Eko° :
Turning Everyday Moments into Meaningful Connections.
Introduction
This case study delves into the creation of Eko°, a native app designed to support caregivers in fostering meaningful conversations with children about their social and emotional growth. Research from CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) highlights that children who regularly engage in guided conversations develop stronger self-awareness, emotional regulation, and relationship skills—crucial foundations for lifelong well-being. Recognizing this, I embarked on an end-to-end design journey to craft Eko°, combining user research, thoughtful design decisions, and iterative prototyping to create a seamless and intuitive tool for caregivers and their children.
Role: End to End Product Designer
Duration: November-December (100 hours)
Tools: Figma, Adobe
Key Skills: Product Strategy Development, Designing for Behavior Change, Systems Thinking, Interaction Design, Prototyping, End-to-End Usability Testing
Overview
The social-emotional development of children is often overlooked in a fast-paced world
leaving caregivers feeling unprepared and unsupported when it comes to fostering meaningful connections with their kids. Many parents and caregivers aspire to nurture emotional growth, build resilience, and deepen relationships but lack accessible, evidence-based tools to guide these interactions. As a result, important opportunities to support a child’s emotional intelligence are missed. What if there was a solution that not only empowered caregivers with proven strategies but also provided an approachable and safe space to nurture their child’s emotional development—without the guesswork or intimidation?
My Role
For Eko°, I took on the role of end-to-end product designer, leading the design process from ideation to final prototype. Unlike my previous projects, this role required me to wear multiple hats—strategist, researcher, and UX/UI designer—to craft a cohesive product experience.
Toward the end of the project, I began collaborating with a software developer to bring Eko to life. We are currently working together to build Eko into a full-fledged product that supports caregivers in fostering meaningful social-emotional growth in children. This partnership bridges thoughtful design with technical implementation, ensuring that Eko evolves into a robust and impactful tool for families.
Stay tuned on Eko by following our journey at: https://ekoforparents.com/
Proposed Solution
Eko°, is a mobile app that empowers caregivers to engage in meaningful, research-backed conversations with children to support their social-emotional development. Grounded in research, Eko° addresses the critical need for consistent practice in the five CASEL domains: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. These skills are not innate but require regular, intentional reinforcement—an often daunting task for caregivers navigating busy lives. By blending evidence-based guidance with accessible design, Eko° enables families to cultivate emotional intelligence and strengthen their bonds, one conversation at a time.
1. Research
2. Define
3. Ideate
4. Design
5. Test
6. Final
1. Research
RESEARCH GOAL
We want to learn how caregivers currently engage in SEL conversations with children and what tools they need to make these discussions more effective and consistent. This will inform the design of a native iOS app that helps adults use guided prompts to facilitate meaningful reflections and build SEL skills.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Method
Created a semi-structured interview guide to explore users experiences, motivations and challenges.
Conducted 5 moderated interviews (2 phonecalls, 2 video conferences, 1 in person)
Participants
Parents of children ages 6-11
Teachers of elementary school students
Child caregivers and after-school program leaders
Child psychologists or SEL specialists
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Key Insights
Lack of Real-Time Support
Most apps prioritize child-led engagement (e.g., Mightier, MoodMeter) or individual emotional regulation but fail to equip caregivers with tools for real-time conversations during emotional moments.
Limited Caregiver Involvement
Apps like Classdojo and Peekapack emphasize classroom/ home integration but don’t actively engage caregivers in co learning SEL concepts
Emotional Vocabulary Gaps
While tools like MoodMeter excel at helping children label and track emotions, they lack actionable guidance for applying this vocabulary in challenging conversations.
Progress Tracking Without Action
Apps like MoodMeter track emotional patterns effectively but don't provide recommendations to guide caregivers in fostering SEL growth.
Classroom-Oriented Design
Products like ClassDojo and Peekapak are tailored for classroom use, leaving a gap in addressing caregivers’ unique needs in home-based SEL conversations.
Broad Focus, Limited Specificity
Existing apps often offer general SEL frameworks (e.g., Stop, Breathe & Think) but fail to tackle real-world scenarios like handling disappointment or resolving sibling conflicts.
2. Defining the Problem
AFFINITY MAPPING
Using an affinity map, I grouped together common themes and visualized patters from the interview results. I also supplemented the interviews with secondary research.
Key Takeaways
01 Consistency Builds SEL Growth
Caregivers found small, frequent conversations during natural moments like car rides or meals effective for fostering SEL development. These cumulative efforts helped build long-term growth, even without immediate visible results.
02 High-Emotion Moments Are Challenging
Caregivers struggled to navigate escalated emotions, balancing guidance with respect for the child’s boundaries. Strategies like taking breaks or involving educators had mixed success, underscoring the need for better tools.
