KIGO
Hackathon Project that placed 1st: Designing a winning MVP project in a weekend
OVERVIEW
In the advent of immersive technological experiences, children have become much more sedentary than they were before. To encourage and reinforce children to be healthy and active, my team created a wearable fitness product for children that combines the ever-present fitness tracker with the timeless virtual pet.
My Role:
- Sole UI designer
- Provisional Persona Creation
- User Stories
- Ideation
- Wireframing
- Prototype
Scope:
To create a companion app for Kigo that gamifies the experience that children have when using the wearable fitness tracker.
THE CHALLENGE
As this project was conducted in over a 54 hour time period (a weekend), my team and I faced the challenge of creating an MVP prototype that was validated through market research, testing and iterations.
Goals
- To identify the most feasible way of appealing to our two target groups: both parents and their children (ages 6-11 years old).
- To create a working prototype on the iOS companion app
- To create a physical prototype of the wearable product
Method
- User research- provisional persona, user stories, screener, script, usability tests & synthesis of results
- Creating wireframes, and creating a high-fi clickable prototype
Constraints
- Limited time = 54 hours
- Started with a conceptual idea
UNDERSTANDING KIGO'S USERS
KIGO'S USERS
We performed competitor analyses on similar children fitness wearable products to gain an understanding of the landscape, and to get a quick idea of the strengths and potential areas of improvement each competitor had that we could ideate upon as we came up with potential designs for KIGO.
We created a provisional persona of our typical users to enable us to narrow down our target market into two groups: children aged 6-12 years old and health-oriented parents.
We then created user stories to identify key features that our users would like to see in the product.
USER RESEARCH/NEEDS FINDING
We created a list of research goals to help us draft a questionnaire to ask users that would help us understand our target market more, and determine if parents and children were receptive to the idea of Kigo.
We created an online survey to gauge the interest level parents had about KIGO.
Snapshot of a short online survey we displayed on social media sources like Facebook to gauge user interest in our product
Using our research goals, we interviewed twenty-five parents (and children) at local parks, libraries, stores and restaurants.
Interview Guide
Interviewing a young parent at a park
FINDINGS
Survey Responses (select)
In-progress synthesis of interview data points
Based on our survey responses & interview results, we learned that:
- 70% of parents were very keen with the idea of encouraging their children to lead more active lifestyles through the use of KIGO.
- We received over fifteen email-addresses from parents who were interested in beta testing our product on their children.
- Parents were concerned about addictive gameplay, and majority were therefore keen on having a simple LED display on the wearable device.
- Parents were more concerned with seeing their children be more active than being able to track their children's activity levels on the wearable.
STRATEGIZE
From our research, we saw that many parents were very interested in our product, provided that it wasn't another avenue in which children can get hooked onto their mobile devices for hours on end.
We therefore decided to create a basic 32 LED screen wearable device that provided minimal, yet sufficient feedback for the wearer (children), and provide a companion app that allows children to monitor the health of their pets, see their activity data, modify their pets & connect with the public.
We modified our personas to more accurately fit our target market based on data we gathered from user research which involved needs-finding & user interviews.
Modified personas based on user research
DESIGN
As the sole designer of the team for the hackathon, I made sure to touch bases with every member to ensure that my designs not only aligned with our users, but that they also aligned with our vision & business model.
CREATING WIREFRAMES
Armed with more knowledge about our users based on interviews and UI tests, we began to explore how to create a fitness wearable that motivates children to use the product by being fun and engaging. I focused on creating an iOS mobile companion app that catered to Amelia.
I then digitized my wireframes to get a better idea of how to play around with the various components
VALIDATING WIREFRAMES
To ensure that everyone was on the same page during the entire process of our product development, we all gave constant progress updates and gave feedback on each others' work.
I gathered design inspiration from fellow designers & from popular games.
Right until the moments of our final presentation, I validated my designs on potential users, iterating upon their feedback.
FINAL DESIGNS & CLICKABLE PROTOTYPE
NEXT STEPS
Despite how hectic things got for us due to the nature of a 54 hour hackathon, my team and I pulled through and placed first in Startup Weekend's Bay Area Hackathon! We successfully created:
- A wearable prototype created with modeling clay
- A clickable companion app
- A functioning iOS interface on the Apple Watch that displayed the different emotional states children can see when wearing KIGO.
We plan to meet with our potential investors from Lab 360, in early December to discuss the future of KIGO.
REFLECTIONS
This was an very interesting project to partake in because it all started with just an idea, which we then brought into the physical and virtual realm as we went through the 2.5 days of working together. It was my first experience working with a very diverse team under a severe time crunch. It was also my first attempt at game-design which I found really fascinating.
I felt really privileged to have worked alongside individuals with lots of energy and motivation to create meaningful and life-changing products.
Moving forward, I plan to continue learning more about behavioral design through gamification by reading up on books by the leading expert in the field, Yu-Kai Chou. I am also excited about the value that SW/HW products bring and will continue to learn more about the various applications in which they are used, and how I can design for those cases.