Super
powers

Diving straight into secondary research to gather context for the problem area, I conducted a literature review—exploring articles and books to build a foundation in child development stages and current best practice EQ principles.

Equipped with some context, I began conducting a variety of primary research activities.

Beginning with exploratory surveys, I set out to better understand how childhood experiences influence parenting decisions and what resources and strategies parents currently use to respond to moments of emotional upset. 

Diving deeper into parents’ current challenges, I designed a screener survey and a week-long diary study that explored the day-to-day tasks parents execute with their children, how they currently manage “ big feelings” moments, and what resources would make their life easier. 

Capturing data across seven diverse parents became a key exercise in developing empathy for my target user group and began sparking a variety of rich insights. 

In recruiting users, I intentionally sought out parents from diverse backgrounds with children that span from ages 0-6.

I then set off on a service excursion—touring a preschool classroom that centered Social and Emotional Learning curriculum allowed me to explore current EQ strategies from a new perspective. 

Finally, I conducted four user interviews with a parent, child, and two therapists to inquire in-depth about lingering questions from different perspectives.

Arriving at a 10 week mid-point check in, I presented a synthesis of my research—showcasing four key insights.

Using my insights as a foundation, I then created a set of guiding design principles that could be used as a reference throughout other design phases.

Equipped with a foundation of research, I dove into a competitive analysis of existing resources. 

Referencing back to my primary research, I was able to identify the specific ways that these resources were falling short for parents and children. 

Through this competitive analysis, the current white space came clearer into view—all resources were targeted at either the parent or the child. This created twice the work for parents looking to equip themselves with strategies on responding to moments of upset as well as equip their children with emotional intelligence skills. 

Aiming to create a physical-digital hybrid concept that targeted the parent-child relationship (rather than individual parent OR child needs), I poured into ideation. Working with my mentors and peers, I then filtered to the stickiest ideas and began building prototypes.

Experimenting with an educational resource for parents and interaction activities for children, I created activity kits—sending parents home with information and activities to try out. Following up in 1:1 interviews, I collected feedback from 4 parents on their experience.

After a second round of prototypes and feedback, I began converging on a final concept direction and establishing a visual identity for my product. I experimented with brand names, fonts, and colors—ultimately creating the Superpowers Kit!

In preparation for the culminating final presentation, I turned my attention to storytelling and began storyboarding a presentation narrative.

With my storyline centering around one key family, I grabbed a friend and a camera to snap shots of willing research participants in order to bring the story to life!

The Kit

Providing the research context outlined above for my audience, I introduced them to the Superpowers Kit final concept:

Building out final mockups, I illustrated my concept by showcasing what would come in a monthly kit. The guidebook, app, and instruction cards provide parents with the support they need while connection activities foster age-appropriate emotional intelligence skills in children.

Leaning on expert information uncovered in my research, the educational content in a kit is based on six foundational emotional intelligence principles (what I have named the Superpowers) that parents learn sequentially. Each superpower is paired with a practical parenting skill which meets a crucial need of providing applicable, expert information without inducing information overwhelm.

The Components

To further explain my concept, I broke down the educational content that comes in the first kit as an example. The content can be broken down into three components: guidebook practice, age-based helps, and connection activities.

Guidebook Practice
The guidebook content provides context to the superpower and paired parenting skill of the month. Parents can practice applying the skill through practice exercises in the app.

Focusing on one principle at a time allows parents to reduce information overwhelm while providing information that they can trust is based on scientific expertise. There is a concrete, evidence-backed skill that can be applied to parenting right away. 

Age-Based Helps
Equipped with a new skill, parents can explore the age-based helps located in the instruction booklet. Not only is there a card that reminds them that each child’s development path is unique but a milestone card that outlines emotional behaviors that are likely to happen around a specific age.

This reassures parents of  their child’s unique timing while also giving them a clearer picture of what is typical for this age & what they can expect—showcasing which superpowers the kit will help their child develop and also organizing behaviors by brightsides, mixed, and challenging to present them in a balanced way.

Connection Activities
Finally, each kit comes with three connection activities that teach children developmentally appropriate emotional intelligence skills. Each activity comes with its own instruction card that outlines 1) how the activity teaches an age specific superpower, 2) gives simple instructions on how to maximize parent-child connection throughout the activity, and 3) is designed to fit into families’ busy routines with morning, play time, and tuck in activities.

Using the “Mirror Faces” play time activity as an example, three-year-old Mia takes turns drawing one of the emotion cards below, making the corresponding face and saying the emotion in the mirror. This helps parent and child to connect while teaching Mia the crucial developmental superpower of emotional awareness by giving her emotions vocabulary. 

The Result

The completion of a five-month-long independent design process culminated in a final presentation that required a summarization of 20 weeks’ worth of work into a 10 minute narrative. With a love for storytelling and up for the challenge, I presented my findings and final concept to an audience comprised of advisors, teachers, and parents.

By addressing both parents’ and children’s needs in a way that relied on expert information, incorporated age-specific content, and integrated into families’ busy routines, I completed thesis with a concept that was compelling enough to garner positive feedback from teachers and parents alike!