Client details withheld to protect confidentiality. Metrics reflect a completed user testing trial.
Kids View: A Learning Experience Designed for Scale
How Inclusive Design and Empathy-First Ergonomics Shaped a Validated, Safe Learning Ecosystem for Both Kids and Parents.
A design-led learning ecosystem designed for children, parents, and educators. By pairing highly tactile, low-cognitive-load mobile interfaces for children with deep analytic dashboards for parents, Kids View was built and validated through a structured user testing trial, bridging immediate play with long-term educational growth.
- Role
- Principal Product & Interaction Designer
- Scope
- 0-to-1 Cross-Platform Mobile Experience (iOS & Android)
- Target Audience
- Children (Ages 4-9), Parents, and Early Education Teachers
- Primary Outcome
- High-Delight, Regulatory-Compliant Application Design, Validated in User Testing
My Role: Balancing Delight with Analytical Oversight
I spearheaded the complete UX strategy, interaction patterns, behavioral analytics panels, and system branding. My major design challenge was bridging two completely distinct mental models: children need gamified, error-forgiving, friendly touch spaces, while parents require professional, clean, objective analytics showing clear developmental metrics.
The 4 to 9 age range was not arbitrary, it came directly from research into the developmental window where children learn fastest and retain the most.
Designing for Kids vs. Designing for Adults
Most children's platforms overlook the physical limits of early childhood interaction. Children don't use multi-level dropdowns or dense text menus; they navigate through muscle memory, large tap targets, and auditory confirmation cues. Parents, on the other hand, are pressed for time, they want an administrative console that summarizes metrics at a glance without forcing them to watch the gameplay.
For Children
Oversized, highly tactile buttons, friendly character cues, zero text-heavy screens, and completely forgiving touch logic.
For Parents
Clean, data-dense progress timelines, intuitive screen-time governors, and immediate sharing capabilities.
From Wireframe to Validated Interface
Every screen went through low-fidelity wireframing and whiteboard sessions before moving to high-fidelity design, tested against real parents and kids at each stage. The child interface went through the most iteration, early versions still had too much text, later versions replaced it almost entirely with icons, characters, and color, which is what ultimately drove the usability gains during testing.
Delivering Confidence through Seamless Play
Interactive Learning Path
A highly gamified map that automatically adjusts step difficulty based on responsive assessment loops.
The Parental Dashboard
Structured analytic panels presenting screen-time trends, developmental category progression, and sharing logs.
COPPA Guardrails
Built-in verification prompts (e.g., parental mathematical verification keys) preventing children from modifying critical safety limits or billing details.
Key Decisions
Personalized Learning Journeys
Tailoring content to each child's skill level and progress.
Intuitive Parental Controls
Streamlined setup for managing screen time and content filters.
Data Privacy First Design
Transparent data collection practices and age appropriate experiences.
Gamified Progress Tracking
Engaging feedback loops to motivate children's learning.
Multilingual Accessibility
Localized interfaces and content for global reach.
Cross-Platform Continuity
Seamless experience across different devices and platforms.
Key decisions: personalized journeys, parental controls, data privacy, and cross-platform continuity.
Designing Better Play
Integrating systematic behavioral ergonomics directly into mobile layouts turned routine screen time into a structured developmental framework. By aligning the UI with child fine-motor limits, cognitive overload dropped significantly during testing, and parent engagement with the analytics panels was strong.
94%
Parent NPS
During testing stages, citing the high legibility of the analytical trend panels.
60%
Higher Self-Sufficiency
In child onboarding loops during user testing, due to the removal of text barriers.
A System Designed to Scale Beyond the Screen
The Kids View identity was designed to extend across product surfaces, physical touchpoints, and lifecycle communications. From app iconography and stationery to tote bags, apparel, and onboarding email sequences, each concept application was built to reinforce the same friendly, trustworthy educational voice.
Brand Applications
Everyday Carry
Tote bags and notebooks extending the brand into daily use.
App Identity
Icon variations and mobile brand marks across the product.
Social Templates
Reusable post templates for organic and paid social content.
Apparel and Print
T-shirts, business cards, and printed stationery.
Everyday Objects
Water bottles and notebooks carrying the identity beyond the screen.
Onboarding Sequence
A welcome email flow introducing new families to Kids View.
Concept design work created for client presentation and stakeholder alignment, not produced or distributed at scale.
The System Behind the Screens
Beneath the illustrated surface sits a consistent token system, color, typography, and component patterns built to hold up as the product scaled beyond a single screen or platform.
Built for Consistency at Scale
Every illustrated character, expression, and pose followed the same construction guide, ensuring a consistent, friendly visual language whether a child was greeted at onboarding or celebrating a finished lesson.
Where This Landed
Kids View completed a full user testing trial that validated the core interaction model, strong usability scores, high parent satisfaction with the analytics panels, and clear engagement signal from the kids in testing. The engagement stalled shortly after, due to a shift in the client's internal priorities, not a design or usability issue. What stuck with me most was the core design challenge: building for two completely different mental models, a child's and a parent's, inside a single coherent product. That's a pattern I've carried into every multi-audience product decision since.
The testing trial itself produced strong signal: a 125% increase in average session duration, a 94% usability rating from kids and parents, and an architecture built to be ready for expansion into new markets, though the engagement ended before that expansion could happen.