CHAITANYA GADDAMWAR
Roles & Responsibilities:
Project Duration: 3 months
Visual Design Timeline: 3 Weeks
Team: 5 UX Designers, 1 Mentor
Tools: Figma, FigJam, Trello, Adobe Photoshop, and Illustrator
Taleo: Helping Parents Turn Everyday Moments into Stories
1. Overview
Every parent carries a bundle of stories. Some come out at bedtime, some slip in during car rides, and some stay tucked away as memories waiting for the right moment. Taleo was born out of this simple truth: stories hold families together.
We didn’t set out to solve a problem. Instead, we took on a challenge: can generative AI act as a quiet companion that helps parents turn their daily moments into meaningful narratives without stealing their voice?
Taleo is a generative storytelling app designed for effective parenting. It creates a safe, playful space where parents and children can build stories together. Instead of offering ready-made tales, Taleo invites families to shape the story’s direction, mood, and characters. It supports imagination, encourages reflection, and keeps the human voice at the center.
The project began as part of our HCI summer design course. With parents, educators, psychologists, and AI experts guiding our way, we explored how design can nurture care, connection, and creativity in parenting. Taleo is not just an app prototype; it is a statement about designing with empathy.
2. Design Challenge
Every good story begins with a question. For us, it was this:
How might we enable parents to meaningfully reflect on and share their lived experiences using generative AI, in ways that feel personal, emotionally supportive, and creatively empowering, without losing their voice in the process?
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We wanted to treat this not as a problem to fix, but as a challenge to explore. Parenting is not broken, and storytelling is not missing. Both are alive, messy, and full of love. What we explored was whether technology could step in, not as the main character but as a sidekick, supporting parents in moments when energy runs low or when a spark of imagination feels hard to find.
This challenge guided everything that followed. It asked us to balance
three things:
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Care: stories must feel safe, inclusive, and emotionally respectful.
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Creativity: AI should fuel imagination, not flatten it.
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Control: parents remain the storytellers, always holding the pen.
3. Research Insights (What We Learned from Literature
and Context)
Before speaking with parents, we began by exploring literature to understand how storytelling, technology, and parenting intersect. As the project evolved, we returned to desk research multiple times, often after conducting interviews, to deepen or cross-check what we had heard. The process was not linear. Instead, we stayed flexible and allowed new questions from parents to guide what we looked up next. This helped us avoid a mechanical, step-by-step approach and gave our design journey a more natural rhythm.
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This ongoing exploration revealed a set of recurring themes that shaped how we thought about Taleo. Each theme came from different fields such as policy, storytelling, psychology, health, and design. Together they painted a clearer picture of what responsible and meaningful design for families might look like:
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Policy and Ethics
UNICEF highlights the need for fairness, transparency, and accountability when AI interacts with children (UNICEF, 2021). The EU AI Act classifies AI tools in family or educational contexts as “high risk,” requiring oversight and safeguards (European Commission, 2021). These frameworks offered a foundation, but they often overlooked emotional dimensions like warmth, trust, and shared joy.
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Storytelling as Connection
Storytelling literature frames stories as carriers of values, memory, and identity. Digital storytelling can help families express emotions that are otherwise difficult to share (Lambert, 2013; Robin, 2016). At the same time, some research warns that AI-generated stories may reduce parental involvement or flatten lived experiences (Montemayor et al., 2020). This tension became a key design consideration.
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Building Trust
Studies show that parents trust AI more when systems explain their processes and avoid faking empathy (Glikson & Woolley, 2020; Montemayor et al., 2020). Simulated intimacy risks confusing children, who rely on parents to model authentic emotions.
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Co-Design and Inclusion
Literature on participatory design stresses the importance of involving families directly in shaping tools (Sanders & Stappers, 2008; Spinuzzi, 2005). Work on inclusive design shows how family diversity, single-parent homes, multilingual households, or neurodiverse children, can easily be overlooked if not addressed deliberately (Hayes, 2020).
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Screen-Time and Mindful Use
Health authorities such as the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend strict limits on children’s screen exposure (WHO, 2019; AAP, 2016). Parents often expressed guilt around technology, reinforcing our goal to design for short, meaningful interactions instead of extended consumption.
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This iterative and flexible way of combining literature with lived perspectives gave us clarity. Taleo had to balance ethics, trust, creativity, and care. It had to act like a gentle helper, not a substitute. It had to respect family rhythms, honor culture, and leave space for parents to lead the story.
4. Learning from Competitors
Before shaping Taleo, we wanted to look outward. We asked ourselves: What kinds of digital storytelling and parenting experiences already exist, and how do families feel about them? Competitor analysis was not about copying features. It was about observing how technology mediates everyday parenting moments, what patterns work, and where families feel frustrated.
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We studied competitors from five categories: relaxation and bedtime apps, parenting support platforms, AI-powered storytelling, co-reading apps, and creativity tools. For each, we explored the app experience itself and listened to Play Store and App Store reviews. This gave us two perspectives: the design intentions of the creators and the lived experiences of parents and children.
