Highlights from the Design Process
This was littleBits' second product with a Disney franchise. We worked with the Marvel team throughout the process to ensure all aspects of the product mutually represented both brands.
As product design lead, my role was to lead the design process from end to end, manage a team of designers, collaborate with key stakeholders (internal and external), and do a bit of designing myself :). Here’s a summary of our work.
Our process.
The design team crafted the product user experience from many angles, including:
Concept Development
Journey Mapping
User Testing
Bit Interaction Design
Kit Contents Definition
Physical Prototyping for Plastic Parts
Invention and Activity Design
App Flows and Wireframes
Story Definition
Packaging and Out of Box Experience
Discovery Phase
Research
The discovery phase began with a visit to Comicon.
Research
We were inspired to discover new female superheroes
Research
We looked into other connected play experiences.
Research
We looked at what kids in the littleBits community were already making.
Research
We found strong connections with Marvel in terms on invention.
Research
We had kids draw their dream superheroes and invent superpowers
Pictured: Fart Hamster superhero with Arc Reactor crown by Henry, Age 9.
Personas
We update and outlined personas after talking with kids and parents.
8-12 year olds were the target user for this kit.
Concept
Brainstorming
Brainstorms produced a wide variety of product concepts.
Brainstorming
Coming up with a concept that worked with both the littleBits and Marvel brands proved difficult. Marvel’s brand skews male with their Iron Man as their #1 selling character.
Concept
After many iterations, we landed on a concept that flipped the script and placed the kid into the superhero role, but featured Marvel characters as advisers and for inspiration.
User Testing
User Testing
Throughout the design process, we worked with kids to get their feedback and input on all aspects of the product.
User Testing
In all, we hosted 35 user testing sessions and got feedback from over 200 kids.
Physical Kit Components
Bit Interactions
The product design team worked with the electrical engineers to design the interactions for the Bits
Bit Interactions
The goal of designing Bits is that they need to be kit agnostic. This is tricky as the need for these particular Bits came out interactions designed for this kit.
Bit Interactions
Testing out drawing ability on a proposed round LED matrix.
Gauntlet
Designing a wearable accessory for kids was new for us. Goals were for the plastic parts were three fold:
Easy to assemble and disassemble
Robust (Bits need to stay in place, plastics should not break with play)
Customizable (blank canvas for creating unique superhero gear with craft materials)
Gauntlet
We researched arm sizes and did lots of testing with kids to ensure fit and durability.
Gauntlet
Our mechanical designers created a locking mechanism to hold Bits in place.
Gauntlet
The clear plastic covering was designed with strategically placed slots and holes to allow for craft materials to slide in.
Gauntlet
The cover design was inspired by Iron Man’s MK 7 Suit. All plastic parts are either white or clear so to be as gender neutral as possible.
Gauntlet
Testing for fit, function, and aesthetics at our factory in China.
Inventions & Activities
littleBits inventions and activities drive the user experience and the contents found in a kit.
Inventions and activities were vetted by kids. Testing criteria included fun factor, play time, and gender appeal.
Activities were designed to support a learning journey where kids gain knowledge about littleBits while building the creative confidence to invent on their own.
Insights for delivering learning content:
Repetition is important
Incremental, small steps fight cognitive overload
Real world analogies keep content relevant
Build instructions took the form of short animated videos. We chose this direction for a few reasons:
Kids don’t read instructions
Kids are used to video as a means of consuming content
Animated instructions were a happy medium that fit both brands aesthetically
