Early Education Experience Design

Mobile design & design system
I led the design of key features for the MVP, including interactive activities, personalized progress tracking, and online classes, which have been launched. I established the design system, laying the foundation for visual consistency.
+22%
New
Sign-ups
+34%
Operating
Profit
INTRODUCTION

Qiaohu is a leading early education brand from Japan. A home education service that encourages children to explore and grow with new activities every month. Qiaohu offers lifestyle learning for parents and children, an age-specific subscription system, and a portfolio of toy books and videos. frog seeks to increase market penetration and life cycle value by updating Qiaohu's product content and related services. The solution will address the new values, needs, and behaviors of the young parents in this study, and further enhance the unique capabilities that exist at Qiaohu.

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team
1 Project Manager
2 Visual Designers
1 UX Designer
my role
UX Designer
Concepting
Prototyping
timeline
Jul 2020 - Sep 2020
Client
Benesse
nda ⚠️
In compliance with the non-disclosure agreement I signed, I have omitted sensitive data and obfuscated figures. All information in this case study is my own and does not reflect the views of frog. I'm happy to share more details verbally during the interview :)
overview

What's the problem?

Along with the popularity of e-learning and the pandemic, parents are choosing to unsubscribe from Qiaohu. Causing a sharp drop in Qiaohu's subscriptions.

What's the solution?

To achieve this goal, frog team designed an online parenting course for parents and an online AI course for children, using subscription-based professional and systematic courses to create a complete learning journey that responds to the changing parenting needs and scenarios of children in different ages. We take into account the developmental needs of children at different stages of growth and develop age-appropriate and cognitive learning and gamification programs to inspire children's various abilities and develop good character and habits.
What are the real reasons that stop parents from subscribing Qiaohu?
discover

Research overview

What has changed with the new generation of parents and why?
What new childcare needs and solutions have emerged?
How do parents view Qiaohu and other competitive products?
At the beginning of the project, we developed research objectives and a framework to understand how changes in the new generation of parents affect their needs and expectations for early education by understanding the factors that influence user decisions that have also been reshaped by environmental, economic, political, technological, and social changes. Ultimately, analyzing the challenges they encounter in their daily lives allows for the identification of new user needs and the development of new value propositions accordingly.

Insights from interview

Systematic
Systemize product and learning structure
Toys, books and videos are seen as separate commodities that cannot be effectively integrated into a structured learning experience.
Low-barrier
Lower educational barriers can increase parental involvement
Complex parenting knowledge and Qiaohu products hinder parental involvement.
Flexible
Personalized choices give parents more flexibility
Commodity subscription model does not meet the need for differentiated content among different kids.

Qualitative research

Conducted 33 In-Depth Stakeholder Interviews
Based on interactive contact and contextual qualitative research, we can build a deep understanding of future target users.
Supportive
Immediate support  provides parents with a sense of security
First-time parents lack experience in parenting and need immediate support and advice in this process.
Progressive
Stages of kid growth give parents motivation
Ambiguous growth trajectories make it impossible for parents to measure the effectiveness of products.

Research overview

1. What has changed with the new generation of parents and why?
2. What new childcare needs and solutions have emerged?
3. How do parents view Qiaohu and other competitive products?
At the beginning of the project, we developed research objectives and a framework to understand how changes in the new generation of parents affect their needs and expectations for early education by understanding the factors that influence user decisions that have also been reshaped by environmental, economic, political, technological, and social changes. Ultimately, analyzing the challenges they encounter in their daily lives allows for the identification of new user needs and the development of new value propositions accordingly.

Qualitative research

Conducted 33 In-Depth Stakeholder Interviews
Based on interactive contact and contextual qualitative research, we can build a deep understanding of future target users.

Insights from interview

Systematic
Systemize product and learning structure
Toys, books and videos are seen as separate commodities that cannot be effectively integrated into a structured learning experience.
Low-barrier
Lower educational barriers can increase parental involvement
Complex parenting knowledge and Qiaohu products hinder parental involvement.
Flexible
Personalized choices give parents more flexibility
Commodity subscription model does not meet the need for differentiated content among different kids.
Supportive
Immediate support  provides parents with a sense of security
First-time parents lack experience in parenting and need immediate support and advice in this process.
Progressive
Stages of kid growth give parents motivation
Ambiguous growth trajectories make it impossible for parents to measure the effectiveness of products.
Our focus
How might we transform Qiaohu's educational product into a fun learning app that both children love and reduces parenting stress?
define

What change in the new generation?

Individualized, Diverse Success
Change: GenZ parents have a strong sense of their unique identity. Recognizing what makes a person unique is an important factor in defining success, which conflicts with society's traditional definition of success.
Courage to explore
Change: GenZ parents is committed to meeting their changing identities by constantly exploring new and diverse experiences. "Experience" is becoming more and more important, while ownership of the product is not as important.
High-quality life
Change: GenZ parents is becoming more sophisticated in the breadth and depth of consumption, by using their own uniqueness and accumulated experience, while using a combination of elements to highlight their own tastes.
Virtual social
Change: The social lives of GenZ parents are fully integrated with digital tools and the digital world. They expect the convenience, precision and flexibility that the virtual world brings to real-world socializing as well.

