Introducing BedCheck
I designed an app that makes bedtime fun for kids and keeps parents sane. Here’s what I learned in the process.
If you’re a parent of young children, bedtime can be the most miserable part of the day.
Young kids have little concept for time, and seem to find lots of energy (more than their parents, anyway) once it’s time to go to sleep.
You tell them to get their pajamas on, but find them playing with Lego 10 minutes later. They’re supposed to quickly brush their teeth, and you discover that they’ve mysteriously gotten side-tracked with their stuffed-animal farm on the way to the bathroom.
(I’m being hypothetical, of course…)
What if bedtime could be more fun? What if there was a way to help kids get ready for bed quickly, stay “on-task”, in time to actually enjoy a bedtime story and goodnight kiss?
What if there was an app for that?
Introducing BedCheck
BedCheck is an app concept designed to give children more ownership over their bedtime routine and make bedtime more fun for both kids and their parents.
In the app, kids or their parents create a list of things they need to complete before bed, such as brushing their teeth, getting pajamas on, and going to the bathroom. They give each of these items an allotted timeframe.
Then they start the checklist timer. The app gives them a countdown for each item, and a big cheer when they finish on time! It then points them to the next task on the list, until they’re completely ready for bed.
There are a few other kids timer apps out there (like Lickety Split and Countdown), which my kids also really enjoyed. What makes BedCheck unique is that it lets kids create a list of items and walk through the entire list, rather than setting one item at a time.
That, and it has cool hand-drawn animals, which is a big plus :).
The Design Process
You wouldn’t believe how much fun was had in this designing this app! I started with lots of observation to try to understand the problem. Of course, I get to observe “the problem” first-hand every night. But thinking about bedtime less as a trial as more as a design problem helped me channel my frustrations and learn more about myself and my children along the way.
Then I developed paper prototypes to try out some various layout ideas. I tested my paper prototypes with several test users, including my kids. That’s when they decided they wanted in on the fun! My 6-yr-old developed her own paper prototype and tested it out on me! Getting the “target user” in on the design process was surprisingly beneficial, as I was able to observe her priorities in an app (namely, more animals). I was also able to pull in some of her artwork into my own prototypes.
Next I built a working prototype using InVision. This gave me the ability to get users to play with the app on a phone to get a feel for how it would work in real life.
I was able to test my app in-person with kids and parents, who had a lot of helpful feedback.
I also used UserTesting.com to get random users to provide their objective feedback on the app, which was invaluable in further understanding how users would interact with the app.
One of the main features I tried to refine, based on user testing, was the process of creating the checklist of things for kids to complete before going to bed. Instead of requiring users to go back and forth between the “Add Item” and “List” screens, I tried to keep users interacting on the List screen itself to minimize the back-and-forth.
Thanks to everyone who helped with discussing the bedtime routine, gave their thoughts and feedback on the prototype, and tested out the prototypes. And thanks to Scott Klemmer and the folks The Design Lab at UCSD for sharing a wealth of knowledge through this course.
If you’d like to try out my prototype for yourself, click here to view it on the InVision site.
And if you’re a parent of young children, hang in there during bedtime. We’re all in this together ;).
