Kai Ming Inc
Branding | Web Design
Industry: Education, City/federal-funded
Duration: 3 years 4 months
Role: Brand Designer, Project Management
Deliverable: Brand Guide | Wed Design | Campaigns
Potential has No Limit.
Kai Ming provides free preschool services to children ages six months to five years old from eligible families living in San Francisco. Kai Ming receive funding from Head Start, California Department of Education, and San Francisco Office of Early Care Education to support the development of young children and their families.
The project is to create a more innovative and a mission-driven identity towards the community.
Rebrand
Kai Ming Inc.’s logo felt outdated and overly complex in structure, and the organization lacked a cohesive and robust brand system. As an educational institution, growing parental expectations around trust and credibility became increasingly important.
In a city like San Francisco, the institution needed to strengthen its sense of reliability and professionalism while reducing the hidden costs associated with a weak or inconsistent brand presence.
Developing a cohesive series of branded materials brought a fresh perspective both internally and externally, and contributed to an increase in application rates.
Web Design
A full website revamp project for a federally funded education organization, aimed at improving clarity, trust , and accessibility for low-income families in San Francisco.
The redesign site received a 93% user satisfaction rate and continues to support hundreds of families in accessing essential resources.
Background:
The original website was difficult to navigate and often overwhelming, especially for non-English-speaking families. As a result, the organization received a high volume of in-person or phone inquiries, many of which stemmed from confusion that could have been resolved with a clearer digital experience. Information was scattered across pages, making it hard for users to find what they needed, and many parents avoided reaching out due to language barriers, missing the support they deserved.
Goal:
Redesign the content and interface to improve clarity, accessibility, and trust. The goal was not just to ease the burden of repeated support inquiries, but to create a more welcoming and intuitive experience, a website that enables families to find the help they need on their own, so the organization can dedicate more time, resources, and care to supporting early childhood development.
Design Process
User Interviews & Audit: Interviewed educators and parents; audited the existing site for structural and language accessibility issues.
Information Architecture: Restructured content hierarchy and simplified navigation, focusing on multilingual and culturally diverse users.
Wireframes & Iteration: Created wireframe drafts in Figma and worked with designers to refine them based on internal feedback and
testing with users.
Visual Redesign: Introduced professional yet warm color palettes, friendly yet clean typography, and hand-drawn illustrations to foster
trust and emotional connection.
User Research Summary
To better understand the needs of Kai Ming’s primary users, low-income, multilingual families seeking early education services, I conducted and help facilitate informal interviews with staff members, reviewed internal support patterns, and audited the existing website’s structure and accessibility.
Key insights included
・Many families relied heavily on phone support due to difficulties navigating the site, particularly non-English speakers.
・Users felt overwhelmed by the amount of scattered information and were unsure which resources applied to them.
・Parents wanted to feel welcomed and reassured when seeking support, not intimidated by formal or overly technical language.
・Staff members reported spending a significant amount of time answering repeat questions that could be addressed with a more intuitive site.
・These insights highlighted a clear need for a more user-friendly, emotionally supportive, and multilingual digital experience, one that empowers families to navigate resources independently and confidently.
Outcome
