They mostly spend their time consuming videos on streaming platforms or playing games. Typically they spend more than three hours a day doing this, these numbers have grown since the COVID-19 pandemic. This behavior has a strong impact on a child‘s development and it often leads to physical and psychological diseases and a damaged child-parent relationship. To tackle this challenge we created our bachelor thesis.
We asked a lot of questions to different experts, like a child psychologist, a director of an elementary school, or a neuroscientist. What is important for healthy child development? Which impact has the smartphone on the children?
We noticed that the kids were not guilty of this overconsumption. Stressed parents use the smartphone to keep their children busy. A lot of popular apps also create addictions and the loss of time and reality.
Seems sad. But not everything is bad about the smartphone. Kids should rather be more conscious about how and why they use it. So instead of locking away entertaining apps or demonizing the smartphone, we decided that we will find a way to use the smartphone as a development furthering tool.
If we want to create a healthy experience for a child we need to integrate a physical part. So we explored both worlds, the digital space with apps like Duolingo or Anton and the physical space ranging from DIY Kits to board games.
After exploring and creating a variety of rough concepts in the area of playful learning for children, we found a missed opportunity.
We created "Walli's World" as a hybrid product where children get to know a variety of smartphone tools while gaining playful and exciting experiences. To enter this world the kids need one of the different collection cards and scan it with our app.
It contains four random collecting cards which creates a surprise effect with every opening. The kids find a package anywhere where other collecting cards can be found (e.g. supermarkets, kiosks, etc.)
We created a variety of physical cards that offers different experiences for the kids. They are categorized by color into these four categories: Discover, Create, Experiment and Play. Each of them has an individual and playful design which shows some hints about the experience and should create even more desire to start with it. To understand how this works, we elaborated on a collection card.
Children can scan the card, learn more about the course of the sun and the cardinal points. Afterward, they‘re instructed by the smartphone to use the inbuilt compass and find the cardinal points in their room to imitate the course of the sun with the flashlight.
Children can scan the card, learn more about the course of the sun and the cardinal points. Afterward, they‘re instructed by the smartphone to use the inbuilt compass and find the cardinal points in their room to imitate the course of the sun with the flashlight.
To learn something sustainably, it needs to be repeated. So, once a week, children are encouraged to reflect on what they have learned so far.
When the cards are flipped, children can play a board game that is moderated by the smartphone. This encourages social interaction which is, according to experts, the most effective antidote for overconsumption.
