About
Carpool.School is a startup based out of Cary, NC developed by Krishnanand Kamath after he and his wife struggled with driving their two kids in different directions for hours every day. What started as a personal mission soon turned into Carpool.School - a platform dedicated to making coordinated school carpooling easy and accessible for communities nationwide. At the core, the startup is committed to helping other families overcome the universal struggle of getting kids to and from school safely.
ROLE
Design Lead
TIMELINE
May 2024 – October 2024
LOCATION
USA
Carpool.School needed to modernize its digital presence, establish a cohesive brand identity, and create user-friendly digital products. The goal was to increase engagement, strengthen market positioning, and improve user retention for their carpooling app designed for parents.
Research
To deliver a truly user-centric solution, I conducted extensive research involving:
Parents: Understanding their daily challenges in managing school pick-ups, drop-offs, and coordinating schedules with other parents. We explored their pain points with existing carpooling solutions and their expectations for a streamlined, reliable system.
School Kids: Gathering insights into their preferences and needs to ensure the app and branding appealed to them indirectly while focusing on their safety and convenience.
Activities & Logistics: Mapping the after-school activities and complex scheduling needs that required flexible and real-time solutions for carpooling.
USA School Problems: Diving into systemic issues such as overcrowded drop-off zones, long waiting lines, and limited transportation options to identify how the app could alleviate these pain points.
Carpooling Needs: Studying trends and patterns in carpooling behavior, including the importance of trust, reliability, and ease of use, while ensuring compliance with school policies and safety protocols.
Conducted interviews and surveys with parents, school staff, and students to understand their daily challenges, motivations, and expectations.
Analyzed user behavior, needs, and pain points to identify patterns and segment the audience into meaningful groups.
Developed detailed personas representing key user types, including their goals, frustrations, and decision-making factors.
Included contextual information such as schedules, carpooling habits, and safety concerns to create realistic and actionable personas.
Used personas to guide design decisions, ensuring solutions were user-centered and aligned with real-world needs.
Process
Ideation and Concept Development
Based on user insights, brainstormed and explored several design directions to solve the pain points around scheduling, safety, and usability.
Developed user flows and wireframes to define the app’s structure and key features.
Prioritized features like real-time updates, carpool scheduling, and user trust mechanisms to align with user needs and business goals.
Prototyping and Testing
Created interactive prototypes to visualize key features and flows, ensuring ease of navigation and accessibility.
Conducted usability tests with parents and stakeholders to gather feedback and iterate on designs.
Refined designs based on testing feedback, focusing on enhancing the user experience for both parents and kids.
Visual Design and Branding
Developed high-fidelity mockups, incorporating the brand identity system (logo, color palette, typography) to ensure visual consistency across web and mobile platforms.
Focused on creating a user-friendly interface with clear, simple, and modern aesthetics to enhance usability and trust.
Integrated visual elements that aligned with the company’s mission of safety, reliability, and connection.
Collaboration and Development
Collaborated closely with the development team to ensure designs were technically feasible and implemented accurately.
Provided detailed design specifications and maintained a constant feedback loop to ensure alignment throughout the development process.
Launch and Continuous Improvement
Assisted in launching the web and mobile apps, closely monitoring user engagement and feedback post-launch.
Analyzed usage data and iterated on features to improve the overall user experience and retention, including enhancing the scheduling system and adding more personalization options for parents.
Information Architecture
Wireframing
High-Fidelity Wireframe
Prototype
Outcome
Website & Social Media Redesign: Transformed the company’s website and social platforms, creating a cohesive and modern digital identity that boosted user engagement by 71%.
Brand Identity System: Designed a unique logo and a complete brand identity system, including colors and typography, to enhance brand recognition and market positioning.
Web Application: Spearheaded the end-to-end design and development of a web application, delivering intuitive interfaces and seamless user experiences that improved user satisfaction and adoption.
Mobile App Enhancements: Led a cross-functional team of designers and developers to address design challenges in the mobile carpool app, delivering innovative solutions that enhanced usability and retention.
