Three ways to build the parent dashboard, all in the brand system. Same content, same rules, genuinely different structures. Every icon is SVG, every target is 44px or more, and each screen has exactly one dark card.
One column. A single focal card carries the one thing worth doing, then a child card each. This is the closest to the ten-second read the research asked for.
Two things want you today: Ruby’s term plan, and Sam has been finding this week hard.
Needs you
Twelve weeks, six subjects, built around horses and the ocean. Have a read before it goes live.
Year 4 · Week 4 of 12
Year 4 · Week 4 of 12
Live. Note the pace pill for Sam is calm amber, never red. That is a written rule in the code already, and it is right.
Children on the left, a quiet rail on the right for paperwork and anything time-bound. More information per screen, better on a laptop, weaker on a phone where the rail drops underneath.
Week 4 of Term 3. One thing needs you today.
Needs you
Read it through, then approve it to go live.
Year 4 · Week 4 of 12
Year 4 · Week 4 of 12
34 of 96 lessons across both children.
The rail is deliberately quiet. Nothing in it competes with the dark card.
No focal card at the top. Each child gets equal weight, and the dark treatment moves onto whichever child actually needs attention. Scales best if a family has three or four children.
Sam could use a hand. Ruby is fine.
Sam · needs a look
Sam marked fractions and division as still learning, and asked for help twice.
Year 4 · Week 4 of 12
The dark card is doing something different here. It is not the next action, it is the child who needs you. That is a defensible use of the rule, but it is a different rule.
| Strength | Weakness | |
|---|---|---|
| A. Calm | Fastest to read. Works identically on a phone. Least to build. | Wastes space on a wide screen. Paperwork is out of sight. |
| B. Two column | Most information per screen. Compliance stays visible, which matters here. | The rail collapses under everything on mobile, which is where most parents will be. |
| C. Child first | Scales to three or four children. Puts the struggling child first. | Loses the single clear next action. On a calm week there is no obvious focal point. |
I would build A. The research finding that mattered most was that this parent is anxious, improvising and time-poor, and that the dashboard has to be readable in about ten seconds. A does that and the other two do not, quite. It is also the only one that behaves identically on a phone, which is where most of this will actually be read.
B is the one to grow into. Once compliance deadlines are real and there are documents to chase, that rail earns its place. It is a later version of A rather than a different direction.