Melissa & Doug

Enhancing children's play experience through a mobile app with minimized screen time

Timeline
Jan - Feb 2023 (4 weeks)
My role
Product Design Lead
Team
3 Product Designers
Overview
Melissa & Doug+ is a case study that aims to challenge the ability of a mobile service design in creating value for the product-based toy company, Melissa & Doug. Working with three other designers, I led the effort of selecting the problem area, defining the problem statement, mapping out the information architecture, and designing interactions.

Because of Melissa & Doug's vision to create a screen-free play experience for children, the intriguing goal for the project was to digitally accommodate the play while limiting the amount of screen time to the minimum. The final product became a mobile service application that complements any play experience, with or without Melissa & Doug's toys, through audio augmentation. The app also utilizes an emerging technology of image recognition as a way to enable a quick search for more activity prompters.
PROBLEM
Melissa & Doug is solely relying on product for revenue generation. They are currently missing the opportunity to introduce a digital service that can further improve the brand image and increase sales.
SOLUTION
A mobile service application that augments the play experience for both caregivers and children through guided audio tracks, sound effects, and image recognition.
01

How It Works

Instant Help
It's play time! Melissa & Doug+ provides caregivers quick access to activity prompters and guided audio tracks
Intended to be mobile and handy, Melissa & Doug+ acts as a tool that complements the play experience by recommending activities to further elevate the act of play, wherever and whenever necessary.
Immersive and Screen Free
Utilizing sound as the main medium, the app limits children's screen time while augmenting the play experience
Guided soundtracks provide immersive background sounds as well as conversations that prompt more specific actions, such as finding an avocado. The sound board with common sound effects also allows older kids to participate and interact with the app
Easy Search
Looking for toy-specific activities? Quickly look up ideas by scanning the barcode or snapping a photo
Kids tend to pick their own toys that they want to play with. If the caregivers need inspirations for a particular toy, they can either scan a barcode or take a picture of the toy to quickly pull up results related to that toy.
02

Research

Secondary Research
We approached the design process by first conducting desk research to understand Melissa & Doug as a business and unpack the problem space.
I led the team's synthesis of the preliminary secondary research
Primary Research
To further expand the understanding of the problem space, I learned about the power of play through conversations with parents of young children and a pediatric neurologist.

It was truly fascinating to hear about the power of play and the importance of toys as tools for bonding. I was able to draw the following insights after conversations with parents and an expert.

Insight #1
🧸 Parents view toys as a tool that facilitates deeper bonding opportunities, a medium that connect them with children through a highly interactive act of play.
Insight #2
😔 Playing with a toy is not always so straightforward, and parents find it difficult at times to creatively generate ideas for how to play with a particular toy.
Insight #3
👧 Playing generally allows children to experiment with real-world activities, and to carry this intent to the very beginning, parents also want to provide their children with the autonomy to choose a toy to play with and to drive the play in general.

Problem Statement

Up until this point, I realized that it was easy to design a product for adults. However, in this case, children should have just as much influence on the design.

The challenge with involving children was that we did not want them to spend too much time on mobile phones, and so we tried to come up with ways to work around this issue. I then led the whiteboarding session and brainstormed ways that the application can engage children more while still minimize screen time.

Pivoting our focus towards children as opposed to just parents and caregivers
Refined Problem Statement

HMW offer a mobile service that elevates the play experience, making it more educational, engaging, and delightful for both caregivers and child, so that Melissa & Doug are able to increase customer satisfaction, retain clients, and increase sales?

03

Solution

User Journey

Intended to be a handy tool to accompany the kids and their caregivers during the play experience, the Melissa & Doug app has touch points throughout the play experience.

From sparking inspirations on ways to interact with the toys to providing an accessible platform for caregivers to document progress and observations from the play session, the application acts as a tool that facilitates deeper development for the children.
Strategies

At a high level, I pushed the team to prioritize one goal: engage both the caregivers and the children while minimizing the amount of screen time.
This goal is achieved through 2 main strategies:
Strategy 1
Audio augmentation to complement the play experience without turning the application into the main focus
Honoring Melissa & Doug's goal to keep the play experience screen-free, we selected audio as a medium that augments the play without calling attention to the mobile device.
Strategy 2
Image recognition to access toy-specific tips and activity prompters as quickly as possible
Children's attention shifts quickly. So I included an image recognition feature, where caregivers can quickly scan the toy in focus to get instant inspirations on how to further enhance the play.
Wireframes
The low-fidelity prototype covered the breadth of the user experience but honed in on the two main features in greater depth. I made this decision to ensure fast production that produced just enough to validate our idea with users.
A series of wireframes to cover the breadth of the flow while honing in on the two main features: Activity Prompters and Guided Soundtracks
Design Iteration
In addition to developing visual design of the application, I encouraged the team to incorporate the following updates to the prototype after user testing.
BEFORE

Too much navigation

It takes too many steps to get to the soundtracks or play prompters and there is too much scrolling (both vertically and horizontally) required.

AFTER

Speed Dial

The homepage acts as a "speed dial", where caregivers can save their frequently used activities for quick access without the need to scroll.

BEFORE

Not enough children involvement

The initial design was geared solely towards caregivers to prevent kids from spending time on screen. However, there could be more engagement with children. Perhaps the screen time restriction is more lenient for older kids (2+ years old).

AFTER

Increase engagement based on child's age

Older children should be able to interact with the app directly, so Melissa & Doug Plus would ask user to input the child's date of birth and personalize the available features around their age.

BEFORE

Use cases are too limited

The application currently offers recommendations specific to Melissa & Doug toys, factoring out parents and caregivers who do not necessarily own Melissa & Doug products.

AFTER

Flexible applications

Melissa & Doug Plus should offer soundtracks and activity prompters that are not tied to a physical toy so that the service can be used by anyone, with or without a toy.

Apart from these comments, we also received some feedback that the soundtrack accompaniment and the play prompters might be very valuable to caregivers who might not be familiar with children. Some users also mentioned that they appreciated the expert tips section, since nowadays, most parents have to look up more scientific information online.
04

Impact

I intended for Melissa & Doug+ to bring value to the stakeholders as a mobile service through the following means.
Children

Higher engagement and creativity

To young kids, Melissa & Doug+ elevates their engagement with toys and allows them to practice creativity and imagination.

Caregivers

More quality time and enhanced child development

Parents and caregivers will spend more quality time with the children and be able to enhance child development even further.

Company

  • Increased Customer Loyalty

    By creating a smoother and more convenient customer experience, Melissa & Doug will retain customers for longer.

  • Reinforced Brand Image

    Melissa & Doug will improve their brand image as customers notice the care towards children welfare and experience.

  • Relevance in Market

    Data analytics allows Melissa & Doug to draw insights on current trends in play patterns and expand their business into those areas.

05

Reflection

Introduce a conversational UI that adapts the soundtracks to children's responses

Children are highly imaginative, but the current guided soundtracks are very structured, the opposite of encouraging creativity and thinking outside the box. Instead of a linear storyline, each soundtrack could be a pick-your-own-adventure, potentially incorporating a conversational UI that would take in the children's verbal reactions and respond accordingly with different conversational flows.

Testing with both children and caregivers is necessary to prove the effectiveness of the app

For the scope of this project, we only tested our designs with caregivers, since testing with children requires additional approvals. I believe the results of the testing would have turned out very differently if we were to test with real children and with a prototype that actually incorporates audio. Had there been more time to get approved to test with children, I would love to see those testing results.

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