tiney's Learning Journal helps childminders record and track children's learning and allows daily updates to be shared with parents. The problem wasn't that childminders didn't value it. It was that it didn't fit naturally into their busy day. Writing detailed observations took time, there was no way to save work in progress and many childminders diverted to using WhatsApp to share quick updates instead. As a result, Learning Journal engagement had plateaued at an average of 2.68 entries per child, per week.
tiney
Product design · 2019 - 2026
tiney's Learning Journal helps childminders record and monitor children's learning and development and allows daily updates to be shared with parents.
Re-designed tiney's much loved Learning Journal feature, which increased engagement by 64%.
Overview
Opportunity
Instead of expecting every entry to be a detailed EYFS observation, I created a more flexible experience that supported different types of updates throughout the day.
This included:
- Snapshot entries for quick photos and everyday moments.
- Daily diary entries for meals, sleep, nappies and medication.
- Draft entries so observations could be finished later.
- Video uploads for richer updates, that can sometimes say more than just a photo.
Together these changes allowed childminders to capture information in the moment without disrupting the care they were providing.
Why
Through research with real childminders, it became clear that the biggest barrier was being time poor to do admin, not the motivation to track children's learning and development.
Childminders spend their day caring for lots of children. The product needed to work around their routines rather than expecting them to adapt their workflow to fit the software.
Impact
The redesign increased Learning Journal engagement by 64%, with average weekly usage growing from 2.68 to 4.39 entries per child.
More importantly, childminders were able to capture learning and daily care in one place, reducing the need to switch between different tools and making it easier for parents to stay connected to their child's day.