01. Relaxation and Bedtime Apps:
Moshi, Storybook
Moshi and Storybook were designed to create calm routines. Parents praised the soundscapes, gentle narration, and the way these apps helped children settle at night. Reviews often mentioned how they became part of the bedtime ritual. Over time, however, parents observed that children lost interest because the stories did not change much. The experience remained passive, soothing but repetitive.
02. Parenting Support Platforms: ParentPal
ParentPal focused on milestone tracking, tips, and structured routines. Many parents valued the expert advice and sense of guidance. At the same time, reviews showed that reminders often felt overwhelming and the tone of the app came across as strict. Some parents described feeling judged when they fell behind.
03. AI Story Generation Tools: StoryLeo, Storytime AI
Apps like StoryLeo and Storytime AI gave parents quick ways to generate stories on demand. Parents appreciated the novelty and the speed of having something unique at hand. Yet reviews frequently highlighted issues with randomness and content quality. Stories could drift off-track or feel inconsistent, and at times parents worried about appropriateness for children.
04. Co-Reading and Interactive Story Apps: Caribu, Novel Effect
Caribu allowed families to read together remotely, and Novel Effect added sound effects to live reading sessions. Parents responded positively to these playful touches. Still, reviews pointed out that both apps worked mainly within fixed formats. Families could consume stories together, but they had little room to influence or shape them.
05. Creativity and Personalisation Platforms: Little Stories, Reflectly
Little Stories let parents insert their child’s name into stories, which created a sense of delight. Reflectly encouraged parents and children to express themselves through journaling prompts. Both showed the value of personalisation, but reviews revealed limitations. Customisation was often superficial, and in some cases the process felt time-consuming for busy families.
Competitor analysis gave us both inspiration and caution. We saw features that families celebrated, such as calming routines, playful effects, and personal touches. We also heard recurring frustrations: passivity, complexity, inconsistency, and a lack of flexibility. By grounding ourselves in these observations, we built a clearer sense of what opportunities still remained open for Taleo.
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At the same time, competitors gave us a foundation for many of the basic user flows in Taleo. From onboarding to library navigation, we adapted and refined patterns that parents were already familiar with, so the app felt approachable rather than unfamiliar.
5. Deeper Insights from Interviews (Parents and other key stakeholders)
After grounding ourselves in desk research, we stepped into conversations with the people who live and breathe storytelling every day. We wanted to see how stories shape families from different angles, and how technology might play a role without losing that human touch. We interviewed parents, educators, psychologists, and AI experts to understand how they think and feel about storytelling, family routines, and technology. Their voices gave us richer insights than numbers ever could. Each perspective revealed a challenge, a hope, or a warning that shaped Taleo’s design.
01. Parents (who craft tales at bedtime)
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Parents enjoy making up stories but often feel exhausted at the end of the day.
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They want gentle support that provides prompts or sparks without replacing their voice.
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Trust matters more than features. They would only use Taleo if it explains clearly how it works.
02. Educators (who use stories to teach)
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Storytelling acts as a tool to pass down culture, values, and identity.
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Technology should support imagination, not stretch children’s screen time.
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Short and simple interactions fit better in a classroom or bedtime routine than long digital sessions.
03. Psychologists (who study how stories shape emotions)
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Storytelling works as emotional scaffolding, helping children process feelings and build empathy.
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Authenticity is essential. Children learn emotions by watching parents, not by hearing a machine pretend to care.
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Simulated empathy in AI could confuse children and harm trust.
04. AI Expert (who think about the risks and possibilities of generative AI tools)
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Transparency is non-negotiable. Families should always know when and how AI shapes
the story. -
Over-anthropomorphizing AI risks damaging trust. Taleo should avoid pretending to be a
human narrator. -
Responsible design means placing parents in control while AI stays in a supportive role.​
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Each of these groups gave us a different lens. Parents shared the tired joy of late-night storytelling. Educators reminded us that stories carry culture as much as play. Psychologists revealed the emotional weight that stories hold in children’s lives. AI experts asked us to think carefully about transparency and trust. These perspectives did not always align, but together they painted a richer picture that guided our design process.
6. Personas
Parents were at the heart of our design journey. They were the ones juggling tired evenings, playful children, and the wish to keep stories alive. From our interviews, we shaped personas that represented the real parents who might one day use Taleo. These personas reminded us of the hopes and struggles we were designing for.
The Juggling Parent
This parent treasures bedtime storytelling but often reaches the end of the day with little energy left. They want a spark of inspiration to keep stories flowing, but they do not want a machine to take their place. For them, Taleo must act like a supportive companion that keeps their voice central.​
The Curious Parent​
This parent sees stories as a way to pass down values, teach empathy, and build connection. They want tools that feel transparent and safe. For them, Taleo must balance creativity with trust, never crossing the line into fake emotions.
