Design for Development | Emoshi Monsters (Personal Contribution)
Project Brief
A digital, game-based intervention was to be designed for this project that shows the powerful act of playing as a means to encourage meaningful connection. Students were divided into groups of 3 with a specific prompt assigned to each group. This digital intervention was designed for children between the ages of 6 and 8 and was aimed at encouraging connection among family, friends and/or the community.
Students were required to conduct research on their target audience and make use of prototyping to find out the likes and dislikes of the children in order to make accurate decisions for their digital intervention. This project aimed at creating positive change in a local context specifically with regard to civic responsibility and children’s development through play and experiential learning.
Deliverables
01 - Process documentation
02 - Tangible information design solution (digital intervention)
03 - Presentation
Design Strategy
Our prompt was storytelling and the positive change we decided to follow was helping children deal with and understand their emotions. While still using storytelling as the main focus, we used our app to guide children and their parents/guardians through different emotions through educational videos and exercises that would benefit the children. This lead us to land on Emoshi Monsters.
As emotions can be complex and daunting things to express and we found that storytelling is a much easier way for children to communicate how they feel while feeling comfortable themselves. We also wanted to focus on our app involving the tangible world as explained in the brief, so with that we made sure an adult had to be present for certain parts of the user journey. This allowed for them to be involved in the child's journey of learning about emotions and also help them understand their child's emotions. In our user testing we also found that children of the chosen target age need an adult to read and write for them at times so that is another reason we wanted them to be included.
We made all the exercises ones that had to be completed with crayons and paper to again add to the tangible aspect of this project, while the app is there to help guide them through the whole journey. The whole app is lead by Mo, the Emoshi Monster who acts as a guide throughout, helping with navigation for children and adults alike.
I worked in a group of 3 with Sydney Rheeder and Emily Lorenzo.
My Contribution
I was involved in majority of the project besides the illustrations and visual style which was done by Emily Lorenzo. My roles included helping with research, conceptual development, user testing and prototyping. For the prototyping I drew up wireframes based off what Sydney Rheeder had done on paper and helped craft the final visual style of the app. I put together the user journey walkthrough in After Effects which we also used in our presentation.
The opacity of everything I did not contribute to is dropped by 30%.
Play Workshop
In our first couple days of this project, we had a play workshop where the whole point of it was to teach our how to play again. This really helped with getting into the flow of the project and trying to understand things from a child's perspective. By doing everything by hand also inspired us later on in the project.
Engaging in the play workshops grounded our understanding on the roles, benefits and importance of play. What we noticed from participating in play was:
• Recharged energy
• Awakening of our inner child.
• Encouraged connection
• Reduced stress
• Freedom to explore• Recharged energy
• Awakening of our inner child.
Initial research
We came across 4 main pillars that our research was supported by. Play, storytelling, emotional skills and art therapy.
Play
Through play children learn to understand themselves, each other, and the world around them. Play is used as a tool for exploring the unknown. Through play kids are able to break down and process complex interactions and environments.
• Fuels the imagination and creative thinking.
• Establishes a healthy environment to practise problem solving and conflict resolution.
• Improves language, vocabulary and communication skills.
Through play children learn to understand themselves, each other, and the world around them. Play is used as a tool for exploring the unknown. Through play kids are able to break down and process complex interactions and environments.
• Fuels the imagination and creative thinking.
• Establishes a healthy environment to practise problem solving and conflict resolution.
• Improves language, vocabulary and communication skills.
• Teaches children about social cues and interactions, and encourages social development.
Storytelling
Storytelling parents are found to have a stronger emotional bond with their children. For the parent, stories offer them a window into their child’s world. For the child stories provide a nurturing and safe space for learning and guidance.
• Broadens a child’s vocabulary and communication skills.
• Teaches a child how to express their feelings
• The child uses their imagination to picture scenes and settings unfolding which nurtures their creativity and curiosity, as opposed to being presented with set images on TV and films.
Storytelling parents are found to have a stronger emotional bond with their children. For the parent, stories offer them a window into their child’s world. For the child stories provide a nurturing and safe space for learning and guidance.
• Broadens a child’s vocabulary and communication skills.
• Teaches a child how to express their feelings
• The child uses their imagination to picture scenes and settings unfolding which nurtures their creativity and curiosity, as opposed to being presented with set images on TV and films.
Emotional skills
Children learn through role-modelling. Therefore, it can be easier to talk about feelings and emotions through the characters in a story which relate to real life experiences. Emotions can feel overwhelming for a child to process.