Persona

Immersive Environment Explorer
Daughter: 5yrs old
Expectations for education
"Not wanting my child to learn by rote, I will try to create a good environment for her to help her learn better."
Selection of products
"I would prefer my children to participate in more offline activities than online, because the interaction is better offline."
Parent-child relationship
"Parents also need to be brave enough to speak up and communicate more with their children, because language proficiency comes through constant daily communication."
Life Experience Seeker
Son: 3yrs old
Expectations for education
"Grandma would sing him some old songs and tell stories in his native language, hoping he would receive a variety of cultures."
Selection of products
"Online English classes are not considered, because English classes are all about interaction. Tried Banma Online English classes, nothing feels interactive."
Parent-child relationship
"I hope I will always have the opportunity to explore new things with my child and be there for him as he grows."
Expect Resilience Observer
Son: 4yrs old
Expectations for education
"Children enjoy the praise of others, and motivation and persistence increase. What is learned in offline institutional games is remembered best."
Selection of products
"The offline class teachers send me videos of my child in class, and I pay attention to how he is doing in class and want to see him enjoying it."
Parent-child relationship
"The most annoying children play with things impatient throwing, I will go to study how to play, and then to teach the child, step by step to guide him."
Encourage Exploration Enthusiasts
Daughter: 9mons old
Expectations for education
"I want my child to be free to explore, and I try to encourage her every time she wants to go do something."
Selection of products
"Not limited to toys, we need to interact with her in many ways , she will be more interested in exploring."
Parent-child relationship
"I don't play with my phone in front of her because she gets attracted to it. I usually concentrate on playing with her."
01 IMMERSION
Make your home the best learning environment for both learning and fun
02 COMMUNITY
Be part of a creative community that expands the parent-child life experience
03 RESILIENCE
Let children explore and develop their interests with less effort
04 CREATION
Let children develop independent problem-solving skills and fun in parent-child interaction
BREAKDOWN OF THE PROBLEM
各个产品间的分离感
Toys, picture books and videos are currently viewed as separate commodities that cannot be effectively integrated into a systematic learning experience.
定制化需求无法被满足
The current commodity subscription model cannot meet the differentiated content needs of parents and children.
家长的低参与度
Inadequate parental involvement, lack of understanding of curriculum concepts and parenting learning skills.
Rethinking educational philosophy in the new age
Follow the rules vs. Make mistakes
Fixed development vs. Personality
Fully immerse vs. Parent's own consciousness
More flexible use of time and a sense of interaction
From DVDS to live classes on mobile phones
The use of fragmented time
Screen addiction anxiety
Learning with the Chinese characteristics
Forward deployment
No more emphasis on subjects
Ideate

Concept 1:
Knowledge Gamification Course

● Compose toys, books and videos into courses
● A guide for parents about how to use
● Systematic plan for everyday
SystematicLow-barrierSupportive

Concept 2:
Parent Community

● Provide parents with parenting knowledge
● Provide Q&A platform
Supportive

Concept 3:
Achievement & Motivation

● Staged growth
● Immediate incentives
● Systematic plan
SystematicProgressive

Iteration

Key improvement 1 : Knowledge Gamification Course
SystematicLow-barrierSupportiveFlexibleProgressive
Key improvement 2: Parent Community
SystematicLow-barrierSupportive
Key improvement 3: Achievement & Motivation
SystematicLow-barrierSupportiveProgressive
Final concept

Knowledge Gamification Course

Game tutorial with products bundle
Cartoon plots incorporate knowledge
After-lesson game challenge

Parent Community

Parents community and experts’ resolution
Education assistant

Achievement & Motivation

Weekly and monthly study report
Parent motivation and feeling record
Qiaohu’s companionship and rewards

Design guidelines

test

Testing environment

Understanding users' real pain points from empathy tests through observation and discussion.

What we did

Feel the subtle differences between design intentions and users' perceptions.

Allow users to express their own understanding and expectations of the feature or experience in a non-intrusive way.

We understand the user's behavior and expectations throughout the entire purchase decision, use, and maintenance process.
Takeaways

Takeaways

In working with the team, I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to improve and enhance the product. Naturally, I've come away with a few lessons which I've found to be widely applicable.
‍
Many of the issues in the design of children's experiences are significantly more influential than those of adults, and require designers to think together about the impact and responsibility of the product.

Success

6 months after the end of the project, the new features we had designed were successfully launched!

In 10 month:
● Increased 22% users.
● Increased 34% operating profit.
Thank you so much for shaing your time! I'd love to chat! Say 'hello' at my email.
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