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While educators, psychologists, and AI experts gave us valuable perspectives, their insights worked as supporting voices. The personas stayed focused on parents, since they are the ones who will hold Taleo in their hands and shape the stories with their children.
7. Making Sense of the Data
After listening to parents, educators, psychologists, and AI experts, we faced the exciting but messy task of making sense of it all. In total, we conducted 12 interviews: six with parents, and two each with educators, psychologists, and AI experts. Parents acted as our primary stakeholders, while the others gave us supporting perspectives that helped us see the bigger picture. The stories, emotions, and reflections they shared filled our transcripts with richness. But insights only emerge when you slow down, code carefully, and connect the dots.
Then We began with thematic analysis, following Braun and Clarke’s reflexive approach (2006, 2019). Each transcript went through a close reading. We wrote notes about emotional tones, pauses, and first impressions. We coded quotes line by line, using participants’ own words wherever possible, so their voices stayed intact.
Next came affinity mapping. We wrote codes on digital sticky notes in Figjam, and clustered them into domains that captured shared struggles and hopes. Parents wanted emotional presence, psychologists stressed mental well-being, educators highlighted values, and AI experts warned about transparency. When we stepped back, patterns began to shine through:
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Parenting as Emotional Presence: Parents saw stories not just as fun but as rituals that built lasting memories.
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Supporting Creative Ownership: Children needed space to shape stories, while parents asked
AI to support rather than dominate. -
Personalisation and Adaptability: Families wanted stories that flexed with mood, personality,
and culture. -
Responsible Technology: Experts reminded us that AI should act as a facilitator, not an
emotional actor.
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Affinity mapping turned scattered codes into conceptual pillars that guided our design journey. It was less about tidying data and more about seeing the soul of what parents wanted from Taleo.​​
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This stage also reminded us that research does not follow a straight line. We circled back to literature after interviews and cross-checked findings with over 60+ academic papers. This flexibility kept our analysis human rather than mechanical. Our process was driven by curiosity, and not rigid linear steps. By the end, we were not staring at codes anymore. We were looking at a living map of values, needs, and fears that would anchor every decision we made in Taleo.​​
8. Brainstorming and Solution
We entered the ideation phase with a strong sense of curiosity and excitement. The room felt alive with energy as we surrounded ourselves with sticky notes, quick sketches, and half-formed ideas that invited exploration.
Our earlier research had planted the seeds for this stage. Insights from parents, educators, psychologists, and AI experts reminded us to design for care, creativity, and trust. These voices guided our thinking while curiosity kept us open to unexpected directions.
Each brainstorming session felt like storytelling in progress. We connected ideas, challenged assumptions, and slowly began shaping what would become Taleo’s core features.
Our brainstorming did not begin from a blank slate. It grew directly from the insights we had gathered through desk research and stakeholder conversations. Each theme we identified earlier became a small doorway into new possibilities.
Parents spoke about wanting companionship, not replacement. Educators highlighted the importance of preserving values through stories. Psychologists reminded us that children respond best to authenticity, not scripted empathy. AI experts encouraged us to make every algorithmic choice visible and understandable.
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These voices shaped how we framed our “How Might We” questions. We turned insights into prompts that guided our imagination:
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How might we help parents and children co-create stories instead of consuming them?
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How might we make AI a transparent helper rather than a hidden author?
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How might we encourage creativity without increasing screen time?
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How might we make storytelling feel familiar to every culture and home?
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These questions kept us focused on real needs instead of abstract design ambitions. They also reminded us that Taleo was not just another storytelling app. It was an opportunity to help families rediscover the joy of imagination together.
Once we translated our insights into design prompts, patterns began to form. Some ideas looked bold and experimental, while others offered simple, meaningful ways for families to connect. Each one carried traces of the voices we had heard during research: parents seeking balance, educators valuing meaning, psychologists emphasizing emotional safety, and AI experts calling for transparency.
From these discussions, a few key ideas stood out:
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Draw and Tell Mode
Children could draw a scene or a character, and Taleo would build a story around their artwork. This idea turned drawing into a spark for imagination. It encouraged self-expression while giving parents a playful way to participate without controlling the process.
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Story Dice Prompts
We created a feature that allowed random prompts for characters, emotions, or situations. Families could roll the dice together to co-create unexpected stories. It turned storytelling into a game, helping parents overcome creative blocks.
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Custom Prompts for Parents
Parents could type short cues like “first day of school” or “making new friends,” and Taleo would build a story inspired by real family moments. It gave parents emotional input without requiring time or writing skill.
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Transparency Layer
A visible panel showed how Taleo used AI to shape the story. Parents could review, modify, or regenerate parts of it. This transparency built trust and helped parents understand that AI was an assistant, not the storyteller.
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Shared Choices
The story unfolded through small, meaningful decisions made by both parent and child. These shared choices added rhythm and interaction, turning passive reading into active co-creation.
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Cultural Story Packs
Families could explore stories rooted in different cultural traditions. This feature allowed Taleo to celebrate diversity while helping children relate to familiar values and settings.
