Hello Po — Rebecca Parvaneh

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HELLO PO
LIL E COFFEE

3D + MOTION DESIGN

SOCIAL MEDIA USE
BAD FRIEND

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WWF CAMPAIGN

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NUTRAMENT

HELLO PO
A Meditation App for Kids

ROLE
UI/UX Designer

TIMELINE
6 weeks

DELIVERABLES

Mid-Fi + Hi-Fi Wireframes
User Research
Prototype

YEAR
2025

Hello Po invites children on a journey of inner peace and mindfulness. Through vibrant animations, soothing meditations, and interactive breathing exercises, Hello Po transforms screens into serene sanctuaries. The app empowers children to cultivate mental well-being and lifelong relaxation skills. With Hello Po, bedtime becomes a tranquil adventure for the entire family.

Primary Objectives

CORE PROBLEM

Create an app that is appealing to children aged 4-8 that is intuitive, captures their attention, and motivates them to participate in meditative activities that require paying attention for longer periods of time than what they may be used to.

CHALLENGES

Children aged 4-8 have shorter attention spans, we need to keep them engaged enough to participate and benefit from the activities in the app

Need to find the balance between providing a user experience that is rewarding and educational, not mindless and addicting (we do not want to gameify the app and encourage unhealthy tech hygiene)

Balancing successful cognitive usability with an enhanced emotional experience on the app to create an engaging experience for both parent and child

SECONDARY RESEARCH

Research was conducted by collecting broad findings from data published in academic journals covering topics in child psychology, human-computer interaction (HCI), and user experience design.

AREAS OF RESEARCH

Early attention in children
Early cognition in children
Interactive app design for children and families
Emotional design leveraging positive emotion for children

Research demonstrated that children aged 4-8 show increased engagement with colours such as blue (increased attention to information), red (highly salient, captures attention), yellow (enhances positive affect), and green (promotes feelings of relaxation). Intentional use of colour can guide children to interact with in-app activities differently based on the goal of the activity and the intended end-state emotion.

Children in this age group also have varying cognitive abilities, with children aged 4 possessing a more limited working memory ability than their older counterparts (younger children respond more favourably to visual cues and simple strings of information and interactions), meaning that special considerations must be made to create intuitive, minimal designs.

Recent studies investigated research gaps involving incorporating more than just designing for usability and early cognitive abilities in children, and focusing on also bringing in playability and fun to create an emotional experience for the child. Emotional experiences facilitate attention and learning in children aged 4-8.

SOLUTIONS
COLOUR USE

A general theme of a muted cream colour with a red-undertone was incorporated into the design to maintain a sense of calm and so not to overstimulate the child while using the app, while the loading page is a muted teal in order to set the tone of calmness

Colour-coding was used in order to categorize and help children quickly identify and label their emotions when completing daily check-ins, as well as to categorize and label different activities in the app

Colour was also used to meet children where they were (in order to ease children into calm), for example, if they selected in the daily check-in that they felt happy, the app theme would turn green while in use, if they felt angry it would turn red while in use, up until they select a meditative activity or reflection activity, to which the app colour would switch to the designated activity colour