edutainment app – Zuzanna Krauzowicz

Edutainment App // Maxi Zoo

As one of my individual exam projects I created a study case based on Maxi Zoo – a well-known chain of specialty stores for pet supplies that has established itself as a major player both in Denmark and on the European market.

ux research

prototyping

mapping

Challenge

How can Maxi Zoo  create value through  the development of  a new digital concept?

Idea

Edutainment app for children focused on pet care.

SEE FIGMA PROTOTYPE

Initial desk research

As I was following the Design Thinking approach throughout this project, I started the first phase – empathize – with desk research.

netnography

quantitative data

desk research

design thinking

Shop visit

It was really important for me to get to know all of Maxi Zoo’s products and offers so I could have a clear overview of their company and, therefore, create a digital concept that best answers their customers’ needs.

To achieve that to the fullest of my ability, I decided to visit one of their local stores. There I encountered various special products dedicated to families and children.

observation

field research

Partners

The solution needed to create value not only for Maxi Zoo, and naturally their customers, but also for Maxi Zoo’s partners.

I took some time researching all the companies and found one thing connecting them all – a family.

This finding led me to an exploration of area I didn’t connect at first with Maxi Zoo – families, children and pets.

observation

field research

Research 2.0

After redefining my research focus, I dived into the world of families with children and pets, their problems, needs, and everything in between.

netnography

desk research

Competitors

While researching, it started to be clear to me that one of the biggest problems for families with children and/or wanting a pet is pet care-related education.

However, as there’s no pet care educational solution for children, I’ve analyzed the most popular educational/edutainment platforms – Duolingo ABC and Khan Academy Kids – and found what they have in common.

desk research

competitor analysis

Interviews

Other parts of the conducted research were interviews with parents of kids with pets/or wanting a pet.

Here I had a chance to understand parents’ thoughts on the topic in depth.

interviews

philosophy of science

Target audience

I’ve started the second phase of Design Thinking – define – with a simple target audience with the two biggest problems I managed to identify throughout my research.

VPC

Using Value Proposition Canvas helped me create a digital concept that aligns with the users’ needs, pains, and gains.

mapping

Empathy Map

With Empathy Map my goal was to understand how my target users think, feel, act, and what they see and hear.

Using an empathy map, I could paint a picture of my users—and how they engage with products, services, and the world around them

mapping

Desirability, feasibility & viability

It was crucial to me to define my project’s desirability, feasibility, and viability – it helped me ensure that my product is technically possible, valuable to users, and sustainable business-wise.

mapping

business

HMW questions + ideas

Using the ‘How Might We’ questions method – I’ve started the next phase of Design Thinking – ideate.

I’ve chosen 5 of the most important HMW questions and created feature ideas for the solution by answering them.

mapping

Information architecture

The next step was mapping the solution’s information architecture. My goal was to help users quickly find what they are looking for and make the solution intuitive.

mapping

Inspiration

Finding inspiration started the design phase of Design Thinking.

I’ve taken inspiration from the biggest edutainment platforms for kids (researched before) as well as trending animations or the simplicity of Lego’s instructions that enable even small kids to put together some of their sets.

creativity

Colour palette + character design

Maxi Zoo has already established a branding and design guide to ensure its consistency in digital presence. Or so one could think.

Previously researched digital solutions created by Maxi Zoo (pet tracker app, e-commerce app) don’t follow the same design guide. That’s why I needed to choose my own set of colours (similar to those used in other solutions).

Additionally, I created two characters – a golden retriever Maxine (+ her personalized version with black bows), and a brown labrador Zelda featured through the entire app.

figma

personalisation

graphic design

The loading animation

As loading screens without any animation are perceived as significantly slower and usual approaches for loading screens such as loading bars and spinners are also perceived as slower ones in correlation to loading animation created to entertain or distract users, I settled on creating a fun animation.

figma

prototyping