Toca TV
How do you take a passive experience like watching TV, and make it into a playful and interactive one? That was the design challenge my team and I worked to solve while designing and developing Toca TV.
As the product manager and play designer for Toca TV, I did everything from wireframe new features, plan sprints, spec out interactions, and design and conduct user testing sessions to inform product decisions.
The most playful video experience for kids
The number one mobile-first kids brand in the App Store, Toca Boca is a play studio that makes digital toys for kids. In 2015, a team was formed to translate traditional video experiences into the fun and playful interactive experience that Toca Boca is known for. As an original member of the Toca TV staff and the product owner of the Toca TV platform, I was involved in every part of development, from original concept and brainstorming to product release and updates on both Android and iOS platforms.
Toca TV won the 2017 Kidscreen Award for Best Digital Streaming Platform for Kids.
Concept Development
Concept art by Cassandra Berger
3D Design by George Baklessis
Animation by Nick Costello
Branding & Voice
For Toca TV, we had to develop a unique identity for ourselves that also worked within the large parent brand of Toca Boca. For this, the team and I communicated clearly with many different agencies and individuals to land on a style that matched the Toca Boca brand while still capturing the quirkiness and individuality of Toca TV.
Prototyping
In order to user test our first concept, I developed this prototype using Axure. This was meant to test the understandability of the metaphor and get a sense of how awesome kids thought the experience was.
Wireframes
To communicate product requirements to both external partners and in-house developers, I developed wireframes to explain all features, interactions, and functionality within the Toca TV platform.
Information Architecture
The Toca TV content and design teams collaborated to develop a recommendation engine and taxonomy to accommodate the way that kids search for video content. This taxonomy was designed specifically for our library of kids content. I acted as the consultant of the kids perspective, as I am well-researched and experienced in how kids interact with technology, both interactive and video-based.
Interaction Design
Interactions were designed to be delightful but also to communicate what was happening with each user tap or drag. As product manager and play designer, I defined each feature and what I thought the result of the interaction would be, and I collaborated with my team of artists, animators, and developers to make them real.
Art Assets by Amy Stadelmann
Development work done by Hongjian Lin
Animation by Heidi Sullivan
Art by Hector Ardila