• Weaving these emotions into a story is a safe way to get your child to understand their own feelings
while learning how to regulate them, the way the characters do in the story.
• Discovering characters in stories that share similar experiences to them, helps children feel less alone, and may also help them to better understand and cope with a challenging situation by providing them without a grounded example to reference.
We ensured the storytelling aspect of our app helped the children communicate their feelings and assisted them speaking about the feelings in a much less daunting light than a direct conversation about how they are feeling.
• Weaving these emotions into a story is a safe way to get your child to understand their own feelings
while learning how to regulate them, the way the characters do in the story.
• Discovering characters in stories that share similar experiences to them, helps children feel less alone, and may also help them to better understand and cope with a challenging situation by providing them without a grounded example to reference.
We ensured the storytelling aspect of our app helped the children communicate their feelings and assisted them speaking about the feelings in a much less daunting light than a direct conversation about how they are feeling.
Art Therapy
It brings together play, storytelling and emotional processing and most importantly fostering connection between families. It also allows children to process experiences, and helps reduce stress and anxiety as they work through these challenges.
It goes above and beyond colouring and manipulating play-doh, and includes activities such as drawing pictures, writing stories and poems, choreographing dances, and writing and performing plays. These can occur in private therapy sessions as well as in group settings, allowing children the opportunity to work on their social communication skills.
Difficult emotions can be processed through art therapy so we decided to include this with storytelling in our app. Art therapy not only helps children express their emotions in a more playful and fun setting, but also encourages exploration, enhances creativity, promotes self-awareness and self-esteem all while developing the child’s motor skills.
It goes above and beyond colouring and manipulating play-doh, and includes activities such as drawing pictures, writing stories and poems, choreographing dances, and writing and performing plays. These can occur in private therapy sessions as well as in group settings, allowing children the opportunity to work on their social communication skills.
Difficult emotions can be processed through art therapy so we decided to include this with storytelling in our app. Art therapy not only helps children express their emotions in a more playful and fun setting, but also encourages exploration, enhances creativity, promotes self-awareness and self-esteem all while developing the child’s motor skills.
Visual identity development
Our colour palette in development keeping the idea of the app in mind
Our final logo
Final visual style
Our style included illustrations from us as well as the actual drawing from the children who helped us with our user testing to give an authentic feeling to the app.
User testing
For the first round of user testing we focus on carrying on teaching two different emotions, happiness and worry.
We found that the children very quickly took to the idea of Emoshi Monsters and loved drawing these monsters out.
The biggest issue we picked up was that when we tested, it involved all 3 children and all 3 group member adults is not actually aligned with the way the app works (which is more one on one). This group setting completely effected the outcome. They were getting distracted very easily & needed lots of prompts throughout. The introverted child completely retracted and waited for her peers to answer or draw first. We sensed that they didn’t want to answer wrong in front of one another. This was not a vulnerable space to open up about their emotions. Having to give them so many prompts didn't allow the children to think for themselves & they would just copy our suggestion.
For the second round, we tested the children one by one.
We showed the the interactive video with scenarios beforehand which was very helpful. They understood the concept of the emotion much quicker since they were asked questions thorough the video. We left them to draw the monsters by themselves allowed them complete freedom and barely any prompts to what the monster should look like. They felt much more comfortable opening up about their emotions too when their friends weren't around.
With this tested we were able to craft our app to cater for these children in the best way. One on one, was the way to go.
If you would like to see our process documentation in more detail, please visit the Figma link.
Prototyping
User journey part 1
Above is a user journey of a child starting out with Emoshi play. Each level is a different emotion and with it's unique video and exercise. Once the level is completed the child is rewarded with a Moosh-Bubble, a small monster that is based off of the emotion from that level. The Moosh-Bubble are clickable and act as a diary in which you can view the exercise that the child completed that day.
By asking the children where they felt their emotion allows for the child to identify and express their emotion more clearly. The audio lines at the bottom of some of the screens are interactive. When the children are prompted or are asked questions, the lines will move to the sound of their voice so they feel like they are being heard.
When the monster asks if they are happy, the app picks up where the monsters mouth is and the mouth will move asking the child the question. This gives the child a closer connection to their monster and the audio is recorded and stored in the Moosh-Bubble collection too.
User journey part 2
Even though our user journey was complete we decided to extend it so show off what the different exercises and a more complete Moosh-Bubble collection would look like. Above is a lesson about anger.
User journey part 3
And our last emotion was worry. As you can see we included the children's drawings from the user testing and it really gives the whole prototype a more fuller feel.
User journey walkthrough
