06
Max's Adventures
Project Duration
" What made this project special was realizing that emotional depth doesn’t have to be complicated, it just needs to be accessible. Max, the corgi in a spacesuit, isn't just a fun character; he is a bridge for kids to explore feelings in a way that felt playful, not intimidating."
December 2022 to January 2023
The Product & Goal
Max’s Adventures is a social good app that aims to teach kids from ages 4 to 10 about emotions and empathy. The app teaches kids how to recognize their own emotions and those of others.
My Role & Responsibilities
UX designer and illustrator leading the app from conception to delivery. My responsibilities are to conduct interviews, wireframing, prototyping, conduct usability studies, account for accessibility, iterate on designs, and determine information architecture.
User Research Summary
I conducted in person interviews with children between ages 4 to 10 and their parents, on issues surrounding emotions and the ability to feel empathy. Many kids admitted struggling to understand and express complex emotions, often feeling overwhelmed or guilty when unable to manage them. Parents echoed these concerns, highlighting the importance of teaching children emotional expression, empathy, and social skills through repeated, engaging activities. The personas summarize my research findings from these interviews.
Persona 1: Child
Persona 2: Parent
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Competitive Audit
The audit above analyzes several competitor products, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. These insights are valuable for identifying gaps and opportunities that Max’s Adventure app can address.
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Low Fidelity Digital Wireframes & Prototype
After drafting paper wireframes, I created the initial digital designs for Max’s Adventure app. These designs focused on teaching kids about the different kinds of emotions, and then providing various activities for the kids to channel and deal with these emotions.
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To prepare for usability studies I also created a low fidelity prototype which can be viewed in the link below.
Low Fidelity Prototype Link:
The hamburger menu allows for direct and easy navigation to the various pages. Increasing speed and usability.
This section of the home screen categorizes all the activities for the kids to do in order to learn about emotions.
Easy access to the apps features with the global navigation tab at the bottom of the screen.
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Usability Study Findings
I conducted an unmoderated usability study with five participants, both in Washington D.C. and remotely, each session lasting 20 to 30 minutes. Three key issues where identified: confusion over the emotion learning feature’s integration, unclear wording, and navigation challenges.
1
Emotion Learning Feature
Most users find it confusing to have
the emotion learning feature of the
app with the rest of the activities.
Insight: Separate (structurally differentiate) the emotion learning
feature from the other activities.
2
Wording
Some users found the wording of
certain text and subtitles confusing.
Insight: Reword the text and subtitles
to make it more explicit to the purpose
of the content.
3
Navigation
Most users found the navigation features on the physical activities page confusing.
Insight: Make more intuitive and
accessible indicators of navigation between the physical activity page
and its succeeding pages.
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High Fidelity Digital Wireframes & Prototype
Based on the insights from the usability studies, I applied design changes to my high-fidelity wireframes. One example of these changes included adding “click here” buttons on the physical activities page to indicate how to navigate to the breathing and yoga pages. This improves the app's navigation by increasing its intuitiveness and accessibility. I also changed the layout and structure of the home page to differentiate the emotion learning feature from the rest of the activities. These changes can be seen in the low—and high-fidelity wireframes below.
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The high-fidelity prototype followed the same user flow as the low-fidelity prototype, including design changes made after the usability study.
Low Fidelity Prototype Link:
Low Fidelity Activities Page
High Fidelity Activities Page
Low Fidelity Home Page
High Fidelity Home Page
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Next Steps
1
Conduct research on how successful the app is at teaching kids about emotion and empathy.
2
Provide incentives for the kids to successfully learn about their emotions.
3
Conduct usability study to confirm if the high-fidelity prototype addresses user pain points.
Accessibility Considerations
In designing my children’s app, I focused on accessibility by: ensuring strong contrast between foreground and background for easy text readability; adding headings with varying text sizes to create a clear visual hierarchy; and buttons are distinctly labeled, colored, and highlighted to stand out, making navigation intuitive and features easy to identify.
Project Impact
The younger users (ages 4 – 10) shared that they really liked Max (the corgi in a spacesuit) as he was “fun and cute”. They enjoyed the variety of different activities provided and the lively colors and images. The parents also liked the fact that there were a lot of different emotions provided for the kids to learn from.
What I learnt
The learned that even though the problem I was addressing was challenging, carefully going through all the steps of the design process, creating persona’s, conducting the usability studies and a competitive audit, all helped me produce valuable insights and solutions for my designs.
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