KidAR: Let your kids be free while keeping your mind at ease

UCI MHCID: Advanced Design & Prototyping Class Project

I. Overview

Assignment Challenge: Interface Design Project

Our design team of five includes Aaron Soto, Charlene Fan, Jacquie Parker, Steve Ngo, and Tim George and we were tasked to develop a novel idea for an interface and produce a final project through the iterative design process, from napkin sketch to prototype. This class project had various stages throughout the ten-week course broken into two-week sprints that roughly followed the process diagram below. In a separate, but parallel class, we learned how to perform a variety of user experience evaluation methods such as heuristic evaluations, cognitive walkthroughs, and usability testing to help guide our projects based on data and analysis. Over the final six months of our MHCID program, we will now put these skills together on a large Capstone Projects with an actual client.

Iterative Design Process

II. UX Research

Requirements Gathering

One of the ways we came to the idea is from members of our group observing the problems parents encounter firsthand, either as parents themselves or having worked in education. We continued to empathize with users through surveys and interviews, finding their very specific pain points and then supporting this with our research and competitive analysis.

Quotes from our interviews. These helped guide our ideas for the need, but also, as noted in the fourth quote above, helped us shape our vision of the solution based on what our audience was willing to carry around or use frequently.

One of our methods for gathering requirements was viewing forums for first person quotes from parents. These users articulate their concerns for their children’s safety and the challenge to provide adequate supervision and intervention as needed.

We conducted a competitive analysis to formulate an understanding of the “kid wearables” marketplace to refine the direction of our product. The analysis features a matrix of popular devices currently being sold. We wanted to find any unserved or underserved gaps that the market currently is not targeting. To develop a better understanding of our user’s preferences, opinions, and attitudes, we created an online survey using Google Forms and distributed to parents on our social networks.

Whiteboarding & Ideating

We conducted group brainstorming both in-person and through online meetings about what is our app, what is going to set it apart from competitors, and what needs it meets. We brought together our diverse and balanced skill sets, as we have collective previous work experience in design, product management, development, and client services.

We whiteboarded everything — user flows, wireframes, and pain points. As a team, we had expo markers, talked, and sketched.

Personas, Scenarios, Storyboard

After identifying potential users, we concluded that the main people who will be using this will be primarily teachers or parents. Furthermore, we saw the need for separate applications for teachers and for parents. Thus, for a viable and thought-through design, we decided to focus on the functionality parents or individual caretakers would use for the children under their supervision.

Please click here for an in-depth look at our personas, scenarios, and storyboard.

III. Interaction Design

Define and Analyze: Sketches

We produced a series of sketch deliverables from our initial sketches to our refined sketches. These final sketches were compiled into a video presentation which was similar to a paper prototype walk through that would serve as the foundation for our wireframes in the next visual design phase.

Utilizing the Design Studio methodology, in a one hour session we were able to achieve our vision for most of our feature and interaction decisions.

Wireframes & Mockups

We created wireframes showing the interactions we designed and mockups following the material design process.

IV. Final Mockups

Please use click here for the Final Mockups PDF and use the clickable prototypes to see our final interface design for both a smart phone and Apple watch.

Click here to view the project `KidAR`

Click here to view the project `KidAR Watch`

V. Contributors

VI. Appendix and Resources

Online manual: Explaining the interface’s functionality

Aaron Soto — Charlene Fan — Steve Ngo — Jacquie Parker — Tim George