2020

Visual Design
Interactive Design

Children improve reading and speaking abilities in an engaging question-and-answer session with interesting rare animals.

Through communication based on asking and answering questions, this app allows children to learn about various interesting animals while building their ability to speak and read, focusing on phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension. It's for children between the ages of two and five who are starting to be curious about everything and to show the ability to empathize.

Goal

The Product Goal

Instead of providing lectures to teach children, let them ask what they want to know first to excite curiosity. By asking and answering questions, children can be more involved with animals personally and comprehend the vocabulary they've used during communication.


The Business Goal

Increase revenue in the private educational market by developing a new in-home activity software that allows customers' children to improve reading and speaking abilities through interaction with animals.

Target Audience

Children ages between two and five who are interested in animals.
Parents with children between the ages of two and five who are interested in their child's education.

Let's Meet Our Customers

Lisa Dunset

About
Age 35-40
college educated
Lives in Seattle
Has a three-year-old kid
Freelance translator

Behavior

Loves her kid more than anything.
Interested in childhood education.
Her child has been curious about everything since she started to build sentences. However, Lisa and her husband are busier now, so, though they try, they can't answer all of the questions their kid has.
Turns on Netflix Kids when she's too busy and feels exhausted.
Doesn't know how to explain when her kid asks something she doesn't know.

Need & Goal

Looks for a proper education program to improve her kid's reading and speaking skills.
Looks for education opportunities with a systematic curriculum to helps her understand where her child is improving and where extra attention is needed.
Wants to give her daughter a rich conversational experience, as the child has started to be interested in building up sentences with various words.
Looks for educational and entertaining home activities her kids can participate in.

Dorothy Dunset

About
Age 2-5
Before kindergarten
Lives in Seattle
Lives with her parents

Behavior

Likes to watch animations
Interested in living animals and dinosaurs
Has curiosity about things that she sees and hears around her.
Loves to ask her parents questions. After listening to answers,she still wants to know more and keeps asking.
Learning and experience by asking and answering questions.

Need & Goal

As she starts to recognize letters and speak sentences, she shows a wider curiosity about more and more things and needs a way to satisfy her infinite curiosity.
Needs answers to satisfy her rich and creative imagination.
Wants to make friends, and tries to talk to living things like dogs and ants.
Needs friends to converse with and who can help to satisfy her curiosity.

Research

Educational possibilities between
the ages of two and five.

Why is it for children between the ages of two and five?

2~5 Children between the ages of two and five ask around 40,000 questions per year.
2~5 Two-year-olds start to show empathy, and five-year-olds develop empathic ability.
2~3 Children begin recognizing some letters between the ages of 2 and 3.
4~5 Children between 4 and 5 identify letters.


When kids recognize letters and show empathy for lives, they improve reading and speaking abilities by asking and answering questions with interesting animals.

Competitive Analysis


Learned From Experts

The big question they had is, “Why should children learn English with animals?” That's true–parents who like animals will download even if there is no valid reason for the app. Therefore, I have to be able to convince parents with acceptable and solid points. Also, she asked “How is exchanging questions connected with educational effects?”

Also, they said that the app should be simple, and needs stories. And it's not about finding answers–the app should be able to let children discover meanings. “What stories can evoke meaning in kids, and how can they generate educational benefit?”

They suggested checking 21st century thinking skills :

Collaboration and teamwork
Creativity and imagination
Critical thinking
Problem solving
Flexibility and adaptability
Global and cultural awareness
Information literacy
Leadership
Civic literacy and citizenship
Oral and written communication skills
Social responsibility and ethics
Technology literacy
Initiative

Let's hear from people's voice!

Online Survey

11 Respondents
Parents with kids between the ages of two and five


Learning Goal
To know what gives the best and worst educational experience to their children.
To know when their children are delighted or bored.
To know what educational service they can look forward to seeing for their kids in the future.
To define and validate the product direction based on research.

Key Takeaways
From the Survey

1. More than half of the respondents show Disney, Netflix, and YouTube to their kids for educational purposes, but some of them concerned about their kids being exposed to violence on screen.
2. Some respondents think showing their children screens turns them into passive thinkers.
3. Respondents' children are delighted by learning when they actively participate by moving, communicating, copying, touching and hugging. They love to get reactions from things that they interact with.
4. 80% of respondents' children are interested in animals, educational programs in which animal characters appear are more enjoyable and useful.

So,——— what does all this mean?

Product Direction

It's not about finding answers, it's about finding stories.
Children should be encouraged to discover meaning by themselves.
Open up questions to prevent stereotyping and to stimulate interest.
Let kids participate and get involved actively.
Wait until they figure out what they want.

1. Kids and animals communicate by asking and answering questions.
2. The animals are little-known species that most people probably haven't heard of.
3. The conversation proceeds through video calls and animated graphics.
4. During the conversation, animals and kids imitate each other's gestures.
5. All questions and answers also appear in printed captions.
6. Parents receive progress reports showing where their child is improving and where extra attention is needed.

Idea Sketches

There are two different modes: one for kids and the other one for their parents.

How It Works?

Core features

01. Exchange questions


Kids choose an animal that they want to know more about, and start to have a chat with a new friend by asking and answering questions.

02. Imitate gestures


During this interactive conversation, animals and kids imitate each other's gestures. All questions and answers also appear in printed captions.

03. Progress report


Parents receive progress reports analyzing and indicating where their child is improving and where extra attention is needed.

Branding & Logo Design

Logo Design

Meaning of the logo mark

All animal characters have in common, which is eyes. Each of them has different shapes, textures, and colors; however, all of them have the same eyes.

Typeface

Thank you for watching! 🐨🦁🐻🐳🐵 :)

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