Tools: Figma, Squarespace, WebAIM, Google Lighthouse
Role: UX/UI Designer & Developer (Freelance)
Responsibilities: User Research, UX Strategy, Wireframing & Prototyping, UI Design, Accessibility Testing, Front-End Development, Client Collaboration
👤 About
Wuddleitbee Childcare is a locally owned daycare center known for its nurturing environment, dedicated staff, and strong connection to the families it serves. With two vibrant locations, they offer age-based programs designed to support early childhood development through play, creativity, and care.
🎯 Objective
The goal was to design a warm, user-centered website that clearly communicates Wuddleitbee’s locally-owned values and services, helping parents quickly understand their offerings and encouraging more inquiries through the contact form.
📛The Problem
Wuddleitbee’s previous website went away after transitioning away from a previous childcare management system. This meant that potential clients had no easy way to easily learn about Wuddleitbee, their two locations, the programs offered, or whether or not it was the right fit for their child. As a result, the daycare was missing out on inquiries and enrollment opportunities.
When searching for the right daycare for their family, parents and guardians often feel overwhelmed and are looking for reassurance, clarity, as well as an emotional connection—all of which were not being conveyed online when Wuddleitbee did not have an online presence.
📋My Approach
To solve the problems of establishing credibility and ultimately promoting contact form submissions on the Wuddleitbee website, my approach involved several steps based on the information provided and can be summarized into the below:
🔬 Thorough research and problem definition
The project began by defining the challenge: how to build trust and clearly communicate offerings for a local daycare without an existing web presence. I developed a “How Might We” statement and hypothesis to guide strategy, then created empathy maps and journey maps to better understand parents’ emotional and informational needs.
How might we help parents quickly understand if Wuddleitbee is the right fit for their child, build trust in a daycare they may not yet know, and make it easy for them to take the next step without unnecessary friction?
Hypothesis
If we create a user-focused website that highlights Wuddleitbee’s values, clearly outlines programs, and while minimizing friction then we will improve engagement and drive parent inquiries through form submissions.
📊 Competitor Analysis
To get a better understanding of what users expect, I took a peek at some competitors’ websites. It was important for me to see how they organized their content and what users might be experiencing if they were looking around. This allowed me to gain insights into the local market. For example, Facility #1 and #3 were franchise daycares with only basic, location-specific landing pages. These pages provided a blurb about the facility, address, and had a contact form. While Facility #2 was a locally owned business with two locations. This website focused heavily on pricing and administrative details with almost the exact same information as the parent handbook.
| Program List | Teaching Staff | Pricing | Location Specific Landing Page | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Facility #1 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Facility #2 | ✓ | |||
| Facility #3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Competitor Website Analysis, competitors names have been changed.
💡 Ideation and solution generation
This competitive analysis informed my content strategy for Wuddleitbee:
Home Page
Goal: Design an experience that was unique and welcoming that embodied the business’ value while staying familiar enough to meet user expectations.
I developed simplified user flows for common inquiries by strategically structuring the home page. Key actions included:
- Placing a clear CTA in the hero section to drive direct inquiries
- Adding homepage sections that link to essential info about:
- Programs
- Facility
- Curriculum
- Colorado Universal Pre-K (UPK)
These choices reduced friction for users seeking enrollment info and aligned content with top user needs.
About Us
Goal: Focus on showcasing values, staff, and facilities to highlight murals and classrooms.
Our Story Page: Build a page that highlights accordions of FAQ: how to schedule a tour, information on tuition, and why Wuddleitbee. The main “Our Story” page features a callout from the owner, their guiding values, and community partners that work with them.
Staff Page: Link to staff and provide showcase of testimonials specifically calling out staff experiences.
Locations Page: Features address and gallery for each location. This highlights the true personality of Wuddleitbee by highlighting the murals of each classroom. The testimonials on this page showcase testimonials specifically calling out facility experiences.
Program Pages
Goal: Create an emotional connection while still providing essential information and talking about the values of Wuddleitbee and the development goals for each age group.
I used imagery that aligned with brand voice, made program pages succinct while ensuring they had appropriate information.
For this example, the toddler page clearly lists:
- The age range for students
- Specific content regarding development areas
- FAQ accordions that are relevant to the age group.
📰 Prototyping and inclusive design principles
Once content was planned, I made initial wireframe sketches then translated into working prototypes within Squarespace with a focus on accessibility and inclusivity:
- Wireframes were tested and adjusted before moving into high-fidelity prototype.
- Ensured color choices passed WCAG AA standards
- Chose a legible font that has a minimum font size of 16px.
🗣️ Iterative design based on user testing
Pre-launch, I conducted user testing and the feedback helped improve:
- The confirmation experience after submitting the contact form
- The clarity of navigation labels
- Optimizing quick links to better reflect age group/family needs.
Post-launch, I reviewed analytics and made minor updates based on bounce rates and time on page.
Results and Impact
All results are for the first 10 weeks post launch.
✅ Conversion
- 9.14% overall site conversion rate (29/317 unique visitors submitted the form).
- 25.5% form completion rate among people who viewed the contact form—significantly above average for service websites.
📉 Bounce Rate
- 44.88% bounce rate, outperforming the average service industry bounce rate of ~55%.
⏱️ Engagement
- Average time on page: 63 seconds — strong engagement for a daycare site.
✨ Client Feedback
- The Wuddleitbee team was thrilled with the final site, noting how well it captured their warm personality and values.
Reflection
Key Takeaways:
- It was crucial to have a thorough branding conversation — even though I was a customer of the business and knew the owner center personally, it was very helpful to capture the owner’s voice in her own words.
- Even small websites need deep content strategy and thoughtful hierarchy.
- Accessibility isn’t just a checkbox — it shaped color choices and layout from day one.
Why I’m Proud:
This project showed how UX design can elevate an established brand by creating a warm, trustworthy, and professional online presence. It was such a joy to translate Wuddleitbee’s colorful identity into a digital space that reflects the playful, child-friendly atmosphere they’ve lovingly built in each classroom. I’m proud to have played a role in bringing their trusted name into a space where more families can connect with what makes them special.