Launching a cross-continent, social community app for families
Co-located in the UK and Malaysia, we helped this startup design, build and launch multiple products across web, iOS and Android.
Putting family fun on the map
kidzdiretc hoped to save parents from soft play and the local petting zoo (just us?) and reinvigorate communities and local businesses in the process. Their idea for a marketing and discovery product would connect parents and carers with relevant merchants, showing where to find exciting events, activities and promotions nearby.
We worked with Razlan and Leena, founders of Kidzdiretc, to build a multiple products to bring remove the headache of planning family fun days. We designed, built and launched a mobile app across iOS and Android, as well as a web portal to manage experience days.
Bringing everyone together
To align ourselves around the vision that Razland and Leena had, we ran a series of collaborative workshops. We find that these cut down on endless discussion of meeting. Our product team ran a UX workshop to map out what the ideal user journey looked liked. Using the research that Kidz had done previously, we mapped out all the challenges and assumptions that surrounded the project.
We prototyped an early version of both the app and web portal. This gave us, and the development team, a solid foundation to build from. Knowing what we wanted to build gave us an clear idea of what improvements needed to be made and how we grow Kidzdiretc. Our goal is to give families a stress-free, enjoyable day out – so we tested our prototype with our target users across both continents to help us find areas of opportunity and usability issues within the product.
One product, two builds
We had two users to think about with completely separate needs. Parents wanted a simple tool that’d help them find things to do. Businesses needed a sales and advertising platform. So, we developed two environments in parallel: an app and a portal.
For businesses targeting local parents and carers, we created a custom online portal using Craft CMS, which makes content and payments easier for users to manage. Merchants can use it to post themselves and any events or offers, which are then turned into listings for parents to find on the app. It’s like magic. Except it’s not - it’s code.
Family fun on iOS and Android
For parents, we built a location-based app using Google Maps. Parents can use it to look and be notified for nearby events, add discoveries of their own, and rate their experiences in the local area. We incorporated an algorithm-based trending function, which uses click-throughs, page views and location parameters to work out the most popular events and promotions.
This project needed a lot of specific functionality that took a bit of working out. Limits to Firebase, for example, meant we used co-ordinate based searching to set parameters and convert them into queryable locations. To add location markers, our designers created custom UI that we then built over the Google Maps integration. When existing tech won’t do the trick, nuom kicks it custom.
Adapting to the pandemic
Kidzdiretc launch unfortunately coincided with the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. We helped Leena and Razlan pivot their product to adapt to Malaysia's lockdown. By highlighting COVID safe areas, Kidzdiretc allowed families to enjoy fun days out without putting themselves at risk and reducing the spread of COVID-19.
Kidzdiretc onboarded over 500 users in their 3 months and has a 5.0 star rating on both the App and Play stores.
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Launching a cross-continent, social community app for families
Co-located in the UK and Malaysia, we helped this startup design, build and launch multiple products across web, iOS and Android.
Putting family fun on the map
kidzdiretc hoped to save parents from soft play and the local petting zoo (just us?) and reinvigorate communities and local businesses in the process. Their idea for a marketing and discovery product would connect parents and carers with relevant merchants, showing where to find exciting events, activities and promotions nearby.
We worked with Razlan and Leena, founders of Kidzdiretc, to build a multiple products to bring remove the headache of planning family fun days. We designed, built and launched a mobile app across iOS and Android, as well as a web portal to manage experience days.
Bringing everyone together
To align ourselves around the vision that Razland and Leena had, we ran a series of collaborative workshops. We find that these cut down on endless discussion of meeting. Our product team ran a UX workshop to map out what the ideal user journey looked liked. Using the research that Kidz had done previously, we mapped out all the challenges and assumptions that surrounded the project.
We prototyped an early version of both the app and web portal. This gave us, and the development team, a solid foundation to build from. Knowing what we wanted to build gave us an clear idea of what improvements needed to be made and how we grow Kidzdiretc. Our goal is to give families a stress-free, enjoyable day out – so we tested our prototype with our target users across both continents to help us find areas of opportunity and usability issues within the product.
One product, two builds
We had two users to think about with completely separate needs. Parents wanted a simple tool that’d help them find things to do. Businesses needed a sales and advertising platform. So, we developed two environments in parallel: an app and a portal.
For businesses targeting local parents and carers, we created a custom online portal using Craft CMS, which makes content and payments easier for users to manage. Merchants can use it to post themselves and any events or offers, which are then turned into listings for parents to find on the app. It’s like magic. Except it’s not - it’s code.
Family fun on iOS and Android
For parents, we built a location-based app using Google Maps. Parents can use it to look and be notified for nearby events, add discoveries of their own, and rate their experiences in the local area. We incorporated an algorithm-based trending function, which uses click-throughs, page views and location parameters to work out the most popular events and promotions.
This project needed a lot of specific functionality that took a bit of working out. Limits to Firebase, for example, meant we used co-ordinate based searching to set parameters and convert them into queryable locations. To add location markers, our designers created custom UI that we then built over the Google Maps integration. When existing tech won’t do the trick, nuom kicks it custom.
Adapting to the pandemic
Kidzdiretc launch unfortunately coincided with the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. We helped Leena and Razlan pivot their product to adapt to Malaysia's lockdown. By highlighting COVID safe areas, Kidzdiretc allowed families to enjoy fun days out without putting themselves at risk and reducing the spread of COVID-19.
Kidzdiretc onboarded over 500 users in their 3 months and has a 5.0 star rating on both the App and Play stores.