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The Arc Digital Toy Database
NEW, REVISED, AND DIGITIZED TOY LENDING PLATFORM
INTRODUCTION
The Arc of Northwest Wayne County is a nonprofit organization that provides a Lekotek toy lending program for children with disabilities in the Metro Detroit region. Families will visit The Arc to borrow new toys for their children and return previously borrowed ones during their monthly play sessions.
MY ROLE
UX/UI Designer.
Research, conceptualizing, designing, prototyping
THE TEAM
4 designers
TIMELINE
9 months, Aug 2024-April 2024
TWO SIDED PROBLEM
Currently, the Arc's warehouse stores over 2,500 toys for lending to more than 40 families. However, inventory management relies entirely on paper records and a single Excel spreadsheet.
The Arc’s current method of toy inventory management is cumbersome and manual. Due to their small staff and increase in families, toy lending has been an increasingly difficult task - their current method is not sustainable.
How might we...
FOR ADMIN:
How might we create a scalable and efficient toy lending experience for administrators?
FOR FAMILIES:
How might we create a more accessible and explorable toy lending experience for families?
RESEARCH
User Interviews
Field Visit
Affinity Diagramming
User Journeys
We interviewed current administrators and families, many of whom have been with the program for several years. We did consider a potential positive bias here, but pushed for expressive and meaningful responses. After we put their responses and important quotes onto stickies to start findings any similar themes.
User Interviews
Field Visit
Affinity Diagramming
User Journeys
We were lucky enough to visit the Arc itself and meet all the administrators and interact with children and parents of the program during a play session. This helped us in first hand experiencing the process from start to end and gaining more insights by interacting with the admin and families in person.
User Interviews
Field Visit
Affinity Diagramming
User Journeys
The culmination of our research interviews was our color-coded diagramming of data. The addition of pictures from our contextual inquiry resulted in the groupings seen below.
We grouped the sticky notes into common categories, such as “Difficulty in Toy Return Process.” This helped us identify a total of fourteen themes/categories, allowing patterns and themes to emerge. This guided our remaining research and design phases of the project.
User Interviews
Field Visit
Affinity Diagramming
User Journeys
Through the user journeys, we mapped out the various touchpoints and interactions a family and administrator currently has during the toy lending procedure which helped us better visualize the process and possibly reveal issues in the user experience
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KEY THEMES
After conducting contextual inquiry and interviewing 14 families, along with 10 administration members who represent our target user groups, we identified the following key themes:
THEME 1
Difficulty discovering and tracking: It is currently hard for families to discover new toys for their child and to keep track of lent toys
THEME 2
Scalability: Getting rid of manual processes for better efficiency, therefore being able to serve more families
THEME 3
Difficulty tracking: It is challenging for admin to track toys and family information due to the manual process
PROPOSED SOLUTION
Digitized Toy Lending Platform
ADMIN
Toy Database with Filtering System
Our new table database efficiently organizes and lists all available toys with visuals included.
FAMILIES
Promotes Toy Discoverability
Recommendations of toys tailored to the unique needs and interests of different children
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ADMIN
Lending/Return with Modal Progress
Step-by-step modal ensures a smooth user journey and provides clear indicators to user
FAMILIES
Lending History/Overdue Toys
Lending history is displayed through multi-level expanding rows to free up space and allow users to see their current loan + Avoid unintentional delays in returning toys and prevent unnecessary expenses
TESTING IMPACTS
Usability testing with both administration and families revealed positive results in increasing efficiency with a reduction in time for lending and returning.
57%
Reduction in time to return a toy
41%
Reduction in time to checkout a toy
“I feel more informed and involved in my child’s interests since I can now be more prepared going into the play sessions. ”
“The entire lending process is so seamless now. The efficiency makes it easier to serve families and additional future families.”
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