Mae & The Night Sky
Case Study: Learning and Delight through Voice Technology
Product Design, Voice UI, Research, UX, Testing, Brand Identity & Illustration
Team members: Judilee Haider & Dillon Sturtevant
The problem: Tech-based toys are hurting our children’s development.
Read in JAMA Pediatrics that "more screen time is linked to poorer progress on key developmental measures such as communication skills, problem solving and social interactions among young kids over time.” The addictive qualities of screen time and links to obesity and sleep disruption with overuse have also been documented.
Our challenge was to create a tech-based learning toy that is actually good for kids.
What can we do? How can we reduce harm and better leverage the potential of technology to make learning delightful? Our only parameter was to include a voice interaction. So, we went off to research...
Our research began pointing us to the kind of educational toy we wanted to create. For instance:
1 Both children and adults learn better when facts are connected to a broader context or narrative.
2 People retain what they learn near bedtime more than at other times of day.
3 Women still only account for 29% of the science and engineering workforce, but exposure to STEM subjects and role models makes a difference.
With this information in hand, we decided to create a conversational toy focusing on space & the night sky.
Voice has the potential to be more passive and less addictive than screens, so we decided to make every interaction conversational/voice based.
Space is a perfect focus: It allows us to connect science, history, mythology and cultural awareness, increase STEM learning, and to utilize the learning potential of evening hours.
