That is the work. What it costs is published, before any call.
ConceptStudio concept: a fictional business we invented to work through a real Ontario problem. No client, nothing shipped, nothing measured.How we use AI
Studio concept · fictional businessWhat this means
Studio concept: a fictional business we invented to work through a real Ontario problem. No client, nothing shipped, nothing measured. How we use AI
Will my toddler actually get a space?
Russet is a child-care centre we invented, in an old limestone schoolhouse in Guelph. We designed the site a parent needs before they phone: the waitlist as it stands this week, the fee they would really pay, today's lunch, and a tour.
Infant
6 weeks to 18 months
Toddler
18 to 30 months
Preschool
30 months to kindergarten
School age
6 to 12, before and after school
Join today and you are number 10.
Four age groups, each a shape a parent can find again without reading; never a child, never a face. Right: choose a group and see the real waitlist, then scrub the last six Mondays. Recorded from the working prototype on this page: scripted taps at phone size, 60 fps. Studio concept.
- Business
- Russet Early Learning (fictional)
- Sector
- Licensed child care
- Town
- Guelph, Ontario
- Disciplines
- Website UX, Content design, Design system, Interface design, CMS model
- Type
- Fredoka and Nunito Sans
- Status
- Studio concept · nothing shipped
Try it: check the waitlist for my child's age group, see what the fee really is under CWELCC, and book a tour
The working prototype, native on this page: keyboard and touch, no iframe. Nothing is sent.
It never asks for
- Your child's name, birth date or photo
- Health, allergy or custody details
- Address, phone number or email in the prototype
- A deposit or waitlist fee
Prototype — nothing is sent. A studio concept; every figure is invented.
Step 1 of 4: Age group
How old is your child?
Want this working on your site?We start with a free written Redline of the site you have.
Request a RedlineFifteen spaces, none open, nine families waiting.
The waitlist is three numbers before it is anything else, updated every Monday and dated. The live component at 2.2 times its size, for the toddler room.
The shapes, at cubby scale
Four age groups, each a shape a toddler can find before they can read: the same circle, triangle, square and arch that mark the waitlist and the menu, on the cubbies in the room. Never a child, never a face. The centre is invented.
Three decisions, as redlines
What we would strike from the usual child-care site, what we put in its place, and why. The centre and its figures are invented.
Decision 1: The waitlist is a number, by age group, every Monday.
Ontario's child-care rules already expect a licensed centre to keep a written waitlist policy, charge no fee to join, and tell a parent where their child stands if they ask. We moved that answer from the phone to the page: spaces in each group, families waiting, where a new application would land, and when the next space is likely, dated so a parent can see it is current.
Toddlers: 9 families waiting. Updated Mon 28 Sep.
The waitlist, with its date. Rendered screen, concept. Decision 2: Today's menu, not a promise about meals.
The menu board in the hall already answers what a parent wants to know at 5:30 p.m.: what did they eat. We put the same board on the site, by day, with what each meal contains, edited by whoever pins up the paper copy, so there is one menu and it is never a week stale.
Friday lunch: bean chili, cornbread, cucumber. Contains milk, wheat.
The fee, split into who pays what. Rendered screen, concept. Decision 3: CWELCC in one sentence, with the fee you pay.
Families hear the acronym everywhere and still cannot tell what it means for them. The fee page asks one question, how old is your child, and answers with the daily fee and an average month for the days they need. It also says plainly who is not covered: school-age care for six to twelve, with where to apply for a subsidy instead.
Under six? You pay $22 a day. Ages 6 to 12: $28 a day.
The four shapes, live from the kit: the same shape on the door, the menu and the waitlist.
The system: warm, round, and exact about numbers
A rounded display face for names and counts, a plain sans for the rules, russet as the only warm colour on a cool sky. Studio concept.
How old is your child?
FredokaGroup names, counts and headings
Nunito SansRules, fees and everything a parent signs
- Russet#8F3519
- Bark#2B211C
- Sky#DCEBF7
- White#FFFFFF
Limits- An invented business; no client commissioned it.
- The prototype has not been tested with users.
- Speed and accessibility figures are targets, not measurements.
The limits
- Russet is invented. Nobody has used this site, and nothing on this page was measured.
- Waitlist numbers, fees and menus are story data; the tour booking is simulated and nothing is sent.
- CWELCC figures are illustrative. A real centre would publish its own rates from its licence agreement.
- The screens are our renders of the prototype.
What we did not do
- Photographs of children, even with signed consent forms.
- A mission statement above the fold.
- A waitlist deposit (Ontario does not allow one anyway).
- A chatbot to answer fee questions the page can answer in one line.
Run a child-care centre?
Send us your site and we will show how to answer “is there a space?” before a parent phones.