Children’s Hospital Interactive Playroom

This was a dream project to create such a fun experience for the patients at a children’s hospital (redacted for NDA). This interactive screen was located in the patient playroom, and utilized gesture control through a Kinect rather than your typical touchscreen to avoid germ-filled surfaces at the hospital, and during the pandemic. The playroom game, which is a “digital stickerbook”, is one of three interactives we designed for the hospital. The adorable characters you see in the game appear in the other interactives as well, to establish a sense of familiarity with the patients.

work done at envoy

My Role
Concepting
Wireframes
UX/UI
Art Direction
User Testing
Handoff

The Concept

Design Challenge: How do we keep kids entertained while avoiding high-touch surfaces during the pandemic? Additionally, how do we use a camera in a way that doesn’t scare patients who may be seeing their reflection for the first time after a surgery or recovery process?

Answer: Gesture-controlled play via a “digital stickerbook” allows users to interact from a distance without needing to touch a germ-filled touchscreen. Users can select a character sticker if they don’t want to see themselves, or if they want, can choose to record a custom sticker of themself.

Wireframing & Testing

This UX phase was unique in that it was less about a large interaction chain and more about clarity and guidance in using the gesture controls. How do we make it clear to new users how to correctly interact? How do we make this accessible for all ages - even those who may not be able to read directions yet? How much feedback can we give to guide the user without distracting from the visuals of the experience? Can we seamlessly switch between using the left or right hand as dominant control? We addressed all of these questions with our engineers and many in-office mockup testing sessions to better understand the Kinect Azure behavior and what was needed from both an engineering and design perspective.

Design Phase

The Final Product

After much user testing and problem solving with our engineers, the digital stickerbook was finally born! To make this experience usable and enjoyable, we employed a ton of visual directions (written and iconic) as well as sound feedback, and backend smoothing and locking for the gesture controls. Designing for gesture rather than touch was definitely a challenge and a huge learning experience.

Background Scenes

We partnered with 3D studio Made by Things to art direct these three background scenes for the digital stickerbook.