03 Unique Needs Require Tailored Solutions
Caregivers highlighted the need for resources addressing specific challenges, like neurodivergence or co-parenting transitions. Visual aids and real-time coaching were frequently suggested as valuable tools.
04 Resource Overload Creates Gaps
Many caregivers felt overwhelmed by conflicting SEL advice and lacked time to explore options. Quick, accessible guidance tailored to their challenges emerged as a critical need.
TARGET USERS
Personas
Using the synthesized data from my interviews, I created 3 personas to reflect the motivations, goals, and pain points of real users.
OPPORTUNITY
Once I had a clear picture of the problems and insights, I was ready to explore opportunities for design solutions.
PRIORITIZATION
Determining the core features for the MVP
I prioritized features that directly addressed caregivers’ biggest challenges: feeling overwhelmed, needing accessible prompts, and tracking progress. Toward the end of the project, I collaborated with a software developer to begin turning this vision into a functional product. This feature list along with technical feasibility will continue to be our roadmap as we build.
AI-Powered Coaching
Quick Access Conversation Prompt Library
Minimal Progress Tracking
3. Ideation
SITE MAP
After prioritizing features for the product, I created a sitemap to visually organize the pages and show how they relate to one another. Pictured here is a portion of the sitemap, highlighting the 'hero features' of the solution: the AI Coach and the Prompt Library.
AI Coach: This feature provides dynamic, real-time guidance to users, helping them navigate challenging conversations and offering actionable insights to improve emotional interactions.
Prompt Library: A curated collection of conversation starters and SEL prompts designed to help caregivers address specific emotional moments or conflicts with their child.
USER FLOWS
Eko° was designed with simplicity and impact in mind, offering intuitive pathways to help caregivers foster meaningful conversations. Whether through real-time coaching, curated prompts, or gentle reminders, each flow ensures caregivers can confidently support their child's social-emotional growth with ease and consistency.
Using the AI Coach for Conversation Coaching:
Caregivers engage with the AI Coach to receive real-time, tailored guidance on managing specific emotional conversations. The flow ensures quick input of the situation and delivers actionable coaching responses to support constructive, age-appropriate discussions.
Accessing Topics Using the Prompt Library:
Caregivers navigate the searchable Prompt Library to find age-appropriate conversation starters and situation-specific prompts. This flow allows quick access to relevant topics, helping caregivers confidently address emotions, conflicts, and big feelings."
4. Design
LO-FI WIREFRAMES
Bringing Ideas to Life Through Iteration
o ensure Eko° met the real needs of caregivers, I started with low-fidelity wireframes to explore foundational concepts and user interactions. Each iteration focused on refining key areas—like the dashboard, AI Coach interactions, and progress visualization—while keeping the experience intuitive and adaptable for busy caregivers. By testing and improving these core components, I laid the groundwork for a seamless, practical tool designed to fit into everyday routines.
Dashboard
When designing the dashboard, I focused on balancing simplicity with functionality. Early iterations explored different layouts to surface key features like mood tracking and conversation progress without overwhelming the user. The goal was to create an interface that was clean, intuitive, and quickly actionable.
AI Coach Interactions
For the AI Coach, I experimented with multiple approaches to streamline the user experience. One key exploration involved integrating text-to-speech and voice UI, enabling caregivers to prepare for conversations during short, transitional moments—like on the way to work or waiting in the dismissal line.
Data Dashboard
The data dashboard iterations centered on helping caregivers visualize their progress and impact without requiring heavy interpretation. I explored different ways to present progress indicators and SEL growth insights, ensuring the data was digestible, actionable, and validated caregivers’ efforts.
VISUAL IDENTITY
The brand values drove our visual identity.
The visual design of Eko° was driven by its core brand values—empathy, trust, empowerment, warmth and approachability, and growth-oriented support. The calming primary colors, soft teal and sage, create an empathetic and approachable feel, while secondary hues like lavender and blush bring warmth and playfulness to balance heavier topics. The clean and modern Urbanist font conveys trust and simplicity, ensuring the app feels accessible and easy to navigate for busy caregivers. Rounded elements and gentle illustrations reinforce a sense of warmth and empowerment, fostering a positive emotional connection. Together, these choices reflect a growth-oriented and supportive environment, inviting users into a space where meaningful conversations can flourish.
HIGH FIDELITY DESIGNS
After feedback on mid fi and brand identity, we went onto refine the design, added more details, and created a more realistic representation of the final product via this high fidelity.