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Each of these ideas came from moments of collective reflection. They were not random features but responses to the real needs we had heard during research. Together, they formed the foundation of Taleo’s vision: a space where families could imagine, play, and learn through stories they helped create.
7.4 Prioritising with the MoSCoW Method
Describe your image
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As our FigJam board filled with ideas, we needed a clear way to decide what mattered most. We turned to the MoSCoW prioritisation method (Clegg & Barker, 1994), which helped us classify ideas into four groups: Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, and Won’t Have for Now. This process gave structure to our creativity and helped us focus on what families truly needed while balancing feasibility and purpose.
Each idea was discussed based on emotional impact, usability, technical effort, and how strongly it aligned with the insights we had gathered from research and stakeholder input. The debates were thoughtful, sometimes challenging, but always grounded in the goal of building an app that nurtured imagination while respecting family time.
Must Haves
These features captured the essence of Taleo: to make co-creation easy, transparent, and emotionally engaging.
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Draw and Tell Mode
This feature allowed children to express imagination through simple drawings while parents guided the story verbally. It helped both feel like co-authors, strengthening connection and creativity.
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Story Dice Prompts
Story Dice quickly became one of our most important ideas. It turned storytelling into a playful and shared moment. Each roll generated prompts for characters, moods, and settings, which sparked imagination and removed the anxiety of starting from scratch. The feature encouraged participation across age groups and made story creation more interactive and spontaneous.
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Custom Prompts for Parents
Parents could add cues or personal details to guide the story’s direction. This feature supported the idea of gentle control, where parents could shape lessons or values without making the process rigid.
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Shared Choices
Families could decide key plot turns together, making storytelling a joint adventure. This feature ensured Taleo stayed collaborative rather than automated.
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Transparency Layer
Parents could view how AI influenced the story. This helped build trust by making AI’s role visible, ensuring that the system remained a supportive tool rather than an invisible decision-maker.
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Should Haves
These features added cultural depth and usability enhancements that would enrich the experience but were not essential for the first prototype.
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Cultural Identity Input
Families could set cultural preferences to receive stories inspired by their traditions. This made stories feel more relevant and personal.
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Quick Start Templates
Predefined setups for familiar moments like bedtime or sharing daily lessons made it easy to start storytelling quickly.
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Parent Dashboard / Insights View
A gentle, privacy-respecting space where parents could see how often stories were created, themes their children explored, and creative progress over time.
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Could Haves
These ideas supported continuity between digital and real-world experiences but were better suited for later iterations.
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Tag-a-Memory
Families could connect stories to real moments, such as vacations or milestones, keeping the creative experience tied to lived experiences.
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Printable Play Sheets
Stories could extend beyond screens through activity sheets that encouraged drawing or writing together offline.
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Gamified Achievements or Story Badges
Simple recognitions for milestones, such as “Five Nights of Stories,” could help motivate children through positive reinforcement.
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Parent–Child Reflection Prompts
After finishing a story, Taleo could ask questions like “What was your favorite part?” or “What did this story teach you?” to encourage reflection and conversation.
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Won't Haves for Now
These ideas sparked early interest but did not align with Taleo’s first-phase goals. We decided to hold them back because they either complicated the experience or required extensive moderation and testing that would delay delivery.
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“Play It Out” Mode with Toys
This idea encouraged children to re-enact stories physically using toys. Although it supported embodied learning, it demanded additional setup effort from parents and shifted focus away from the core storytelling experience.
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Parent Story Exchange Forum
This feature invited families to share stories with other parents to create a narrative community. We excluded it because it raised privacy and moderation concerns and risked turning Taleo into a social platform rather than a family storytelling tool.
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Continuing Stories Told by Caregivers
This idea explored building upon stories told at home by parents or caregivers. It showed potential but required complex content linking and version tracking. We postponed it for future consideration when the app matures technically.
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“Ideas had to respect care, creativity, and control”
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When we started ideating, we kept circling back to what our stakeholders had told us. Parents wanted gentle support, not substitutes. Educators wanted culture and values to stay intact. Psychologists reminded us that children need authenticity, not fake empathy. AI experts asked us to design with transparency. These voices shaped our sketches and helped us filter ideas.
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Our brainstorming produced playful concepts, but the ones we kept were those that respected care, sparked creativity, and gave parents full control. This balance became the compass for Taleo’s design journey.
9. Mid-Fi Wireframes
For Taleo, we decided to move directly into mid-fidelity wireframes rather than spending too much time on paper sketches. As a team with strong visual design experience, we felt that low-fi sketches often create more overhead than value. Storytelling is interactive and layered, and rough paper sketches could not capture the rhythm, flow, and decision points we wanted to design. Mid-fi screens, on the other hand, gave us the right balance between structure and flexibility.​
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We did experiment with a few quick doodles to map flows, but the real work started once we moved into our design tools. Working digitally made it easier to shape layouts, reorganize navigation, and explore variations without having to redraw everything. This approach played to our strengths as visual designers and allowed us to move faster without losing depth.
