Hi, I’m Hyungseo, a UX and service designer with 4+ years’ experience in healthcare and edtech. I’m passionate about understanding people—the thoughts and emotions behind their behaviour—and creating experiences that tackle complex, multi-dimensional challenges with real-world impact.
Care Threads is a service that enables parents to swap childcare with other families, find trusted professional carers, and join parent communities.
Whenever parents exchange childcare, they earn ‘threads,’ and the scarves wrapping their avatars grow—symbolising the trust and relationships that deepen through these exchanges.
In the UK, gaps in formal childcare, whether due to limited availability or high costs, often push parents to rely on informal support from family and friends.
From research to prototyping, the design process progressed through four key iterations.
To explore parents’ needs and pain points in current childcare settings, primary research was conducted, revealing key insights.
Features of the service were ideated based on the insights from primary and secondary research and the design principles.
Three stages of prototyping were carried out, from early concept testing using storyboards and desktop walkthrough to mid-fidelity usability testing.
1. Find Care Partners
On Care Threads, parents can partner with people they already know or discover new ones through mutual connections and recommendations. They can view profiles to check availability, care preferences, and ID verification to ensure a good match.
2. Exchange Childcare
Parents can quickly find available care partners for their chosen date and share their child’s profile. Afterward, they receive a summary of the day’s activities and photos.
3. Receive Thread
Once care is complete, both the carer and the parent earn “threads”. This is shown as scarves linking parents, which represent the trust and connection built between them.
4. Find Professionals & Join Communities
Parents can also discover recommended professionals, from childminders to after-school clubs, join local groups, and ask parenting questions.
The service blueprint shows how Care Threads works across different layers.
Various stakeholders—including professional carers, retailers, schools, and government— work together to make Care Threads possible.
Care Threads provides affordable childcare and promotions for carers and retailers, while reinvesting profits into community programmes.
Care Threads builds strong parent networks and makes childcare more affordable while creating new income opportunities.
Ford Smart Mobility Challenge 24/25
Champion- Project Astra
UXathon 24
Best Prototype
