In-Store Toy Customization Experience for Kids

I participated in a 2-part Design Challenge organized by the Ladies that UX Seattle and The Collective Studio. In this design challenge spanning one week, I strengthened my whiteboard exercise experience, gained insight and experience in the typical UX hiring process, and received feedback on my design from industry professionals.

Meeting #1

Whiteboard session where I actively participated in Design Thinking Framework, Information Architecture, How Might We statements, and started creating ideas for a high-fidelity mockup.

Meeting #2

Whiteboard Retrospective and feedback where I gave a 5-minute presentation of my mockup and gained valuable feedback from industry professionals.

DESIGNING FOR A PERSONA

To help focus this design exercise, I was assigned a persona to design this toy customization app for. I was assigned Billy, a 5-year-old boy with ADHD who loves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Power Rangers.

Role

UX Researcher, UX Designer

Tools

Figma, Miro

Timeline

1 week

 

THE PROBLEM

How can a toy customization experience be entertaining for kids while also getting all the necessary information for customization?

This experience is intended to be completed by kids on an iPad in-store, giving them complete control and autonomy over customizing their favorite toy. A guiding principle of this design sprint was how to balance creating an attention-retaining experience for children so that they complete the toy customization.

THE SOLUTION

Create a customization experience that is both simple and engaging for kids.

Utilize clear navigation, straightforward prompts, and large images to guide these young users through the toy customization experience.

MY DESIGN

The Design Challenge called for a high-fidelity mock-up of one screen within this toy customization experience. I took the liberty of mapping out a first pass at mapping out an entire customization experience. My Figma mock-up can be viewed below. For the purpose of this exercise, select “TMNT” and then “Michelangelo”.

STAKEHOLDER MEETING

Understanding design parameters and restraints for the client.

During Meeting #1, I was able to ask our fictional company stakeholder questions to better understand any design restraints and uncover the “why” of the project.

The types of questions I asked ranged from:

  • How long do you want this experience to take?

  • What level of adult supervision do you see this experience having?

  • What would a successful toy customization experience look like?

  • How did this business's desire for an iOS-based toy customization experience come about? Was this due to customer feedback, etc.?

SECONDARY RESEARCH

To design for kids, I need to understand how they think.

Since I was designing for my persona of 5-year-old Billy with ADHD, who likes the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I conducted secondary research to understand how to design a digital experience for kids with ADHD.

Findings from the ADHD secondary research:

  • Design a neat and uncluttered layout

  • Provide an environment with soothing colors, free of decorations and distractions

  • Use positive language to reward task completion

  • Organize items in an orderly way

  • Distinguish important information by using signpost sections and group related information into panels

  • Use brief and clear instructions

Due to the quick turnaround of this project, I knew that whatever research I could do to ground my insights and design decisions were incredibly important. For this exercise, I decided to conduct stakeholder interviews to gain a better understanding of client needs, and conducted secondary research about designing experiences for kids.

FINDINGS

At the end of this 1-week design challenge, I produced the first draft of a high-fidelity mockup of the toy customization experience. If this was a project with a longer lifespan, I would continue to iterate and refine the experience by conducting usability testing and informational interviews with kids in desired age ranges. I would take the findings from those interviews to continue to evolve the design and incorporate a style guide if this was for a real-world toy company.

A simple and quick customization experience is a guiding theme of this user experience.

SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE

The design needs to balance being visually entertaining for kids while getting all the necessary information for the toy store. Kids of varying ages need to be able to make their customization choices quickly, so they can leave the store with their new toy that same day.

MORE RESEARCH IS NEEDED

The next step to develop this experience is to conduct interviews and testing with kids, the intended user group. from these interviews, I would gain clarity into how kids interact with this experience and what needs to be improved.

NEXT STEPS

  • conduct usability testing with kids

  • interview groups of kids to understand what they want in a toy customization experience

  • refine the mock-up based on insights from the kid user groups

  • if this were for an actual toy store, use the company’s style guides and design systems.

CONCLUSION

This design exercise confirmed the importance of identifying the needs and motivations - the “why” - behind business motivations and for the primary user group - in this case, kids. While the ultimate goal of this experience is to increase sales and revenue for the company through this personalized experience, as a user experience researcher and designer, I prioritize making sure the users' needs are accurately integrated and represented.