The wireframes covered all the main flows: signing up and logging in, browsing the story library, creating a new story, managing profiles, engaging with the community and blogs, and adjusting settings. Even in grayscale, the designs gave us a sense of whether the home screen felt welcoming, the library felt easy to navigate, and the profile and community sections looked functional without being cluttered.
​These wireframes were reviewed and discussed only within our internal team and with our mentor. The feedback loop at this stage focused on clarity of user journeys, consistency across screens, and whether the design choices aligned with our overall goal of making storytelling feel transparent, supportive, and easy to use.
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By choosing this approach, we saved time, worked more collaboratively, and built stronger alignment within the team. The mid-fi wireframes became our reference point to ensure that every flow carried the right intent and usability before moving into high-fidelity design.
10. Critical Design Decisions
Designing Taleo felt less like following a roadmap and more like shaping a story. Along the way, we reached chapters where choices would define the voice of the app. These moments mattered because they touched on trust, play, and the balance between parent and child.
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We often asked ourselves in simple terms: would this choice make parents feel more supported or more pressured? Would it make children feel like active co-creators or passive listeners? And would it show AI as a gentle assistant, or risk making it the invisible author behind the curtain?
Some directions felt natural, because they echoed our vision of playful co-creation. Others required difficult conversations and letting go of ideas that looked good on paper but did not match the intimacy of a bedtime story. The decisions that follow became the turning points that gave Taleo its own character.
1. Reducing Story Creation Options on Home Screen ✅ (Accepted)
We began with a simple home screen that offered two choices: Create Story and Draw & Tell Mode. This layout felt calm and gave families a clear starting point without forcing them to process too much at once.
​We later experimented with adding a third option and revealing more elements directly on the home screen. These variations aimed to speed up access but ended up increasing visual load. The screen started to feel busier than it needed to be.
After testing different arrangements, we returned to the original two option layout. It offered the right balance between clarity and simplicity. Families could still access all story modes, but the home screen stayed clean, focused, and welcoming.
Why we made this choice?
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First impressions matter
The home screen sets the tone. By limiting it to two actions, we gave parents and kids a calmer entry point. They didn’t need to stop and weigh which path to take right away.
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Stepwise clarity, not confusion
Tucking Free-form and Personalised stories under a single “Create Story” flow meant the distinction appeared only when it was relevant. This way, users saw choice at the right moment, not all at once.
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Supports exploration without clutter
Families could still access all three modes, but the presentation felt much lighter. The app started to look like a canvas for creativity rather than a menu of features.
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The Outcome:​
The home screen became more approachable, especially for parents opening the app for the first time with their children. The design no longer asked them to make three choices immediately. Instead, it let them ease in, with clarity and confidence.
2. Story Dice Layout ✅ (Accepted)
We started with a simple row of four dice and a text box below. It looked clean, but it forced the eye to travel in a long horizontal sweep, then jump down to write. We shifted to a reader-friendly layout: four dice grouped on the left, a compact “History” panel on the right, and the writing area anchored at the bottom. This structure made the flow feel natural and reduced “where do I look next” moments.
Why this works?
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It follows how people scan screens
Eye-tracking shows that readers in left-to-right languages focus first on the top and left, then scan downward in an F-shaped pattern. Placing the primary interaction on the left lets parents and kids spot the dice first, then move down into writing without extra lateral travel (Nielsen, 2006; Pernice, 2019).
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It avoids eye fatigue
Alternating elements across wide rows can create accidental fixations and slow scanning. Keeping the dice aligned in one block and the “History” panel aligned on the right removes zigzag hopping and keeps attention steady on the task at hand (Flaherty, 2017).
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It makes decisions easier
The right-side “History” records past spins and locks, so you do not need to remember every roll. Short-term memory gets a break, and the interface keeps the story ingredients visible while you write.
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It supports a clear rhythm
The path feels like: choose ingredients on the left, glance at history on the right if needed, then write below. Parents told us in internal reviews that this rhythm felt calmer and more intentional than the long single row.​
The Outcome:​
Creation felt snappier and less scattered. Kids focused on picking characters and themes. Parents used the “History” as a memory aid. Everyone reached the writing box with fewer detours.
3. Profile Management Layout ✅ (Accepted)
The first version of the profile screen presented child information in a long, text-heavy list. While it captured details like name, age, gender, and interests, it felt administrative and task-oriented, closer to filling a form than managing a family’s creative space. This approach worked structurally but did not reflect the playful and visual spirit of Taleo.
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The revised layout shifted toward a card-based design with profile images (or avatars for kids). This change made profiles feel more personal and easier to scan at a glance. Parents could instantly recognize and switch between profiles without reading through dense text. The addition of a “New Kid’s Profile” card also created a clear, inviting entry point for adding children without overwhelming the screen.
Why this works?
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Visual scanning
Research on cognitive load shows that card layouts improve readability and reduce information fatigue by chunking data into meaningful units (Nielsen Norman Group, 2020).
