The Kiido App is a mobile application designed to support divorced and separated couples in their co-parenting journey. The app's primary goal is to facilitate effective communication, promote collaboration, and enhance the overall co-parenting experience, ensuring the well-being and healthy upbringing of their children.

The main objective of the Kiido App is to create a platform that fosters cooperation and transparency between co-parents, streamlining the coordination of schedules, finances, and childcare responsibilities. By addressing the challenges faced by divorced and separated couples, the app aims to improve their co-parenting dynamic and provide a positive environment for their children.

≫ Collaboration with customers and the team.
≫ UX research: design sprints, competitors analysis, user flows, information architecture, interactive prototypes, usability testing.
≫ Product design: product vision, design processes, development strategy.
≫ Visual design: mobile app, landing pages, graphics, email templates, branding and design system.
≫ Full design process including marketing and business consulting.
≫ My first experience with a startup: changing team members, growing and ever-changing requirements, dynamic marketing strategies and custom design solutions.

≫ Help to manage conflicts and support mental health of each parent by developing custom app features.
≫ Design single-handedly a large number of functions for negotiations, documentation, schedules of foreign exchange transactions, payments and finance.
≫ Launch an MVP quickly and with minimal development costs.

Upon identifying the issue, I initiated the design process, delving into substantial data to gain a deeper understanding of the problem and explore optimal solutions. The following activities were conducted to fulfill the tasks:

After the kick-off meeting with the customer where we discussed the product vision, I realized that we had limited resources and the first thing I did was to create and agree on a project roadmap including time tracker.

≫ Since the project was initially at the stage of seeking investment, in collaboration with the manager and business analyst we decided to create a minimum viable product.
≫ I planned 3 months to design the core features of the app so that potential investors could preliminarily assess the potential of the project.

I also studied relevant reports, articles and case studies provided by the business analyst and manager. This allowed me to understand prioritisation processes used MoSCow method and identify user pain points, but this information was not enough to understand the picture in details.

After gathering requirements and aligning stakeholder views to deepen my understanding of this type of application, I identified key user roles (coparent, close person, specialist) and conducted a desk research.

I also conducted detailed analysis of 6 competitors and their solutions in terms of UX design to identify design trends and best practices. This analysis helped to shape unique and distinctive aspects of our application.

I created low-fidelity wireframes with 6 user flows (like onboarding, work with command center, events, finance, communication and documents flows) and organized testing sessions with 3 users. This allowed me to understand better how to find design solutions that would mitigate conflicts since the topic is a very sensitive one involving deep fears.

I minimized count of iterations and straightaway received feedback, that facilitated collaboration with stakeholders, refined the overall user experience and saved time for app design and developing.

I designed those features with careful consideration of business and user needs:

≫ An Emotional Filter prevented sending messages with aggressive tones, promoting blame-free communication for enhanced understanding and connection.
≫ Secure Chat for communication without the function of deleting messages, audio and video, fostered emotional safety, honesty, and clear statements for potential legal use. This prevented emotional and verbal pressure.
≫ Integrated Breathing Practices were activated after an attempt of sending aggressive messages. These practices promoted calm and focused conversational approach reducing the chance of reactive or aggressive behavior.

Shared Calendar simplified co-parenting with features like requesting schedule changes, a check-in feature for child status updates, and caring reminders of important events. This platform improved communication, fostered collaboration and prioritized shared parenting responsibilities.

Also I designed additional features such as specialized database of professionals of different profiles, such as psychologists or doctors, including functions such as quick search, appointment scheduling and notifications, as well as storing in the application all documents related to these appointments for quick access by all members of the Circle of Trust.

I developed a comprehensive UI components library, which served as a centralized repository of design elements. This ensured consistency throughout the application, simplifying the development process and enhancing the overall user interface. The design system would also make the work of other designers and developers easier, if the team expanded or if the project was transferred to another designer.

≫ I reviewed the best design systems and selected Google Material for mobile and followed its core principles.
≫ Created basics (markers and styles) for grid, colors, typography, icons, spacing, radiuses, borders and opacity based on the guidelines.
≫ Provided naming convention for colors and typography.
≫ Created UI templates with states and options using the basics created.
≫ Created molecules and organisms using created atoms considering branding design.
≫ Provided and published guidelines and documentation for all tokens, components and blocks.
≫ Collaborate with dev team to implement a design system.

For building a new design system I chose atomic approach because it helps to create a more structured and scalable system, use fewer components and keep consistency across all designs. I used tokens as a primary level in atomic hierarchy because effective token names improve and sustain a team’s shared understanding of visual style though design, code, and other handoffs.

Each type of component had its own structure and purpose, and its use was determined by the relationship with the body content. Guidelines and documentation were prepared for all tokens, components and blocks with descriptions of how to use them.

≫ I implemented full design process and additional activities, including marketing and business consulting.
≫ I designed single-handedly a large number of features for negotiations, documentation, schedules of foreign exchange transactions, payments and finance.
≫ I am still working with real startup as a key designer and I think it’s very promising and necessary.

≫ Launched an MVP quickly and with minimal development costs.
≫ We found an investor and continue to work on improving the application.
≫ We launched a strong application that supports my ideals. I believe in a better society, non-violent communication and quality service.