MOE Preschool Redesign

Overview

Parents were unclear about preschool education landscape; they find that the MOE website had content gaps such as insufficient information on e.g. curriculum.

For preschools other than MOE Kindergarten (MK), they are actually overseen by Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) which parents did not know. There was a need to clarify the role between them to reduce the anxiety because parents want to prepare their children well for Primary 1.

"Does anyone know if there's any difference between a PCF kindergarten, MOE kindergarten and those private kindergartens? Which is better in preparation for them to go to Primary One?"
Source: KiasuParents

There was also a disconnect with the experience as the MK website was a microsite outside of the corporate MOE website.

Research

Background Research

We ran a backend analysis on the MOE FAQ site of the top queries received via the MOE Customer Service Centre (CSC). We discovered that enquiries on registration process and outcome have increased every year since 2016. We also discovered that the top topics that parents come to the website to learn about are:

Fees and subsidies
Enrolment process
Priority to Primary school
MK locations
Kindergarten Care (KCare)

User Interview

We conducted 7 user interviews with parents to get more insights. A user empathy map was created to visualise user behaviour and attitude which helped us align on a deep understanding of the end users.

Synthesis

We did our synthesis together with our stakeholders in order to help build up a holistic understanding of the problem and users. It also helped to provide more varied insights from different perspectives.

We went through the interview notes, write down interesting quotes or observations on post-its and cluster the post-its into themes. We discussed the most compelling themes which helped generate the key insights below.

Key Insights

There is a need to clarify the role between MK and MOE preschool
They found that the MOE website had insufficient information. They had to get their information from other sources which are mainly from open houses, banners, social media and parents' groups or word-of-mouth.
There were insufficient information on the teaching method and approach
They want to learn about the preschools' curriculum and teaching methods in order to make sure that their child is well-prepared for Primary school in terms of social skills, mental readiness and academics.
Parents are unclear about fees and subsidies for MK and KCare
They even stated that they didn't know about school fees until their child was enrolled.
Location is one the top key criterias for parents when searching for preschool
Videos and photos of the MK are useful for parents who miss the open house

Solution

Information all in one place

Parents can learn more information about preschools in general and also navigate to MK easily

Clarifying between MK and preschools under ECDA

We moved the MK microsite into the corporate MOE website to create a seamless experience. The challenge was to balance our current branding of the MOE corporate website with the MK microsite to retain it as a distinctly branded section on the corporate website.

With the redesign, we also wanted to place top tasks such as curriculum more prominently.

We came up with the design by using the brand collaterals that the stakeholders provided.

Integrating MKs into SchoolFinder

Parents will be able to search for MKs near them. They can also further narrow down which MK is part of the Early Centres (EYC) pilot collaboration.

Parents can find schools easily with the filters and shortlist MKs they are interested in

Information such as programmes, contact and partner EYCs available on school detail page

Fees and financial assistance upfront

We made "Fees" as one of the main navigation so that parents can find it easily. We also built a KCare subsidy eligibility checker for parents to check if their child is eligible for additional subsidy.

Information about fees, financial assistance and other expenses

Parents can enter their details to get answers quickly

Exploring MK virtually

Parents who are unable to attend open houses will get to explore an MK virtually. This includes information about the learning spaces.

Get to learn about each space and how it it being utilise for learning

Parents can navigate through their devices to check out the MK environment

Results

The feedback from the public was very positive, with many noting that the information in the website was quite comprehensive and they were able to view information at a glance rather than finding it in different sources.

Helping parents to understand the preschool landscape better