

  • Balance his demanding job with quality time for his family and self-care

Frustrations

  • Last-minute rescheduling of family activities disrupts his carefully planned day.

  • Managing overlapping commitments.

David, a busy IT Project Manager and father of three, wants a seamless way to coordinate his family’s schedules without missing key events or deadlines. He needs an app that simplifies managing overlapping commitments, so he can balance his demanding work life with quality family time and self-care. Last-minute changes and miscommunication shouldn’t disrupt his carefully planned days.

“Life is busy, but the right tools can turn chaos into clarity. I just want to make sure everyone is where they need to be—without dropping the ball.”

— David Carter

User Journey Map

The journey map illustrates David's priorities for simplicity and proactive tools in managing his family’s schedule. It underscores the importance of seamless onboarding, intuitive and conflict-free scheduling, and collaborative features that drive engagement. These insights highlight opportunities to design a solution that empowers David to feel confident, organized, and in control of his family’s planning.

Persona: David Carter

Goal: David is using the app to coordinate his family’s weekly schedule.

Information Architect

Paper Wireframes

This calendar was designed for effortless use by both children and adults. I prioritized simplicity, focusing on user needs and feedback. Key features include a clear layout and intuitive navigation, making it easy to share status and and request information.

Digital Wireframes

After receiving feedback on my paper wireframes, I improved navigation for better clarity. I also prioritized white space to create a cleaner, more organized layout, reducing visual clutter on each screen.

Low-Fidelity Prototypes

The user flow begins with the sign-up page, ensuring a smooth onboarding experience. Upon logging in, users are directed to the calendar page, serving as the central hub for scheduling. From here, they can create schedules, navigate through the calendar, send requests, and join groups, making collaboration and planning seamless. This structured flow keeps users focused and minimizes friction in task completion

https://www.figma.com/proto/uZpATl1zJSGeiQTtpnPUQW/Coursera?node-id=0-1&t=6pk01wA47xqZ5vjF-1

Usability Study

Moderated usability study

United States, In-Person

5 Participants

10 - 15 Minutes

Findings

  • Close Button: Users preferred a close button to return directly to the home screen, rather than navigating back through previous pages.

  • Groups Page: Since no users accessed the group calendar through the groups page, I plan to remove it in the high-fidelity prototypes to streamline the experience

Before & After: Usability Improvements

Before usability study

I decided to reduce the number of pages by combining related functions. Instead of having a separate page for editing a group, I integrated the editing feature directly within the group page. This creates a more streamlined experience, allowing users to make changes without unnecessary navigation.

I simplified the messaging system on the main page by turning it into a request-based system, making communication more straightforward and intuitive. Adding accept and decline options directly on the homepage enables users to respond quickly, enhancing efficiency and ease of use.

After usability study

Mockups

For Ohana, a family app designed to simplify scheduling and coordination, I used soft pastel colors and strategic blank space to create a warm, welcoming atmosphere. The homescreen is kept simple, ensuring all essential information is easily accessible. I prioritized a clean, intuitive layout, so users can quickly navigate and interact with the app, making family coordination effortless and enjoyable.

High-Fidelity Prototype

To ensure the app is easy to understand for all users, including children, I maintained a clean and consistent layout with clear call-to-action buttons and simplified wording for better accessibility. Additionally, I implemented confirmation prompts after actions like sending a request or joining a group. This provides immediate feedback, reinforcing that the intended action was successfully completed, leading to a smoother and more intuitive user experience.

https://www.figma.com/proto/uZpATl1zJSGeiQTtpnPUQW/Coursera?node-id=211-664&t=6pk01wA47xqZ5vjF-1

Accessibility Considerations

I ensured that text and interactive elements meet WCAG contrast guidelines by using dark text on light backgrounds and maintaining sufficient contrast for readability, benefiting users with visual impairments.

I designed a clear, predictable navigation structure with easily accessible buttons and options, reducing cognitive load and making it easier for users of all abilities to navigate the app.

I used a sans-serif font to enhance readability, especially for users with visual impairments. This ensures text is easy to distinguish, even at smaller sizes or on various screen types.

Takeaways

Impact

This family schedule-sharing app improves organization, communication, and coordination by centralizing events, tasks, and responsibilities in one place. It reduces scheduling conflicts, minimizes stress, and ensures everyone stays on the same page.

Quick communication between parents and children through requests makes it easy to manage plans, while real-time updates and notifications enhance accountability. By promoting shared responsibility and offering an accessible, user-friendly experience, the app helps streamline daily life for the entire family.

What I learned

This app was my first project as part of my Coursera UX/UI design course, and the process was a valuable learning experience. I gained a deeper understanding of user testing and the importance of prioritizing user needs to create meaningful and effective designs. I also learned that simple navigation is essential to a well-designed app, as it makes the experience intuitive and user-friendly. Additionally, I discovered how maintaining consistency across pages can significantly improve the overall user experience, providing users with a sense of familiarity and ease as they interact with the app.

Next steps

One important next step is to integrate the app with popular calendar platforms like Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook. This would allow users to easily sync their family schedules with other apps they’re already using, making it simpler to manage events and avoid double-booking.

Adding more customization features, such as color-coding events, personalized reminders, or customizable notifications, would allow users to tailor the app to their unique family needs, improving usability and user engagement

Expanding the communication capabilities within the app, such as adding the ability to send quick messages or notifications about schedule changes, would help improve coordination. Including features like group chats or shared to-do lists can also make the app more interactive and collaborative for the whole family.