BYJU's had set out to design an interactive and modular learning experience for students that improves retention & understanding while alleviating the stress associated with school-based learning. After the successful release of a host of products, the next steps were to use characters and worlds found in popular Disney movies to elevate children’s learning experience.
We recognized that from an early age, children (particularly between 3-8 years of age) experience anxiety, stress and undertake unsustainable learning practices due to increased cognitive load of their school curriculum.
The solution to use familiar characters gave us the creative direction needed but there were several other hurdles to overcome - like the appropriate incorporation of story and character traits in engaging activities, assimilation of real world characters and delivery of key concepts at the right pace.
The process adopted here catered to the media and product development, and while it involved several layers of iterative processes, my role was to oversee the entire process as a creative director and a project manager.
Visualised and optimized content for tablet & mobile devices, aimed at increasing engagement & improving attention span in users.
Performed project planning, scheduling & scoping to manage resources with other creative heads.
Coordinated & collaborated with concept sketch artists, curriculum designers, 3D - artists, UI/UX team & game design team.
Trained peers and new joinees with design thinking skills, & mentored associates for leadership positions.
Explored different instances and styles of storytelling aimed at children and gathered insights on how to evoke curiosity & excitement using similar patterns in education.
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The key insights from our research were:
Conducted interviews to understand the behaviour of their children when they interacted with different mediums for learning (face-to-face instructions v/s digital tuitions) and the primary concerns of parents as caregivers regarding digital products.
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Surveying parents of the target demographic to gather insights on the accessibility & restrictions posed on children’s device usage at home & assessing children’s ability to connect with material digitally.
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The key insights from our research were:
We conducted a contextual inquiry with students of age groups 4-8 years with the objective of observing their behavior during their interaction with BYJU’S apps and comparing the learning experience with traditional textbook learning.
Performed analysis of trends in the industry along with the competitors of Byjus to map the space in which new features will exist in this ecosystem.
Conceptualized micro-interactions between fictional characters; established relatable humor and excitement with our students that helped create an emotional connection with our audience.
Challenge
Character limitations based on story requirements and complex usability and feasibility of 2D and 3D art assets.
Ensured the character and prop assets were animated as per industry standards, and followed the quality set during the animatics stage.
Ensured the character and prop assets were animated as per industry standards, and followed the quality set during the animatics stage. Once the animation was locked-in, we finalized the look and feel of the videos on the basis of the mood and tone of the experience.
Challenge
Direction of 2D and 3D animators from 9 different vendors to ensure consistent output from all studios and in-house artists.
Established clear content communication for the children to follow on-screen; Clearly indicated step-by-step problem solving techniques using popular Disney characters.
Introduced labels, highlights and other attention capturing techniques which helped in increasing content retention for children.
Persuasion
Emotion
Trust
Hybrid-Learning (Magic Workbooks)
Encouraging children to learn by seeing, hearing and doing. Children can practice as they play with digitally enabled Magic Workbooks.
The technology, powered by Osmo, has interactive worksheets that provide real-time feedback from encouraging characters. Children can write and solve for the concepts learnt on the app.
Interactive App videos
Narratives were designed to be adventurous and exciting, and elicited powerful emotions in children, making the learning process fun and engaging.
Among several new techniques and skills that were acquired in these 3 years at BYJU’S, some of my strong key learnings have been:
Cross-Collaboration: Being a team player was the only way to achieve product success as well as personal growth. Collaboration and communicating with several different departments and vendors, and making sure everyone was on the same page with the overall idea required me to be extremely patient, show excellent communication skills and lead by example.
Leadership: Often, showing empathy towards peers, juniors and leadership wasn’t enough. I had to make tough decisions, resolve conflicts effectively, foster a healthy working culture by being compassionate towards others and encourage strategic thinking at all levels.
Stakeholder Management: Communicating the same set of ideas, concept, solutions to different stakeholders in the project required me to improve my emotional intelligence and also learn the jargon for effective negotiation, feedback and approvals.