Creating
Fresh Play
Getting outside is good for you.
Yet so many families struggle to make it happen, missing out on substantial benefits to physical, mental, and emotional health. Fresh Play helps families get unstuck and form lifelong connections with the outdoors.
My Role
I created the Fresh Play concept as part of my SVC UX coursework, performing all aspects of the UX design process from user research to prototyping to usability testing.
The Client
Fresh Play is a concept website to help families everywhere experience the benefits of outdoor play.
Duration
Fresh Play was developed over 6 months and four classes of my UX certificate program.
Overview
The Challenge
Get Kids Outside. And Grown-Ups, Too.
Families today feel stuck — mine included. We all know that fresh air is good for us, but encouraging outdoor, unstructured play can feel like a losing battle.
Available resources overwhelm parents with too much information and conflicting advice. And kids have grown more resistant to activities that take place outside the comfort of screen time, which has doubled for many kids since the pandemic. Busy families need modern tools to help change their habits.
Problem Statement: How might we help families build healthy habits and remove barriers to outdoor play with more useful resources and product recommendations?
The Solution
Daily, Bite-Sized Tips
Meet Fresh Play: A website/app that combines research-based tips and advice with expert product recommendations to get families unstuck. Fresh Play reduces the effort it takes to plan activities, motivate kids, and maximize fun and safety.
The Outcome
A Tool That Excites Parents
I built mobile and desktop prototypes of the homepage, top-level navigation and five pages of the shopping experience. I also created a voice chart and visual design system to give Fresh Play a distinct brand identity.
Early reactions from instructors and parents who tested my prototype were very positive.
“I would totally use something like this.”
— Test User, father of three
“I could use this in my life.”
— Class Instructor, father of one
Let’s get into it
The User
Families Ready for Change
The good news? Nearly every parent believes that outdoor play has great benefits. The not-so-good news? Many parents don’t feel they’re doing it nearly enough — and they’re beating themselves up.
User Research
My survey of 72 parents showed weather is the biggest barrier to outdoor play and parents crave better gear. Motivating kids can be tough, but parents themselves are often reluctant to get outside.
For advice, most parents turn to other parents and social media. However many feel overwhelmed by the firehose of info and have trouble deciding what to do, what to buy or whom to trust.
Interviews with three parents provided insight into how families create success: Good systems beget good habits. And the chance to play with others motivates kids to get outside and stay there.
Ideation
No Bad Families. Just Bad Habits.
The heart of my concept: Make every family feel like an “outdoorsy family.” My design solution needed to get families excited, score some quick wins, and keep the momentum going. Let’s hit some of the highlights.
Play Personality Quiz
What works for one family might not work for another. A quiz to onboard new families helps focus recommendations for where they are in their journey, their areas of interest, and the age of their children.
Daily, Bite-Sized Tips
Families are busy and need easy, actionable info. Therefore, I made localized daily tips the focus of the design, so that parents don’t have to think about what to do today.
Intuitive Product Discovery
Large retailers like Amazon overwhelm parents. I grouped products by age, activity, and weather and added suggestions to each piece of content to provide easy access to related items.
Final Recommendation
Radical Curation
Getting outside should be more fun than perfect. Based on my findings, a solution like Fresh Play, which equips families with easy, actionable prompts, can help build enduring habits — not to mention more confidence and enjoyment.
The Results
Usability Testing
Parents Find Their Way
The goal of this concept was to motivate families and seamlessly direct them to helpful products and content. Initial usability testing indicates that parents are excited by the solution and found it easy to navigate.
9 out of 11 users completed nav tasks without critical errors. This confirmed that the site organization was intuitive and followed conventions they were used to.
Unfortunately, some testers (4 out of 9) had difficulty finding products grouped by weather. This means I need to make these weather groupings more discoverable in the navigation so that parents can find them.
Reflections
Prepare to Prototype
So many testers were tempted by features that weren’t yet built. A big win for the concept. A big snag for usability testing. With more time, I would flesh out the quiz function, add social media integrations to support the community function, and create a high-fidelity prototype to further test the concept.
“I was curious about so many of the links… I just wanted to look around.”
— Test User, mother of two
Photo credits
Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Adrian Swancar on Unsplash
Nienke Burgers on Unsplash