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Playful tone
Using avatars and images reflected the family-centered context of the app, making the screen feel warmer and less like an admin dashboard.
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Scalability
As families might have more than one child, a card grid could expand naturally, while a long text list would quickly become cluttered.
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The Outcome:​
This shift made profile management less about reading through dense details and more about quickly recognizing and managing each child’s presence in the app. By turning profiles into visual cards instead of long rows of text, the experience became easier to navigate and more aligned with Taleo’s playful spirit.
4. Audio Mode: Removing the On-Screen Text ✅ (Accepted)
​​​One of the later version of audio player displayed the full story text alongside narration. At first glance, this seemed helpful, since many media apps use subtitles or lyrics to accompany audio. But in the context of Taleo, the feature conflicted with the purpose of audio mode. Instead of helping, the text risked drawing children’s eyes back to the screen when the real goal was to activate their ears and imagination.
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In the first version we did not have any text at all, so it felt quite obvious to get back to that. By stripping away visual clutter, the mode invited families to focus only on listening. This shift reframed audio mode as a calm, immersive space, supporting bedtime storytelling and moments when parents wanted children to wind down.
Why this works?
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Stronger imagination
Research shows that children generate more creative mental imagery when they listen to audio stories compared to when they watch television versions, because listening requires them to construct scenes in their minds (Valkenburg & Beentjes, 2006). Removing text helped preserve this imaginative quality.
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Reduced screen load
Evidence suggests that prolonged or bedtime screen use delays sleep onset and reduces sleep quality in children (Hale & Guan, 2015; Nathanson & Beyens, 2017). By eliminating text, the design reduced unnecessary visual exposure and better supported evening routines.
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Focused experience
Recent findings show that extended screen time can interfere with mental imagery, while listening-only experiences strengthen it (Suggate et al., 2020). The absence of text allowed the interface to signal that listening, not looking, was the main activity.
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The Outcome:​
This choice made audio mode simpler and more intentional. Families no longer had competing inputs to process. Instead, the design reinforced Taleo’s role as a supportive, imagination-first storytelling tool that fit naturally into routines like bedtime.
5. Well-being Popups ✅ (Accepted)
As we shaped Taleo, we wanted the app to support not only creativity but also healthy digital habits. Research on children’s media use shows that long, unbroken screen time can strain attention and eyes, and bedtime screen exposure often disrupts sleep. Parents also express concern about children “getting lost” in apps. These insights made us think carefully about when and how to nudge families toward balance.
We introduced three subtle popups:
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Break reminders
Every 20 minutes, a cheerful character appeared to suggest a quick pause. This design choice was informed by pediatric recommendations that encourage limiting continuous screen sessions for young children (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2016). We did not want the reminder to feel punitive, so we framed it as a caring suggestion. The character language, animations, and tone were chosen to make the reminder playful and inviting, turning it into a natural pause rather than a disruption.
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Usage limit nudges
When the app had been used for over two hours in a single day, a notification appeared to acknowledge the fun but gently remind families to balance screen time with other activities. This aligned with World Health Organization guidance on avoiding prolonged sedentary screen exposure (World Health Organization, 2019). Importantly, we designed this feature as a soft nudge instead of a hard stop. Parents could still continue if they wished, but the app gave them an easy moment to pause and reflect. This approach supported autonomy while also showing that Taleo took family well-being seriously.
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Night mode suggestions
At night, Taleo recommended switching to audio-only storytelling. Research shows that evening screen exposure disrupts melatonin production and reduces sleep quality (Carter et al., 2016). We wanted to respect bedtime routines without shutting the app down, so we reframed the recommendation positively: “audio mode helps you drift into dreams.” This not only reduced blue light exposure but also offered families an alternative that still felt magical. The design made technology feel like a bedtime ally, not a distraction.
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These decisions were not about restricting play but about creating an app that parents could trust. By designing these nudges in a friendly, character-driven tone, the app felt like a caring partner rather than a strict enforcer.
6. Adding a Feedback Layer After Stories ✅ (Accepted)
​​​In competitor reviews on the Play Store and App Store, we noticed that parents frequently shared what worked or fell short in children’s story apps, but there was no structured way for the apps to capture these insights in real time. We saw an opportunity to bring research closer to the product experience by embedding a lightweight feedback step directly after each story.
Why we made this choice?
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Grounded in user research patterns
Families consistently valued stories that felt culturally relatable, emotionally engaging, and of good quality. At the same time, they often flagged when children lost interest or when stories felt irrelevant. We used these recurring patterns as the basis for designing targeted feedback prompts.
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Adaptive and context-sensitive
Instead of asking the same static questions every time, we designed the feedback prompts to change based on the content. For example, if the story involved cultural themes, the system could ask whether it reflected family traditions well. If it was a bedtime story, questions could focus on calmness and engagement. This adaptability allowed us to collect more nuanced, story-specific insights.
