Once Upon a Time, There Was Little Time

Using my time wisely, especially with only two weeks available, was vital for this project. I created a detailed schedule to avoid stress, breaking the job into small parts to manage it easily.

Image: With 22 interview questions I aimed to cover emotions, motivations, challenges, and difficulties, and also asked what could potentially help users facing those.

Throwback: Millions of Bedtime Story Apps

I researched competitors offering digital bedtime stories and found many apps and websites, most using AI-generated images, some too scary for kids. While I wanted to use AI for easy story provision, I might skip images for now. With this in mind, I started my project with semantic analysis.

Image: In the times of AI, there were plenty of AI-driven bedtime story apps already.

Yes, but What Does It Even Mean??

After checking out the competition, I examined the goal and its words using a technique called semantic analysis. This involves identifying keywords and understanding their meanings. It's helpful for understanding the goal better and sparking new ideas.

• What does it mean to assist?
• Why is it important?
• Who are young children?
• What cognitive and emotional needs to young children have?
• Why is it helpfull to personalize a bedtime-story?
• What is Bedtime-Storytelling about?

Asking Potential Users

Desk Research helped me getting an idea of what I wanted to ask the potential target group. I aimed to cover emotions, motivations, challenges, and difficulties, and also asked what could potentially help users facing those.

Research Questions

1. How do parents typically read bedtime stories to their children?
2. What motivates parents to tell their kids bedtimestories?
3. What emotions do parents associate with telling bedtimestories?
4. What challenges or difficulties do parents commonly face when creating bedtime stories for their children?
5. What could help to have a better experience putting kids to sleep.

Image: With 22 interview questions I aimed to cover emotions, motivations, challenges, and difficulties, and also asked what could potentially help users facing those.

Disappointed with the Answers 😖

In fact i didn't like my questions. During interviews, I realized I missed some important points. I didn't ask if parents would use a device, especially in bed. Even though I learned a lot, I wanted to dig deeper. So, I did another survey with 16 people …

… and then this happened.

Key Insights

Wow, this was unexpected. I was supposed to create a digital product for bedtime stories, but parents don't want to use a device. No matter how bad it was at first, it opened new doors and ultimately led to my key insights.

Users Want Generated Bedtime Stories –
But No Device

At this point, I questioned my job. Maybe the solution was to help parents borrow books from a library? I decided to create a persona with all my key insights and pain points to help me empathize even more with the user.

Shoutout to Dave

With the main insights and persona Dave's input, I remembered a common business saying: "If you want to make a successful product, target a niche." So, I decided to target parents who know about screen effects on kids. This helped establish my unique value proposition, setting me apart from competitors.

How Might We Assist Dave with a Good Bedtime Experience, Avoiding Device Screens?

I came up with several "How might we's", braindumped some solutions, and did a "crazy 8" – 8 minutes, 8 Screens. I collected mostly screen-avoiding features, such as audio play, ambient light, lullabies, AI-generated stories, filter function, white noise, personalized stories, and meditative audio.

Image: Crazy 8 – every minute you come up with features.

Key Features

Thanks to my research and brainstorming, three screen-avoiding key features were ready to be tested in the paper wireframes.

Where Are the Settings?

I had several participants test my prototypes. I asked them to complete tasks like "generate a bedtime story and turn on ambient light." However, nothing was clear to the testers, as I assumed everything was easy to understand. I encountered major issues with the site architecture and the navbar.

Image: The site's architecture and navbar were unclear to the testers.

Image: Even the perfect target group had its issues.

Test, Iterate, Test, Iterate …

I kept changing the paper prototype and testing it again. Then, I changed it a bit more and tested it again. And just when I thought I was done, I changed it some more and tested it again. It's a never-ending cycle!

Image: Redesigned homescreen.

Image: The Lullabies-feature

Image: AmbientLight with pre sets.

Tests Failed – Successfully

After testing my initial paper wireframes, I restructured the site architecture and adjusted the nav bar. I then created a low-fidelity prototype in Figma and had it tested. Again it failed – successfully!

Image: I wanted to create a dark theme especially considering its usage in dimly lit environments. However, as you can see, the contrast is to low. Testers were also confused by the Primary Buttons and their labeling. To access the settings participants were missing a gear icon.

From Insight to Iteration

In the second testing phase, I have already designed a hi-fi prototype. Normally, I would test a simpler version a few times before moving on to the hi-fi prototype, but due to time constraints, I merged the phases.

User Flow Accomplished

The recent tests showed that users know how to navigate the app smoothly. I had the testers complete a few tasks, which all succeeded. Feel free to test it yourself.

My Key Lesson

I faced lots of problems and mistakes during the project. I doubted myself and made errors, but I learned from them. In the end, it didn't feel like failing; it was more like solving a puzzle.

Image: Presenting my app and process at Talent Garden in Vienna.

“It's not failing; it's about solving a puzzle.”