Re-writing the rules of kidâs TV
Summary
The abundance of entertainment devices today can be both a blessing and a curse for parents. Your rectangular buddy often helps to avert disaster, but at the same time none of us want to see our child in front of a screen all day, no matter what theyâre watching.
Together with Hopster we explored the potential of Apple TV as a platform for rethinking and redesigning how kids engage with content on the TV. We provided product leadership, product design and tvOS development services.
Our services
- User research
- Qualitative research
- Rapid prototyping
- UI, Interaction & Motion design
- Design system creation
- Front end engineering (iOS)
- Product roadmap
- The challenges
- Make screen time a win-win
From snack time to bedtime, parenthood is a constant negotiation, one in which a tablet device can be both a best friend and worst enemy.
Our challenge was to make sure screen time didnât become a trade-off between peace and peace of mind. The challenges of working with a target audience that arenât fully able to completely tell you what they need was apparent from the start.
We also realised early on that the main customer for the product was actually parents. They might not be the users, but they are the audience we needed to convince. By introducing to Hopster the benefits of a cross-functional team, working in an iterative manner we could turn âneedsâ to âideasâ to âdeveloped featuresâ in short cycles.
- Our approach
- We recruited 15 families to test and iterate with
We created a 6,000% increase in users compared to the first week launch
The production process was on a two-week cycle basis, and after every cycle we released a version of the product with our test group.
In just four months we went from sketch to launch. In that time we worked closely with Apple to ensure Hopster was seen as a flagship app which resulted in Hopster being featured on the App Store as well as being awarded Apple TV app of the year. This all led to a 6,000% increase in users compared to their first week launch.
- Insights
- When building products for kids itâs easy to think that your primary users are children; but actually your target audience is the parents.
Elsewhen were the perfect partner to work with. Weâre delighted with the outcome - and so are our users.
Nicholas WaltersHopster CEO
- The outcomes
- Hopster picked up Apple Editors Choice, was awarded Apple TV app of the year and appeared in WWDC three years running.
- 4 months
- from sketch to global launch
- 6,000%
- increase in users
