Friendly Spaces

Friendly Spaces is Switzerland's first family-friendly label for businesses. It connects families with the businesses and spaces that welcome them, and it certifies places that offer more than just a high chair: play facilities, space for baby carriages, creative children's menus and a team that really understands families.

Parents find those places through a mobile app and an interactive map. Businesses get visibility to a network of Swiss families who are actively looking for somewhere to go. Parents trust verified spaces rather than claims, and that is the difference the label makes.

This project came from a desire to make Switzerland more family-friendly, and I developed the standard, the brand, the app, the print system, the contracts and the reporting.

Before any of the visible work there was a harder question: what actually makes a place friendly? If the answer is a matter of opinion, the label is worthless.

So I built the audit methodology from scratch: 48 base points across seven categories.

Every individual criterion scores 0, 1 or 2: not met, partially met, fully met. No impressions and no overall feel. “Is there a clean changing table” has an answer; “does this place feel welcoming” does not.

Each audit is an on-site visit: a walkthrough of every public area, photo documentation of the facilities, a conversation with staff about how things actually run, and a check of safety and emergency provision.

A map and a list of certified venues, discoverable by location or by targeted search via the filters.

Each venue carries photography, hours, a description and one-tap actions to navigate, call, or open the website or Instagram.

The most recent piece is an analytics dashboard I built, to answer the question that I and every partner eventually asks: how effective is it? The numbers live in several different places — Firebase and GA4 for the app, App Store Connect and Play Console for downloads, Wix for the website and the Instagram Graph API for social — and the dashboard pulls them together, matching each post to the venue it features so a partner sees their own performance rather than a network average.

An optional add-on for businesses that want a professional play area but do not have the time to source, maintain or manage toys.

The box holds a curated selection of high-quality play materials for babies and toddlers, inspired by Montessori pedagogy and chosen for use in public spaces. I manage it: an on-site quality check every four months, with damaged or worn elements identified and replaced, so the play corner stays maintained, safe and inviting.