1) Dashboard for Logging Mood
It’s the end of a busy school day, and Nora hops into the car brimming with excitement. You open Eko°, and with one tap, you log her joyful mood—“super happy.” Over time, this simple habit creates a window into her emotional patterns, helping you celebrate her highs and navigate her lows with intention.
2) Prompt Library for Daily Conversations
As you prepare for dinner, you wonder how to gently bring up Nora’s recent struggles with sharing at school. You turn to Eko’s prompt library, where curated conversation starters on “conflict resolution” provide just the right guidance. With a question that feels natural and approachable, you spark a conversation that helps Nora reflect and grow.
You’re in the carpool line, and Nora’s teacher has mentioned she’s having trouble asking for space during playtime. Eko’s AI Coach steps in—ready to guide you. You describe the situation, and it generates specific, practical language you can use to coach Nora. It feels like having a calm, supportive expert in your pocket, helping you feel prepared and confident before the conversation even begins.
3) AI Coach for Real-Time Advice
4) Data Progress Area
On a quiet Sunday, you open Eko° to reflect on the week. The progress dashboard reveals Nora’s strengths in “self-awareness” and shows how her moods have shifted over time—joyful highs and moments of stress, all logged seamlessly. Seeing this, you realize you’ve focused mostly on managing big emotions and decide it’s time to explore prompts that nurture relationship skills, ensuring balanced growth.
5. Testing
USER TESTING
Testing with high-fidelity prototype.
I tested the prototype with 5 participants for the user testing. Each session was approximately 40 minutes and was conducted as a moderated, remote test. The learnings from the testing informed iterations that were made to make the usability more intuitive and clear.
Tasks to Perform
Imagine you're stuck on one of your current DIY projects and you're looking for help from a real person. How would you do that?
Imagine you are wanting to “build furniture”. How would you use this app to get the necessary materials?
How would you use this app to find the right tools and instructions to work on a current project? Let's assume you’ve already bought a project and are now ready to dive into the project. You are continuing the project on trim
Testing Goals:
Assess Feature Clarity and Ease of Use:
Determine how intuitively users can complete core tasks, such as logging a child’s mood, browsing the prompt library, using the AI Coach, and reviewing the progress dashboard.Understand Navigation and Discoverability:
Evaluate how easily users navigate between features and find key tools, like prompts, AI support, and progress data.Identify Pain Points and Confusion:
Observe where users hesitate, get confused, or encounter challenges completing tasks to identify areas for improvement.Measure Emotional Impact and User Confidence:
Assess if users feel empowered, supported, and confident in using the app to foster meaningful SEL conversations with their children
Success Metrics:
Task Completion: Participants can successfully complete each task without confusion or external help.
Error Rate: Minimize errors, such as users struggling to find features or failing to complete tasks.
Efficiency: Time taken to complete tasks should be reasonable and not overly long.
Subjective Feedback: Collect qualitative feedback on user experience, satisfaction, and ease of use. On a scale of 1-5 rating
Testing Takeaways
Overall Experience
Logging moods was universally rated as easy and intuitive
Users often defaulted to the Conversation Prompt Library for unique situations, overlooking the AI Coach
While the progress section was appreciated for its clean design, participants found elements like graphs and scores ambiguous
Value in support features
Main Pain Points
Over-Reliance on the Prompt Library
Terms like "Setting Boundaries" felt academic to some participants and didn’t align with everyday caregiver language.
Users questioned the meaning of certain graphs and indicators, such as “Does farther out mean improvement?”
ITERATIONS
1) AI Feature Contrast
Since the AI feature wasn’t the primary action users considered, although the prompt library action still resulted in a successful task completion, I changed the icon color to the secondary color to make it pop more.
Before
After
2) Addition of Progress Section
Before
After
After
Before
Users named that they expected a section for the progress/growth instead of it just being accessible from the bottom navigation tab, as all of the other nav items were displayed on the home page, minus the progress section.
3) Data Detail for Clarity
Some users correctly assumed what the web graphic on the data progress page represented however some had some confusion. To make it crystal clear that the closer a point is to the outer later, the higher the score/stronger the social emotional skill is, now when users hover over a point, the score is visible.
Eko° Final Design
6. Reflections
Takeaways
This project has been a deeply rewarding journey, bringing Eko° from concept to a functional, research-backed solution for caregivers. The usability testing revealed valuable insights into user behaviors, including the need to refine navigation and emphasize key features like the AI Coach. Moving forward, I plan to conduct further research, such as card sorting, to better understand how caregivers group prompts under specific themes. This will ensure the content aligns more naturally with their mental models and everyday language. As I continue collaborating with a software developer to build Eko° into a full-fledged, functioning native app, I remain committed to iterating on the design and enhancing the user experience to empower families in fostering meaningful, growth-oriented conversations.