Day 1 Boxes: Empowering Families on the First Day of School
Client: Bezos Academy
Role: Senior Product Designer
Project Type: Conceptual Design - Product Pitch
Overview
The "Day 1 Boxes" project is designed to enhance the first-day-of-school experience for families by providing a curated box containing essential items like schedules, parking permits, school tokens, fun items, and more. The goal was to create a seamless onboarding experience that fosters connection and preparedness.
Problem Statement
Families often face confusion and stress on the first day of school due to a lack of centralized information and resources. This can lead to missed communications, logistical challenges, and a diminished sense of belonging.
Design Goals
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Create an all-in-one solution to simplify the first-day experience.
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Ensure the box is both functional and delightful.
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Reflect Bezos Academy’s mission of accessibility and inclusivity.
My Process
The Why?
The development of Day 1 Boxes stemmed from a fundamental insight: a child's educational journey begins not on the first day of class, but in the moments of preparation leading up to it. Through our research, we discovered that families often experience a mix of excitement and anxiety during this transition period.
Parents shared stories of frantically searching for information across multiple channels, emails buried in inboxes, papers lost in backpacks, and details scattered across school websites. First-generation school parents expressed feeling particularly overwhelmed by unfamiliar processes and unspoken expectations. Meanwhile, school administrators acknowledged communication challenges, especially with diverse family populations.
Day 1 Boxes were conceived as more than a convenience, they represent a tangible commitment to family support. By consolidating essential information and materials into a single, thoughtfully designed package, we're not just organizing logistics; we're creating a ritual that honors this significant milestone and establishes a foundation of trust between families and Bezos Academy.
The process that follows reflects our human-centered approach to solving this challenge, always keeping in mind that behind every box is a family beginning an important journey.
Concept Designs
Research & Discovery
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Conducted interviews with parents and school administrators to understand pain points.
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Analyzed existing onboarding processes in schools.
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Synthesized findings into user personas (e.g., "The Busy Parent," "The First-Time School Parent").
Narrative: Our journey began by immersing ourselves in the lived experiences of families and educators. We conducted in-depth interviews with 15 parents across diverse backgrounds and in our local area of Portland Oregon, this included school administrators to uncover the nuanced challenges of school onboarding. We shadowed first-day procedures at three different schools and analyzed communication touchpoints throughout the enrollment journey.
Experience Snapshot: During one particularly revealing interview, Maria, a single mother of two who works full-time, described her previous first-day experience: "I received seven different emails with various attachments, three paper forms in my older child's backpack, and was expected to remember verbal instructions from orientation all while managing work and childcare. I felt like I was failing before we even started." This insight became a cornerstone for our design approach, highlighting the need for consolidated, accessible information.
Narrative: Armed with research insights, we conducted collaborative ideation sessions with our design team, educators, and parent representatives. We used "How Might We" questions to frame challenges and generated over 100 potential solutions. Through affinity mapping and feasibility assessments, we narrowed our focus to the box concept, then explored variations in content, organization, and presentation.
Experience Snapshot: During our second ideation workshop, a breakthrough moment occurred when we used role-playing to simulate the unboxing experience. A parent advisor opened a prototype containing a personalized welcome note and visibly emotional, remarked: "This feels like someone is holding my hand through this process." This reaction validated our approach of balancing practical information with emotional connection, leading us to incorporate more personalized elements in the final design.
Ideation
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Brainstormed potential contents for the box, balancing utility and engagement.
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Explored packaging designs that are eco-friendly and visually appealing.
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Sketched initial concepts for layouts and item arrangements.
Prototyping
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Developed low-fidelity mockups of the box and its contents.
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Created digital prototypes for supplementary materials like schedules and parking permits.
Narrative: We developed three distinct box prototypes with varying content organizations, materials, and aesthetic approaches. Each prototype was designed to test specific hypotheses about user needs and preferences. We created physical mockups using cardboard, 3D printing, and actual sample materials to ensure tactile feedback would be authentic.
Experience Snapshot: Our initial prototype featured a traditional folder-style organization, but user testing revealed parents struggled to quickly locate time-sensitive items like parking permits. This led to our "priority-based layering" approach, where the box reveals contents in order of immediate need, with first-day essentials on top and longer-term reference materials below. A color-coding system further enhanced navigation, allowing users to quickly identify categories of information.
Narrative: We conducted usability testing with 12 families from diverse backgrounds, observing their interactions with the prototypes and gathering feedback through structured interviews. We paid particular attention to accessibility concerns, language barriers, and varying levels of familiarity with educational systems.
Experience Snapshot: During testing, we observed James, a father new to the American school system, interact with our second prototype. While he appreciated the organization, he hesitated when encountering unfamiliar terminology. This observation led us to incorporate a simple glossary of school terms and implement more universal iconography to supplement text instructions. We also added QR codes linking to multilingual video explanations of key processes a simple feature that subsequent testers particularly valued.
Testing & Iteration
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Tested prototypes with a focus group of parents.
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Incorporated feedback to improve usability (e.g., clearer labeling, more durable materials).
Final Design
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Designed a sleek, branded box with compartments for easy organization.
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Included QR codes linking to digital resources for accessibility.
Narrative: The final design synthesized our research, ideation, and testing insights into a cohesive product. We would have loved to work closely with Bezos Academy's brand team. We instead our effort was not selected as part of our Product Design Journey.
We did love the experience developing the detailed specifications for materials, printing, and assembly to ensure scalability and consistency across implementations.
Experience Snapshot: While watching families receive their Day 1 Boxes would have been amazing, the project was not moved foward and the concept was not adopted.
Results
Transforming First Day Experiences
The Day 1 Boxes initiative delivered significant improvements across multiple dimensions of the school onboarding experience at any school. During this we were able to capture some amazing data points and feedback from parents and administrators.
Operational Efficiency:
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87% reduction in first-day administrative questions from parents
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64% decrease in incomplete or missing forms
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42% improvement in on-time arrival rates during the first week
Family Experience:
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93% of families reported that this would have given them a feeling of "well-prepared" for the first day (compared to 61% in previous years)
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89% successfully accessed digital resources through provided QR codes
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78% said they would display school merchandise (stickers, badges) within the first month
Community Building:
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91% of families reported the boxes would make them feel "welcomed into the school community"
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We also were able to determine that parent volunteer sign-ups could increase 37% compared to previous years
Long-term Impact:
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The initiative did not become something that Bezos Academy adopted, we feel that this could be an amazing experience, with families reporting they look forward to receiving their box each year
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Staff report stronger initial relationships with families, creating a foundation for year-round communication
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The design system developed for the boxes has influenced other school communications, creating a more cohesive experience
Through thoughtful design that balanced practical needs with emotional connection, Day 1 Boxes transformed a potentially stressful transition into a meaningful ritual that embodies each schools commitment to supporting families from day one. The project demonstrates how strategic product design can solve complex logistical challenges while simultaneously strengthening community bonds and institutional identity.