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Capturing both parent and child experience
Beyond checking technical quality, the questions probed whether the child stayed engaged and whether parents wanted more stories like this. This mirrored Taleo’s focus on co-creation and bonding rather than treating storytelling as a one-sided media experience.
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Enabling continuous learning
The design turned every story into a small research session. Parents could share quick feedback without friction, and the team could identify patterns across hundreds of interactions. This gave us a structured and scalable way to refine story generation, cultural alignment, and family engagement over time.
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The Outcome:​
The feedback layer became a bridge between design intentions and lived family experiences. It allowed Taleo to remain responsive, to evolve alongside its users, and to keep content grounded in what families actually valued.
7. Preferences Input Fields ✅ (Accepted with Revision)
One early idea was to ask parents how familiar they were with AI tools during setup. The intent was to tailor the experience, but when we looked closely, it didn’t make sense. The app didn’t actually offer different features or learning curves based on that answer. Asking the question risked feeling like jargon or, worse, irrelevant.
Instead, we asked ourselves what information could actually improve the stories families received. That led us to a much more meaningful field: Cultural Identity.
Why we made the switch?
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AI familiarity added no real value
Regardless of whether someone was a beginner or advanced, the flow of creating and enjoying stories would remain the same. Asking about AI knowledge at signup only added noise without influencing the experience.
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Cultural identity shaped relevance
By introducing cultural identity as an input, we gave Taleo a way to recommend stories that felt closer to home. Families could see traditions, names, and references that reflected their own world, making stories more relatable for children.
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Created a more personal connection
Parents often want their children to grow up with a balance of imagination and cultural grounding. Including this field showed that Taleo cared about more than just storytelling mechanics, it cared about who the story was for.
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The Outcome:​
The preferences screen became both simpler and more meaningful. Instead of asking about AI in a way that felt abstract, we leaned into identity, culture, and relatability. This decision helped the app stand for empathy and personalisation, not complexity.​​​
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Each critical decision shaped Taleo into more than a storytelling app. It became a space where families could connect, imagine, and grow together. The process demanded balance between creativity and restraint, between what to add and what to leave out. Every change came from a clear sense of purpose: to make every interaction feel intuitive, calm, and meaningful.
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These decisions reflect a deep understanding of how small choices define larger experiences. By questioning, simplifying, and refining, we shaped a product that respects both technology and the tenderness of human connection.
11. Design System
Once the design directions became clear, I focused on building a structured design system that connected every part of the product. It ensured visual consistency, smoother collaboration, and a tone that reflected Taleo’s gentle storytelling nature.
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01. Building a Scalable Foundation
I started building the design system to create consistency and structure across all screens. Each variable and component followed a clear hierarchy that linked technical precision with emotional intent. The system started from HEX values and expanded into base colors, UI tokens, and semantic components. This approach made every update faster and more reliable during design iterations.
02. Base Colors and Emotional Intent
Charcoal Green formed the foundation of Taleo’s visual language. It covered most of the interface, giving the app a sense of stability, depth, and quiet confidence. The tone felt modern yet comforting, helping parents trust the digital space while keeping the focus on storytelling rather than on bright visuals.
Peach Brown added warmth and approachability. It appeared in highlights, navigation bar, and illustrations to balance the seriousness of the base tone. Neutral Greys provided contrast and clarity for text and supporting elements, ensuring the interface stayed readable in both light and dark modes.
Together, these colors shaped Taleo’s emotional character. The palette felt gentle, trustworthy, and calm, echoing the essence of shared storytelling between parents and children.
03. Light and Dark Mode
Taleo’s interface adapts to both light and dark modes to match family routines. The light mode feels open, fresh, and ideal for daytime use, while the dark mode feels cozy and immersive, designed for bedtime storytelling. The decision to support both modes came from understanding how and when parents and children use the app together.
In dark mode, Charcoal Green deepens into a muted shade that reduces glare and promotes focus. Text and interactive elements retain strong contrast to preserve legibility without feeling harsh. In light mode, the same color palette shifts slightly warmer, ensuring that the tone of comfort and calm remains consistent across both experiences.
This dual design ensured that Taleo fit naturally into different parts of a family’s day. Whether children used it in daylight or before sleep, the visuals always supported focus, comfort, and imagination.
04. Typography and Text Variables
Taleo’s type system balanced emotion and clarity through two complementary fonts: Bogart and Satoshi. Bogart, a soft serif typeface, carried the warmth and familiarity of printed storybooks. Its gentle curves made titles and headings feel inviting and comforting, like the beginning of a bedtime tale.
Satoshi, a clean geometric sans-serif, supported longer paragraphs and interactive text. It ensured clarity and easy reading across different screen sizes. The combination of Bogart and Satoshi brought together emotional storytelling and functional precision.
I defined text variables for each hierarchy level such as headings, subheadings, body text, captions, and buttons to maintain consistency across the app. This created flexibility while preserving structure. Line spacing and font weights felt calm and balanced in both light and dark modes.
