Tomo: A Voice User Interface Toy Robot

Tomo has two primary target audiences - children (ages 4 to 7 years old) and their parents. While Tomo is a product made for children to assist them in learning, parents would still have more control over it. Part of the deliverables for this project is to have an accompanying mobile app where parents can curate what Tomo can say or do to help their children learn. It is vital in this project that parents can trust the product.

To start our design process for Tomo, we conducted a survey, interviewed parents and children, and researched how children learn. We've created a Google Forms to complete our survey and have parents we know answer them. After gathering the survey results, we divided them into quantitative and qualitative data. For our user interviews, we talked to Azel and her child, Mirac.

When researching how children learn, we found that more and more people in the know believe robots for kids aren’t just fun but a great learning tool too. Children have different learning styles, such as visual, auditory, reading and writing, and kinesthetic. Seymour Papert, a South African-American mathematician and educator, claimed that children learn best when they:
- Use tech-empowered learning tools and computational environments
- Take active roles of designers and builders
- Do it in a social setting, with mentors and coaches and networks
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With these data in mind, perhaps there could be a way these learning styles can be incorporated into our robot and have some personality to ease its conversation with children.

We created a MoSCoW Analysis based on our research to identify which features we should prioritize when designing Tomo. We divided our priorities based on the visual elements, technical features, software, and settings. This analysis helped us narrow down what we should be designing first or avoid to create a smooth experience for children and parents.

Part of our deliverables is to make and animate a marketing video about Tomo as a product. Before we started filming, we created a script that would tell a story of how Tomo can show its features and interactions with a child here.

Because Tomo is designed for children, we ensured that every part of the product was kid-friendly, safe, and accessible. The typefaces we used were Bree Extrabold (for the headlines or headings) and Cambay (for subheads and body texts).

After iterating the script with my team and peers, I finally finished a storyboard we could use for the marketing video.