Montibaby
A mobile app parent’s guide to raising your baby the Montessori way- with grace, courtesy, and understanding from birth to 3 years
Background
My role
Montessori is a renowned educational philosophy founded in the late 1800s by Maria Montessori. While it's now a well-established approach in preschools, Montessori parenting can begin even before birth and continue through the early years of a child's life. From birth, there are specific Montessori activities that can help enrich an infant's development.
I worked as the sole UX Designer
End to end mobile app.
Ux/UI Design, User research, User interviews, User testing, brand design
Scope
Tools
Figma, Miro, Survey Monkey
Montibaby is a revolutionary new app that aims to connect new parents with the Montessori Method. It provides a comprehensive platform for parents to follow activity guidelines for the various stages of their child's development. Developed with the principles of both AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) and AMS (American Montessori Society), Montibaby offers activities and guidelines for all parents, regardless of their experience with the Montessori Method
Problem
Currently, access to Montessori pedagogy for the average parent can be challenging and confusing. Parents interested and raising their baby the Montessori way run into some problems:
Montessori isn’t copywrighted, which means anyone can call something “Montessori” without it coming from the philosophy. https://hechingerreport.org/will-the-real-montessori-please-stand-up/
There are no commercial manuals on the market for public access, only guides that go through training have hand written manuals. https://www.maitrilearning.com/blogs/montessori-pedagogy/montessori-manuals-and-albums
Goal
A user-friendly app that will empower parents to practice Montessori principles at home and support their baby's development with easy-to-follow instructions and comprehensive information on Montessori activities. Parents can confidently raise their child with a focus on grace, courtesy, and respect from the comfort of their own home
Research
Understanding the User
I conducted interviews, surveys, and a competitive analysis to develop my understanding of what apps or methods parents are currently using for activities with their babies, and where there are current gaps.
Competitive Analysis
I started the research by exploring current mobile applications on the market that offer activities and milestone trackers. I focused on the organization of the apps and their ease of use.
Pathways
Babysparks
Well organized and easy to navigate.
Activities, milestones, and abilities sections.
Daily program and activities.
Parent Pal
Kinedu
Daily calendar diary.
Challenging to find activities that aren’t on today’s plan.
Shoes skills and future skills, coaching, and community.
Partnered with Lovevery
User Surveys and Interviews
I conducted user surveys with 27 participants and interviewed 3 participants to learn about their motivators, pain points, and needs. The participants were parents of young children between birth to 3 years old, and were familiar with Montessori.
Key Takeaways
As a result of the research, I gathered four key insights that I used to guide the project:
Many parents feel like they don’t have time to look for activities, and need something easy to follow and simple to learn to reduce time spent.
1.
Milestones are important for parents to ensure their child is reaching them, but they can also cause stress and anxiety if the child isn’t reaching them.
2.
Parent’s want to assist their children in development, but they don't always know how, or have the tools to do so.
3.
Design Process
Visualizing Solutions
Site Map
After gathering data, the next step was to determine how the app would be set up. Once signed in, the user would start on the home page. From there, the user can access an explore page to browse all the activities by age and activity type, saved activities, and profile.
Task Flows
I stepped into the user’s shoes to help me visualize. I designed the flow to better capture their process of how they will interact with the interface.
Wireframes
Welcome
Home
Explore
Profile
Includes activities for the week based on age, items for the environment, materials the user can purchase, and resources.
Users can skip logging in, and will get taken to a limited access homepage
Shares the child’s progress for the month. The parent can see what activities they need to introduce.
The user can search, or browse by age and activity type through all the activities.
Exploring ‘Activity Page’ Design
I designed two activity pages. The first had a “rate” button for the user to rate the activity as mastered or too difficult, with an overlay. The second didn’t have an overlay or button, instead only a “mastered” toggle for the user to select once their child masters the activity.
Style Guide
I started with a color palette utilizing the primary colors, red and blue. Many traditional Montessori materials utilize red and blue. The colors were very bold and bright, so I decided so soften the palette, and implemented green to add the natural element that is used in Montessori classrooms.
Logo Exploration
The logo is derived from a traditional Montessori baby material, the Gobbi mobile. I went through a few design steps and iterations to get to the final logo design.
Hi Fi Wireframes
Prototype and Testing
User Testing
Two task flows were tested by four participants- Signing up and Finding an activity.
Iterations From Testing
Final Design
Onboarding
In app
Final Thoughts
This project taught me important aspects of creating an app from start to finish, including designing, visual design, organizing, and researching. When I was coming up with the idea for the app, it was simple to think of the idea, and research the wants and needs of users. When it came time to plan and organize the actual design of the app, it was the most challenging. There was so much I wanted to include in the App. Montessori is a very wide pedagogy, with a lot of information. I had to find a way to simplify 6 manuals worth of information into an easy-to-use app and prioritize the most important elements to include, first. Keeping it simple while still having enough information for the user was the most challenging. Seeing the finished design come to life was very rewarding, and being able to connect my background in Montessori education with UX design came full circle into this project.