POPO
IoT device and app for fostering Healthy Personal Device Use Habits for Families with Tweens
Edutech
Design System
IoT
In the fall of 2023, I took on a project aimed at helping families navigate the challenges of personal device use for children in their tweens (8-12 years old).
We created an IoT device and application named POPO to empower families to navigate this post-COVID landscape and foster a balanced approach that promotes self-regulation, responsibility, and open communication during this crucial stage of development.
If you want to know more about POPO, please read specifications here.
Overview
Team
Jiho Kim(Lead Designer), 2 UX Researchers, 2 Designers
Duration
3 months
Tool
Figma, After effect
Skills
Literature Review, Qualitative Interviews, Rapid Ideation, Rapid Prototyping, Evaluative Research
Contribution
Concept Development
Complete UX/UI Design
High Fidelity Prototyping
The Challenge
"If you drip water on a stone long enough, it'll find a way to go through"
said one of our contextual inquiry participants. This quote emphasizes the importance of persistence and adaptability in technology use in families.
%
Of tweens(ages 8-12)
are experiencing an increase in screen use after pandemic
%
Of parents
resort to restrictions, experts warn that outright bans may hinder the development of self-regulation skills
Why Tweens?
We narrowed down our age scope to children aged 8-12 years since this age range is critical as it typically marks the beginning of…
reason #1
Personal device ownership
reason #2
Increased technology use
reason #3
Shape long-lasting healthy tech habits
The Solution
POPO
A family-centric solution that balances between parental involvement and children's independence in fostering suitable tech use habits
My final sketches for showcasing POPO toy and app.
Our Approach
Triangulating the problems
To truly understand the nuances of this challenge, we embarked on a comprehensive research phase. I took the lead in conducting key generative studies, including:
Contextual inquiry
observations at 4 retail stores
Dyad Interview
observations at 4 retail stores
SMEs interview
observations at 4 retail stores
findings
We found 3 main insights from research...
After we finished all the interview sessions, we collected and synthesized data.
finding #1
Training wheels
Facilitate training wheels for media apps and tech devices
finding #2
Guidance
Provide guidance for parents, regarding device use and media moderation for their children
finding #3
Interaction
Facilitate interactions between parents and children
The insights turned into…
HMW Question
How might we help parents living in cities foster suitable personal device use habits in tweens (8 to 12 years) at home with a primary focus on media apps?
ideation
Connecting the Dots
Before we jumped into ideation, I facilitated discussion to define five design principles that will help guide our affinitisation based on our secondary research. Also, I brainstormed over 30 different ideas on ways to reduce kids' screen time fostering healthy personal device habits, and we came up with over 90 as a team.
Which principles will guide us?
Principal #1
Foster collaboration
Principal #2
Adapt and grow with the child
Principal #3
Provide actionable insights
Principal #4
Intuitive for everyone
Principal #5
Safety & privacy first
Tools for downselection
Going from 90 ideas to 3
After having multiple rounds, three concepts rose to the top:
idea #1
POPO
An app tracks the entire family's screen time, which is divided into productive and unproductive.
idea #2
Analok
A mobile OS for parents to monitor and control their children's device usage. Children can request boundary changes but requires parental approval.
idea #3
Growth OS
This app encourages children to perform certain analog activities to earn device time.
How did we downselect to 1?
To decide our final idea, we did 2x2 matrix based on the desired outcomes.
desired ourcome #1
Collaboration
Encourage the family to collaborate, and manage their personal device usage
desired ourcome #2
Openness & trust
Support openness and trust within the family when it comes to discussing their personal device usage
desired ourcome #3
Self-regulation
Improve children’s ability to self regulate their personal device use
2X2 matrix
We made both the horizontal and vertical axes based on the rationale from our desired outcomes.
initial idea
Building our first design...
After decided our final idea, we moved on to build design.
Setting up contextual model
I created this contextual model to align the flow of the POPO toy and app.
Mapping information architecture
Before creating user flow and low-fidelity prototype, I made an information architecture to build a foundation for our app.
Low fidelity prototype
I first started out by sketching frames to explore a wide range of ideas, which was refined through feedback from every teammates.
User test
Testing our design
To evaluate our prototype and design, we set up a user test with…
Participants
3 Individuals & 2 Families
For all our key paths, we tested;
the popo toy
With some POPO app screen on the POPO toy, that users interact with together
the app
With POPO app screens on the phone, that users hold in their hands
Key paths for user testing
We asked participants to behave as they normally would in their everyday lives to ensure accurate data collection from this test. Additionally, we guided them through three specific flows based on our established methods.
keypath #1
Onboarding & Setup
Do families understand what POPO is and how it works?
keypath #2
Daily use
Do users understand how to interact with POPO on a daily basis?
keypath #3
Review time
Do users understand what to do on discussion day?
Overall takeaways from user test
After finishing user tests, we came up with these four takeaways. Our overarching takeaway is how to ensure that parents don't completely take over the decision making process.
takeaway #1
Add in prompts to enable more collaboration
takeaway #2
Encourage sharing the screen during review & setup
takeaway #3
Provide more guidance as to what is expected of the user
takeaway #4
Provide more information that shows the intention behind the prompts the app layout.
final design
Key features walkthrough
What is POPO?
A physical and visual representation of a family’s screen use
POPO is meant to be placed where a family will interact with it most, such as the living room, dining room, or kitchen. Through facial expressions, POPO gives feedback on how the family is doing regarding their collective screen-time limit.
How does POPO work?
the popo toy
A physical representation of a family's screen use.
the app
used to set up the experience and check total usage.
Why a panda?
Pandas are gentle and cute. Their neutral color allows them to blend well into different homes.
Why a physical object?
An object that is always available is more persuasive than just an app that needs to be checked.
Connect POPO and personal devices
All family members are asked to install the app and gather around POPO to start the set up process
Set up family goals and meeting frequencies
Once families have come to an agreement, they can set how often they’d like to discuss
Daily Interaction
POPO's expression reflects total family screen time. The app shows the total family usage rather than individual usage.
Discussion time
Families convene around POPO to view individual screen usage through the app, which offers discussion prompts to encourage positive conversations about digital habits.
Design System
reflection
Takeaways
Lesson learned
Lesson #1
Developing POPO as both a physical device and an app showed me the value of creating holistic solutions that address problems from multiple angles, catering to different interaction preferences and contexts of use.
Lesson #2
This project deepened my understanding of how technology can be leveraged to influence behavior positively, especially in sensitive areas like family dynamics and child development.
If we have more time…
Objective #1
We want to test the high fidelity prototype with actual families.
Objective #2
We want to think more on long Term use cases for POPO. Designing how POPO will age, how can it adapt as tweens become teens?
Objective #3
We want to make the POPO more interesting and fun to use for families by adding more POPO interactions