School-parent communication app
redesign – MyChildAtSchool
Redesigned a school-parent communication app to improve accessibility and reduce cognitive load by simplifying navigation and layout.
• Identified key user frustrations through real-life usage and user interviews.
• Redesigned navigation for clarity.
• Made the calendar a central, easily accessible feature.
• Improved accessibility and visual hierarchy.
My role
Product designer, self-initiated
Redesigned
Value proposition
The MyChildAtSchool app should be more than a messaging tool — it should be a clear, visual map of a child’s school life. By making the calendar the central feature, we provide parents with easy access to upcoming events, deadlines, and activities that matter to their family, including those where they play an active role. This helps them plan, feel included in their child’s education, and participate more confidently in the school community.
Problem
In the current MyChildAtSchool home screen, the calendar is just showing the current date and doesn’t hold information about the school life. Parents are supposed to piece together schedules from multiple places: Announcements, School messages, and WhatsApp groups. This often leads to missed deadlines, last-minute stress, and feeling guilty.
The layout itself is not clear. Small typography sizes, confusing visual hierarchy – all these don't help the parent navigate the app quickly.
Solution
I have made the calendar the central organizing feature, providing a clear, visual map of the child’s school life.
So that the users can:
• See upcoming events for the week/month at a glance.
• Get the events’ details directly from the calendar.
This transforms the calendar from a hidden utility into a daily planning tool that strengthens both parental confidence and school–community connection.
I also redesigned the information architecture to reduce cognitive load, so that the Home screen holds all links to important features and provides information in a progressive disclosure manner.
Further steps
I'm testing my solution with parents and plan to redesign more user flows.
Information architecture before and after the redesign
MyChildAtHome
Authorization
Child information
Parent information
Data collection
Card
Parents evenings
Presence view
Attendance
Waiting list
Enrolled
Available
Clubs
Calendar view
Academic calendar
Card
Outstanding payments
List of messages
Card
Messages
Weekly newsletter
Card
Announcements
Product
Card
Store
Add new / Authorise
Email (Child Account)
Kid Profile
App version
Terms & conditions
School contact info
Bromcom
Order history
Payments
Financial
Language
Privacy & Security
Communication language
Preferences
Add new / Activate
Email (Child account)
Account settings
Settings
Home screen
Authorization
Calendar view
Events calendar
Infinite list of messages
Messages
Annoucements
School information
Communication
Orders list
Outstanding payments
Products
Financial
Store
Add new / Authorise
Email (Child Account)
Clubs
Available
Enrolled
Waiting list
Attendance
Child Information
Kid Profile
App version
Terms & conditions
Account settings
Parent consents
Data Sheets
Data collection
Communication language
Privacy & Security
Book a slot
Parent evenings
Add new / Activate
Name surname
Parent Information
Parent settings
Getting details about the event Before and after
The process
Overview
Produced by BROMCOM Computers Plc – over 35 years in the education sector and over 3.3 million users in the UK.
Multiple studies have shown that parental involvement positively impacts the children’s behavior, engagement, and academic success. Schools benefit too — better communication reduces the burden on Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs), facilitates smoother administration, and fosters a stronger school community.
I assume that BROMCOM as a service provider spends more resources on the products for School Administration, School Leaders and Teachers, and I think a lot of design decisions for the app were made from the point of view of the school as a user. I wonder what were the reasons behind the design decisions. Due to the nature of the service, I can only get access to the parental side of the application.
My limitations:
limited feature access (not all features are enabled).
no access to metrics, developers, school administration and other stakeholders.
limited access to competitors’ products (as the access is granted by schools to their registered parents), so I searched for open screens, and documentation.
I made assumptions based on common UX best practices and recurring user feedback themes.
The users and their problem
The users are parents of school age kids, who use this app, because their school have chosen the service provider. The majority of the parents access the app under time pressure, on mobile devices. This app is one of the services the parents are using to stay informed about the school information. Other services are:
Email, WhatsApp groups, payment services, volunteering services, PTA websites (auctions, RSVPs, etc).
I have checked online reviews, interviewed 10 parents from my school, and several parents from other schools about their experience, and what they expect from a school-parent communication service.
The most popular issues are:
people have to monitor several information sources, which is time consuming, prone to misinformation and forms a negative image of the school and the parent feels guilty for not being prepared.
updates and messages from the school are sent in a
Interview quotes
MCAS online reviews
App Store
4.4 • 74.9K Ratings
Google Play
3.7 • 23.9K Ratings
TrustPilot
1.5 • 33 Ratings
“The messages to school and from school are awful as it's like one long text message back and forth, no way to know who or if the message has been picked up.”
“The UX is one of the worst I've experienced in over 20 years of software development. It feels like a prototype system developed by a junior dev many years ago that has just been added to again and again with no oversight. It really is that bad.”
EK
“Terrible. It was bad before and the update, incredibly, made it much worse. Can't change bookings for afterschool club! Numbers all now tiny.”
Anon.
“Probably a cost cutting exercise when comparing the cheap interface. Harder for parents to monitor the children. 👎”
“I want to have an overview of the school events and activities, now I’m constantly checking other services for the whole picture.”
“My husband raises his voice every time he’s using the app.”
“It should have changed our live but it only complicated it more.”
“I think it would be nice to view the list of things needed from me as a parent, such as be there and there on time, notify me.”
Iteration 1
My first iteration with the home screen included “notifications”, Timetable and Clubs display to inform at the first glance on the screen.
But testing this attempt with a user raised a lot of questions and led me to iterate more.
First iteration of Home screen
Iteration 2
The second attempt includes a revised information architecture of the app. I changed the logic and so the information that should be on the home screen became clearer to me.
I understand that this attempt is based on my assumption as a user. I didn’t take into account the Parent-Teacher-association (PTA) which plays a huge role in organizing the activities. This role also should be reflected by this App.
I’m leaving this for the next iteration. It will definitely demand more domain and user research.
Wireframes