NOMENO
a smart toy & app for children that uses digital technology to promote hands on learning through play.
Project Brief
The goal of this project was to create a marketable smart object and accompanying app. Our team was assigned the topic of children toys.
Role
Research, Ideation, Wireframing, Prototyping, UX, Animation.
TOOLs
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe After Effects
InVision
Team
The Problem
Increased popularity of video games has lead to disinterest in traditional toys. This has caused a lack of innovation in modern toys that is depriving children of important skills developed through physical play.
Research
I researched a variety of existing smart toys to see what kind of products we would be competing with, and gain a better understanding of current technology. I then wrote a competitive analysis on one of these products, to become more aware of the pain points with other smart toys that we wanted to avoid when created nomeno.
Additionally we worked as a team to create a simple PACT analysis to better understand and define our target market.
Design Challenge
How can we create a toy that will teach children hands on skills and encourage physical play, but that also embraces modern technology to appeal to kids growing up in a digital world?
solution
Nomeno is a physical toy that uses smart technology to interact with a digital world. This world can only be fully explored by completing gamified educational challenges using the physical nomeno toy.
Through this design we are able to utilize the world building and educational capabilities of a digital game, while still inspiring imagination and real world play.
Visual Design
typography
We chose to use Sofia Pro as our logo type and primary typeface as we were looking for something soft and playful but still readable.
We decided to pair this with Sofia Pro Soft, to highlight the more playful side of our app.
Colour palette
We chose a variety of bright pastel colours because we wanted nomeno to feel fun, but not chaotic and overly bright. We also needed a fairly wide variety of colours to effectively illustrate the different worlds in our app.
Illustration Style
All the illustrations for nomeno were done using ellipses and rectangles with rounded corners to imitate nomeno's rounded shape and create visual consistency.
Site map
Name :
Avery
7 years old
AGE :
Location:
Beijing
User Persona 1
Avery is a 7 year old only child living with her parents in Beijing. Although she has a big house and yard to play in, she doesn’t have any friends living around her to play with when she’s home from boarding school. She’s a very clever and energetic child who likes to do crafts and play outside. She also has a small tablet that she uses to watch videos and play games on but when she uses it, she ends up sitting in the same spot with her neck craned over the screen until her parents finally tell her to stop.
PAINT POINTS
- Parents want to limit screen time.
- Needs the app to be easy enough to understand
without constant parental supervision.
GOALS
- Wants more fun ways to pay when alone.
- A way to connect with boarding school friends while
back home.
User Scenario 1 - on boarding
User Persona 2
Name :
Jonah
10 years old
AGE :
Location:
Toronto
Jonah is a 10 year boy living in a condo downtown with his 14 year old brother and mom. His favourite toy to play with has always been legos. He loves building littles cars and boats but since the kids around him have started playing digital games he’s asked for an iPad and followed suite. Last month he saw a Snapchat ad for Nomeno and begged his mom to buy him one. He’s been working his way through the challenges ever since. He’ll even invite his friends over to build together or compete with his best friend to see who can get the highest score.
PAINT POINTS
- Doesn't have a ton of space to play in a small condo
- Hasn't play a lot of other digital games so the
nomeno interface must be easily understandable
GOALS
- Compete and connect with friends
- Use and improve his building skills so he can apply
them to other activities or toys
User Scenario 2 - Gameplay
Invision Prototype
Marketing
One of my responsibilities for this project was to come up with, and create one piece of marketing material. I decided that the most effective way to reach out target audience would be through a snapchat/instagram story ad. The ad encourages the user to interact with it in hope that they will be tempted and click through to discover more about the product. The gif to the right is an example of what one of these instagram ads might look like.
If we were to continue with the nomeno advertising campaign I would like to create a series of posters that would highlight how the nomeno toy and wheels that come in the initial box can be used in combination with household items to build all kinds of different things.
The Problem
Increased popularity of video games has lead to disinterest in traditional toys. This has caused a lack of innovation in modern toys that is depriving children of important skills developed through physical play.
3D Render
The 3D rendering was executed by one of my team members but we came up with the overall design of nomeno as a group. This is an example of what he might look like, along with the wheels included in the basic starter kit.