All layouts, including typography alignment and spacing, followed an 8-point grid system with 4-point refinements. This structure maintained rhythm and uniformity across screens, ensuring balanced white space and visual harmony.
05. Iconography and UI Components
Taleo’s iconography formed the foundation of its visual system. Each icon followed a clean, line-based style with rounded corners that reflected the app’s friendly and family-oriented tone. Balanced stroke weights kept them legible in both light and dark modes. Icons appeared across navigation bars, buttons, and interactive states, creating familiarity through repetition and simplicity.
Once the icon language felt cohesive, I expanded it into a broader component library structured around the principles of Atomic Design (Brad Frost, 2016). This approach divided the system into atoms, molecules, and organisms. For Taleo, atoms included color tokens, icons, and text styles. Molecules combined these elements into buttons, chips, or text inputs. Organisms built on them to form cards, modals, and navigation bars.
Among all components, the card system played a key role. Each card worked as a flexible container that could display profiles, stories, or prompts. Boolean operations allowed quick toggling between layouts and states, such as active, inactive, or hover, without creating separate components. This adaptability made the system lighter and more efficient to maintain.
12. Hi-Fi Wireframes
The high-fidelity wireframes brought Taleo’s story world to life. Every screen aimed to feel calm, familiar, and emotionally safe for both parent and child. The focus moved beyond usability to build a sense of trust and gentle anticipation, where each tap or scroll felt like part of a shared story moment.​​​
01. Sign up & Log in screens
02. Create new story (Free-form & Personalised)
03. Draw & Tell Mode
04. Story Dice
05. Library & Community
06. Other screens
13. Hi-Fi Prototype
The high-fidelity wireframes brought Taleo’s story world to life. Every screen aimed to feel calm, familiar, and emotionally safe for both parent and child. The focus moved beyond usability to build a sense of trust and gentle anticipation, where each tap or scroll felt like part of a shared story moment.​​​
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Explore the prototype to see how Taleo blends thoughtful features like story modes, personalised inputs, audio and video storytelling, and the playful Draw & Tell mode and Story Dice experiences. Switch between light and dark mode to feel how the atmosphere shifts from day to night, adding calm, rhythm, and charm to every story moment.
14. User Testing
Due to time limitations, the Taleo prototype could not be tested directly with parents. Instead, it was reviewed through a guided walkthrough and feedback session with the project mentor. The aim was to assess the clarity of the interface, the flow between modes, and the overall storytelling experience.
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The mentor provided valuable insights on maintaining visual hierarchy and simplifying interactions, especially within the Freeform and Personalised story modes. The feedback also emphasized the need for consistent visual warmth and tone to support both children’s curiosity and parental comfort.
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These insights guided the final refinements in navigation, layout, and storytelling flow, ensuring that Taleo presents a clear, engaging, and emotionally balanced experience within the project’s scope.
15. Future Scope
Taleo began as a small idea with a big heart, built to make storytelling feel personal, comforting, and alive for every family. While the current prototype captures this essence, its journey has only just begun. The next steps would focus on deepening its emotional value, broadening accessibility, and refining the shared experience between parents and children.
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Expert and Parent-based Evaluation
Future evaluations can focus on gathering insights from parents, educators, and child-development experts. Their feedback can help assess emotional engagement, usability, and the overall sense of comfort within the experience, allowing Taleo to grow responsibly within ethical guidelines.
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Cultural and Language Expansion
Expanding regional voices, accents, and storytelling traditions will make Taleo more inclusive. It will allow children to hear stories that reflect their own culture while discovering new perspectives from across the world.
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Seamless Multi-Device Experience
Extending Taleo across mobile, tablet, and smart speakers can make storytelling easy to enjoy anywhere, from bedtime to travel. This will help families keep imagination and connection alive across different moments of their day.
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Taleo’s journey continues as a quiet celebration of imagination and connection. Its future lies in making storytelling more inclusive, emotionally rich, and accessible, reminding us that design can gently shape how families share time, emotion, and wonder together.​​
16. Key Takeaways
Taleo began as an idea to make storytelling more personal and joyful for families. What started with curiosity turned into a meaningful exploration of how design can nurture imagination and emotional connection.
Throughout this journey, I learned that design is rarely a straight path. There were moments of disagreement and debate within the team, but each discussion helped us see different perspectives. Over time, those arguments shaped better ideas and taught me how empathy and patience can turn creative differences into shared understanding.​​
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Working closely with my mentor reminded me to look beyond structure and focus on emotional balance. I realised that clarity, warmth, and gentle storytelling can make digital experiences feel more human and comforting.
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Taleo reaffirmed my belief that design goes far beyond solving problems. It is about creating small, lasting moments of connection between people, moments that spark curiosity, bring a sense of calm, and remind us why stories matter. In the end, it taught me that every thoughtful detail has the power to touch someone’s heart, even in the quietest way. A gentle interaction, a familiar color, or a story that feels like home can leave a quiet impact that makes design truly human.